Sunday 22 January 2012

The press up test - 51 is my new max

Hi folks

Over the last month or so I have been testing myself every couple of days to see how many press ups I can do to failure.  When I started doing that my maximum was 32 reps, but over the weeks it has been slowly increasing as my upper body strength has increased.

You may ask why I want to strengthen my upper body for an endurance run.  Well a strong upper body and core is important for maintaining good running form in the latter stages of a race when you are tired.  It seems that even the top long distance runners believe in going to the gym and doing some weight training according to all the advice on the internet that I have been reading.

Not only that but in the MDS you have to carry your rucksack weighing anything between 6.5 and 14kg.  Now that takes some upper body strength as well as leg strength.  So I think what I have been doing is an important part of my MDS preparation.

My first aim was to get to the point where I can knock out 50 press ups a day.  Well I am happy to say that I am now at that point.  Today I managed to do 51 reps to failure.  As that was after a 32km run I am sure I can repeat that performance on a daily basis.

So what is my next aim now that my first aim has been achieved.  I think I will set that as being able to do 100 press ups in one go.  Aim number 2 here we come!

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