PUSH UPS AND ABS CHALLENGE FOR DECEMBER!! (Page 3)

I want in as well.

Crunches - 3 sets of 40, 5 days a week adding 10 per set each week.

Pushups 3 sets of 30, 5 days a week, adding 5 per set each week.

By my rudimentary, that will give me a total of 3300 crunches and 2250 Pushups for the month.

I'm in too.  Recently while at the gym I noticed a woman who looked to be about 25-30 years my senior and she was killing some pushups.  Perfect form, lfat back, nice and slow, pausing at the bottom.  She was amazing.  Anyway, it made me want to do it too.  Needless to say I have not gotten around to doing them so this challenge just might get me going. 

I'm going to set my goals at

• 5 real push-ups + 10 knee push-ups 2xday/4 days a week increasing by 2 real push -ups per set per week ending at 10 real push-ups and maintaining the 10 knee push-ups (ouch.. fyi I'm a push-up newbie and this will most likely destroy me!)
• 25 sit-ups 2xday/4 days week increasing by 5 per set per week ending at 40.

Welcome to December, everyone! 

I did my duty for the day. Did my push-ups while waiting around for my 10K AG award this morning. Let's post our progress every week on Friday. I can't wait to get to 25 pus-ups per set and to see how loose my skinny jeans get with all this core work.

Day ain't over yet, so can I still sign up?

here we go... 

10 pushups 3x day  5 days a week

and  50 crunches 3x day 5 days a week

goal is to get all pushups done off my knees.  If my shoulder cooperates.... 

I started doing these a few days ago when I was thinking about what someone said in their blog...     I just have to REMIND myself to do them.... 

I feel like such a wimp with my crunches.....you guys in your triple digits are FREAKING AWESOME!! 

first day....in the books.   

Okay, I'm in for the fun on this one.
Right now, I can do girlie push-ups and planks, but really need to do "full" PUs.

So, for the month of December:

    Push-ups = 600
    Crunches = 4500

 

First day done.

60 pu

100 crunch

24 mile bile

3 mile run.

Not a bad day overall.

Well Tnick I didn't want you to have to take your shoes off to count that high.... 

Elly, what a cool motivator.  I love seeing fit older people.  It really cranks up my desire to work harder.  Good luck this month!

Trixie – we’re all working towards your abs.  Gonna have to slap you if you start whining again…

Hiya Sharon – imagine seeing you at another challenge!

Just for you Tnick (I am a wealth of info)

So which is better?

There really is no competition. If you want to develop some sexy abs then you need to throw away the sit up and replace it with some solid crunches.

Why is the crunch better?

The reasoning is quite simple and logical and you will be able to feel it in your own training.

Firstly, the crunch targets the ab muscles much more exclusively. The motion is very restricted and accurate so that when you do a crunch it is difficult for other muscles to come into play and help out. It is a perfect isolation exercise. This allows you to hit the abs hard and focus all of your energy in one place.

The sit up, on the other hand, is a bit wild and unruly. When you do a sit up you lift your lower back off of the ground and as such run the risk of back injury. You also are doing a full range of motion with the exercise and this lack of control brings other muscles into play. In particular, the sit up likes to rely on the hip flexors to help out with the work. The hip flexors are a long muscle that run from the side of your abdominals down your legs and to your quadriceps. They are strong and able to withstand some pain. But, they take the work away from the abs which is what we don’t want to happen.

Does the sit up have any uses?

Yes it does. The sit up is very useful in the right place and if done correctly. In fact, the sit up forms a major part of my abs workout!

The best example of an effective sit up is an exercise I do called the decline weighted sit up. This is where you lay on a decline ab bench (at the gym) and place a weight disc on your chest. You then proceed with a full sit up motion, lifting that weight all the way up to your knees. This burns your abs in a really amazing way but it does use a lot of hip flexors. I have achieved some excellent growth using this, however, so I keep using it.

Martial artists, sports players and other athletes will benefit from the sit up. As I mentioned is gives you a full range of motion which is excellent for developing strength and power. In martial arts and boxing all the power of the punch and kick comes from the waist and the person ability to twist solidly. The twisting sit up is an excellent way to train this.

Conclusion

If you want to train your abs for aesthetic appeal then I would go with the crunch. Use excellent technique and add some weight to your chest to keep your six pack guessing. However, it wouldn’t hurt to supplement with some sit ups once in a while to keep things interesting.

lyssa-gator - 2007-12-02 11:12 AM what think you all of shoveling snow as a core workout?? LOL i guess there goes my morning run!! off to do my first set of crunches, then to the shoveling.

Started today - 2 x 20 pushups and 2 x 20 situps (this will happen 4 x a week for the first week).  What's REALLY GREAT is that I convinced my wife and my 2 older sons to do them with me - and they DID!  I told them that it made my day!

Also joining the snowshovel workout here and needed to mention that I did 3-1/2 hours of non-stop shoveling of heavy, wet snow myself (we got dumped on just like you did, gator!).  That's right, no snowblower here.  I'm thinking that constitutes some kind of workout.  I'm feeling the burn right now and laying low for the next 24 hours.

OK, I've got my starting point:

15 stair push-ups
15 crunches
10 obliques (5 each side)

And I'm going to increase the push-ups and crunches by 5 each week, and the obliques by 5 each side.

I was really pleased to be able to even do this many (I had "surgery" back in April) and I'll be delighted if I achieve the challenge goal.

Okay... I knew the idea is to post results on Fridays, but I'm gonna post my start today...

3x30 pushups (my arms are spaghetti now!)

3x40 crunches, abs are felling it, but okay

Good luck all 

I have to revise mine already..........there is noway my body can add 5 push ups per week.  I am going to have to change it to intervals of 2....abs can stay the same

so lets go this way if we can change

PU  begin with 10 pu 3 times per day first week adding 2 each week so will end with 16 for the final week....actually the final week has a couple days in it so I will end with 18 on the final wee

SU  will stay with the same from before