The topic of doing 100 push ups every day has been going around the fitness community for a very long time. With lots of mixed opinions ranging from this challenge is too hard, to too easy, or that this will create imbalances and do more harm to your body than good.
All the way to the opposite extreme that this is the perfect workout and you can build a strong and aesthetic body from push ups alone. Over the last few years I’ve done 100 push ups almost every morning and I’ve come up with a few of my own conclusions.
Personally, I’ve felt many benefits to performing push ups every morning. Some are greater than others, but some key benefits I like include: Better aesthetics, improved discipline, shoulder health, and strength. As I’ve racked up reps on reps, I’ve also come up with a few variations to keep the mini workout interesting and more beneficial.
It also gets a lot easier to complete 100 push ups when you do it all the time. This has been a pro as well because doing the push ups will not affect my workouts throughout the week. Let’s talk a little bit about each benefit.
Push Ups For Aesthetics
Perhaps one of the biggest reasons for a lot of people. There’s no denying that push ups are great for your physique. It trains the chest and arms which are the main aesthetic muscle groups for men, but it also trains the core and can help develop more defined abs. With just a few variations, you can use push ups to hit your shoulders and different aspects of your overall upper body physique.
The primary muscle it trains is the chest, and who doesn’t want a big chest! The next biggest muscle would be the triceps, and little do people know but the triceps are actually the biggest muscle on the arms. If you have bigger triceps, your arms will look much bigger! These two alone can take your aesthetics to the next level.
The second part of the aesthetic benefit, is that performing push ups is great for hypertrophy. The muscle swells when you do a lot of reps and push ups being a low impact exercise, you can do sets of 20 reps + which will stimulate muscle growth.
It is also safe to push this exercise to failure. It’s not like the bench press where if you can’t lift the bar anymore, then you’ll get crushed. With a push up, the worst case is that you can’t get up and just lay on the ground.
Using this, it becomes important to push your sets to do as many as you can in each set. One mega set of push ups will stimulate more from your body than you can imagine! It also makes getting your 100 much quicker. I recommend pushing your first set to failure, then resting for a while and finishing up the last in another 1 or 2 sets.
How Can Push Ups Increase Discipline?
Next is improving discipline. There’s nothing quite like clocking in 100 push ups every morning to really start your day off right. Thinking of it not as a workout, but as a part of your morning routine before tackling the day.
Starting your day with a win like this is a great way to gain momentum going in to your day, and developing a virtuous cycle of wanting to complete your new morning routine. Set a time and do your best to perform your push ups at the time of the day everyday, say 7:40am. Alternatively, you can distribute your push ups throughout the day.
Anytime you hit a roadblock at work, or feel your concentration waning, drop down and do 20+ push ups. Great and extremely productive way to reset your mind without getting sucked in to your phone.
Can Push Ups Create Bullet-proof Shoulders?
The most important and underrated benefit is the improvement of my shoulder health. I’ve been an olympic weightlifter for over a decade and I’ve been constantly injured throughout my career. Shoulders have been a particular pain point for me as the snatch and jerk is a very dynamic and taxing exercise for your shoulders.
I’ve always found that my shoulders would hurt more if I wasn’t doing my push ups. Wasn’t exactly sure why that was, but anytime I would stop, my shoulders would start hurting again pretty quickly afterwards.
After thinking it over and researching injury recovery and prevention, I discovered that the main reason is that blood flow is the ultimate healer. Moving the joint through different movements is critical to maintaining health and resilience in the joint.
Doing 100 push ups daily will certainly get blood flowing through the shoulders. Also deep push ups can increase the range of motion in your shoulders especially if you don’t get in that angle very often.
Push Ups Increase Overall Strength!
The last benefit is a strength increase. Whatever you do repeatedly, you will get better at. If you push your push ups everyday and eventually end up with 50 push ups in your first set, do you think you got stronger? Of course you did. You can gain a powerful bench press without ever doing bench.
Being stronger will help in every aspect of your life. Not only in the gym, but in all real world applications too. You never know when a situation may call for extra strength, and you’ll be extremely thankful that you’ve trained for that moment.
