I am 29 years old, weigh 72kg (174cm tall), my goal is to do 100 "good form" push ups. I am following the hundred push ups training program.
I initially did 30, then I got up to 36. Then I paused for 17 days (hardly slept) and got sick (common flu but extremely tired). Now I can only do 28.
Question:
- Is it common to drop so much after being sick? (36 to 28). I am also a vegetarian, could it indicate a problem with my diet? (I've been a vegetarian for 3 years, but have not exercised much).
- Will improving my stamina help me do more reps? The first reps are fine, but I have always had problem with the last. After being sick I find I have problems after just a few reps.
- A friend suggested I could add 5kg of weight on my back and do fewer sets / fewer push-ups. I would like to try, is it a good idea? How many per rep and how many reps?
I am very thankful for any help.
Details (if more info is required):
Initially I rested much longer between the reps than recommended (some times more than 5 minutes).
- could do 30 on initial test so jumped in on week3
- Week3 col3: finished 10/8 (failed last rep on each day though)
- Week4 col3: went fine for day 1 and day 2 (except last rep: 26/36 and 24/40 respectively)
- max out: 35
Now I kept the rest time between the reps exactly as it was recommended
- Week5 col1: went fine except last rep (day1: 14/20, day2: 10/25, day3: 9/30)
- max out: 36 (had to repeat w5)
- Week5 col1: only did day 1 & 2, went fine except last rep (day1: 15/20, day2: 11/25)
I had to pause for 17 days, during these days I hardly slept at all! I picked up the program again at week5 day2 column1, but failed on the second last rep, after which I was exhausted and did not even attempt the last rep. So I decided to go back to week4 column 2.
- week4 col2: did not go very well, after a few reps I was so exhausted I had to break.
Then I got sick for about 8 days (the common flu but it got me bad and I was extremely tired just sleeping in the bed, likely also a backlash for hardly sleeping at all for those 17 days).
Now I want to start a fresh, and so did a max out to see where to jump in. I only managed to do 28. I thought I could start with week4 column 3 (says >= 25). But I failed already at the third rep.
Thinking that it is probably also my stamina (unable to efficiently rest between the reps), I have now started to run every other day (and indeed, I really feel how bad my stamina is comparing to just a few years ago!).