[Blarg]

Well, I'm joining in a different way. I did a lifetime of push-ups in my younger years, and they are not what I am most interested in now. I don't find them to be ideal strength builders, and strength is what I want to work on first.

I'm doing my own challenge. It has started with Pavel's "Naked Warrior" exercises of one-arm push-ups and one-legged squats. I've also ordered a kettlebell and that should be here on or about the 12th.

I've been working my gut and torso with my exercise wheel and calisthenics and a weighted body bar I have(18 pounder, great for twists). I've been working my upper body a bit with one-armed push-ups, and also by swinging a dumbell I have as if it were a kettlebell, and dumbbell presses and curls and rows. I bought Pavel's Royal Kettlebell Challenge DVD and book both, and am slowly integrating those exercises in. I am more interested in using kettlebells for upper body work and working on pure strength and even a little mass as a side-benefit, so have only done minimal push-up work. I find push-ups give me definition and endurance, but pretty much no size and not very much strength either.

I've been doing pistols, and really like them a hell of a lot. I've also been doing the regular one-legged squats the way I improvised them on my own long ago, too, to work the muscles from more angles.

I have never been much of a counter, to tell you the truth. I work until I'm tired, or exhausted, or can't work any more. It's always worked great for me, and kept me in close touch with what my body is up to and how it's progressing. Not that there's not value in counting, too.

So anyway, I'm working pretty much on pure strength for the legs, strength and endurance for the midsection, and mostly for strength in the upper body. Right now I'm mostly oriented toward strength and probably will be for some time, and wouldn't mind a little mass, too, though it's not a primary goal. The least of my goals is endurance at present, and I can get a lot of that out of kettlebells anyway, so push-ups, which I used to do with maniacal obsession and did more for my endurance than anything else, are at the bottom of my list except for the one-arm push-up. I actually think they're counter-productive for what I want to do right now, as I'm a hard-gainer and gain both strength and mass much more easily with low reps and heavy weight. High repetition low weight moves can even make me lose muscle, and just get really cut.

When I read this thread, I had kind of wished it was made to cover more than one exercise. Like, one-legged squats would be nice to add in there, or knee bends, or pull-ups. Something with different muscles, or upper/lower, you know. Variety.

Anyway, I'm working on my challenges too. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] They're just a different challenge than this particular one.