Strength is also critical in every single sport. Doesn’t matter what your passion is, if you’re stronger then you’ll do better. It’s really as simple as that.
Now that you know all the benefits, let’s get practical. What is the best way to complete your 100 push ups, and what variations should we consider.
Fun And Practical Ways To Complete Your 100 Push Ups!
First off, it’s best to gamify the challenge. By making it more exciting, you’ll be more likely to continue. You can do this by creating a challenge for yourself.
- Time your 100 push ups. Push to do it faster and faster every time. Can even see how fast you can get within 30 days to ensure that you stick to it for at least 30 days. I recently did a challenge like that and it made the whole process much more enjoyable!
- Test your max reps on the first set. Everyday try to do a little bit more on that first set. This can coincide with your timed challenge but it also works as a stand alone.
- Break it up. 10 push ups every hour or 30 minutes. 10 push ups anytime you go on your phone. 10 push ups anytime you do something you’re not supposed to. Or even while your relaxing – 5 push ups per commercial, 5 push ups every time you die in a game, 5 push ups after each round etc etc. Get creative with it!
Next is some simple variations to make the workout well rounded. Here is an example program:
- 20 push ups
- 20 narrow push ups
- 20 wide push ups
- 20 pike push ups
- 20 push ups
Or a harder variation:
- 20 clapping/explosive push ups
- 20 diamond push ups
- 20 wide and to the side grip push ups (insert photo or video demo)
- 20 handstand or elevated feet push ups
- 20 archer push ups.
A Proper Push Up Workout Regiment
If your goal is to use 100 push ups as your proper workout regiment then there are a few things to consider. 100 reps may not be enough to continually progress, and if you just do a few sets of 20 it will not push your body to adapt and improve.
To continually push your body to improve and get stronger, you’ll have to push your sets for more reps per set, and increase sets. For example, 4 sets of max push ups, which might be 30 per set and around 120 total. This would trigger muscle breakdown, thus leading to adaptation.
You will also need to add some variations like I mentioned earlier to create a well rounded physique as well as developing a stronger upper body.
Obviously push ups don’t do anything for your legs. To combat this, add high rep air squats or hindu squats to your regiment. Another fun one is to use a wall sit as your resting state. This will improve your cardio while strengthening everything, making this an impactful and quick workout. (Check out the video version of this article to see how to complete all the leg movements.)
Push ups also have another flaw, and that it’s only a pressing movement. A push. We need a pull to equalize the effect and strengthen the antagonistic muscle groups. This is where pull ups or Australian pull ups would be ideal. If you don’t have a pull up bar at home, check out your local parks to see if there’s anything there!
Going to a park is also a great excuse to get outside, get sun on your face, and put your toes in the grass. There are many many benefits to getting outside which I will talk about another time.
Another great tool that you could add is a set of rings, you can take these things anywhere and string em up on a tree or any high surface. I’m lucky to have a pair in my room but if you don’t have that luxury then you will have to get creative!
Here’s a link to some gymnastic rings on amazon. Any will do but I prefer the wooden ones.
Here’s another fantastic article by The Bioneer. I highly recommend following him as he’s very knowledgable in the fitness space.
Conclusion:
The harder variation is really for expert level, and is certainly not necessary. The push ups are just a part of my morning routine so I stick to regular push ups all the way through. My standard workouts will hit the rest of the muscle groups so I’m not worried about being well balanced with this morning routine.
On the other hand, you can have easier variations too. Simply do wall push ups, or push ups on your knees. Any movement is enough to begin to trigger all the benefits I listed earlier!
To wrap up: push ups are great for aesthetics, discipline, shoulder health, and strength. You can use variations and challenges to make it more interesting and enjoyable as well!
Thanks for reading, you can check out my YouTube channel for the video version of this video, and follow my social media handles for more fitness tips and ideas. I also do online personal training so feel free to check that out, and reach out if you think that might be right for you!
Good post. I learn something new and challenging on blogs I stumbleupon on a daily basis. It will always be exciting to read articles from other authors and practice a little something from other sites.
Thank you my friend! I had no idea anyone had actually read my post. Thanks for the comment, and I hope I was able to provide some value!