CyclePUPs Week 2

[SouthernBelle]

I'm out for a week. I strained my right shoulder rather badly drilling 4 holes for new chains on the tongue of my trailer. Over an hour of leaning into a drill going into 3/4 inch of steel will do that.

[Grits]

Week 3, day 1. Today was tough! I could barely do the final set, which I know is the way it is supposed to be, but, still. Hope I can progress on schedule, but might end up repeating this week. We're up to almost 100 now. No wonder it is getting hard.

[OakLeaf]

I only did 13 in my exertion test I think I'll either repeat week 2 (which didn't seem hard enough to me) or do knee-style pups for week 3 and then repeat week 3 with full pups.

I think if your ultimate goal is to do as many full-length pups as you can, you're better off not switching to nothing but knee pups for a whole week. But if your goal is to get to 100 of whatever type of pups you can do, then knee pups are fine. Whichever you choose, you're getting stronger.

Two things to think about:

(1) make sure you're really maxing out in your last set every workout (I only mention this because you said week 2 seemed too easy), and

(2) for everyone in group 1, and probably some in group 2, if you want to do a combination of knee pups and full-length ones to continue adding reps, then try step-down sets. Each workout, do the first two or three sets full-length, and the rest on your knees. Or, each set, do the first 75% of the reps full-length, and the rest on your knees. Then you can either move on to the next week the same way, or repeat the week doing all the reps, or more of them, full-length.

It is difficult to add on when you're starting from sets of fewer than 8-10, just because each rep takes such a high percentage of your strength. You're strong enough to do something else to bring you along, but not another full rep. That's where step-down sets can help.

Week 2 to week 3 is a big jump, and it's going to be tough. That's a lot of the way the plan works - consolidate your gains in week 2, to get your body ready to go to the next level in week 3. Now's probably a good time for all of us to start thinking about exactly what our ultimate goal is in this plan (if we haven't already) and what type of pups will be the best way to get there.

[Aggie_Ama]

So does Ruthie! If she's not right under my face (so I can't lower), she's laying on the papers or the stopwatch

One of my girls is blind so she likes to plop herself near our scents, which is right under my chest when doing these. The other one is constantly acting like she is on speed so she will bounce around in circles if anyone gets on the floor. I should do these in the bedroom with the door closed. Crazy dogs!

I just realized I need to do my exhaustion test tonight, grumble, grumble. Onward we go!

[OakLeaf]

I'm out for a week. I strained my right shoulder rather badly drilling 4 holes for new chains on the tongue of my trailer. Over an hour of leaning into a drill going into 3/4 inch of steel will do that.

Ouch - take care of it! Plenty of stretching and just moving the arm around in ways that don't hurt, to keep it mobile. If you do aerobics at all, that's usually the best thing for me when my shoulders go crazy - going through all the various arm movements with no weight, and keeping it up for the length of a class, really helps me keep them mobile. Or EASY, slow swimming.

[Flybye]

Flyebye, how's your arm? Did you try the pups or are you still trying to work the spasm out?

Thanks for asking - my bicep it is STILL twitching, but not like it was. It pretty much only does it first thing in the morning and right before bed. I hurt my wrist on the same arm when we went hiking a week ago. I fell in the river on slick, flat rock and caught myself with the same arm. I *almost* went in for an xray Friday, thinking that I had broken or cracked a bone. It is feeling much better, too, thanks to an ACE bandage.

With both of those things happening on the same arm, pups don't seem to bother my arm. I do think that the pups are the reason for the muscle spasms, though. Sheesh, arm, get over it already!!

I did my day three on Saturday and so I have a break until tomorrow.

Thanks for asking.

[Kvixen23]

I was only able to do 16....

This puts me in column 1. I looked at this week, week 3, I'm scared!!! Is anyone else feeling a little apprehensive about moving forward?? I'm going to give it my all......

OakLeaf - Thanks for the tips on backing down a little.

My goal in participating in this sometimes excruciatingly painful experience is just to say I did it. I don't feel like I have to complete it or be the best at it. I just needed a new motivator to continue working out since I haven't been motivated to go to the gym and lift weights lately. I'm sure with the days becoming shorter and the weather getting colder that I will head back inside for my workouts. The PUPS are a quick albeit challenging way for me to get in some upper body strengthening workouts.

[NoNo]

Ouch - take care of it! Plenty of stretching and just moving the arm around in ways that don't hurt, to keep it mobile. If you do aerobics at all, that's usually the best thing for me when my shoulders go crazy - going through all the various arm movements with no weight, and keeping it up for the length of a class, really helps me keep them mobile. Or EASY, slow swimming.

Last week, work offered a free 1-hr yoga class to see if anyone would be interested in something more regular. I thought "I've been doing push-ups for 2 weeks, I cycle, I stretch, I'll be fine." While I was fine during the class, I couldn't believe how sore my shoulders were the next day! I'm looking forward to future classes.

[Pedal Wench]

Question for the coach.

I'm column 1, can hardly do a full one. I'm getting to the point that I can do the full ones until my nose is about 6 inches from the ground. Can I do these 'halfway' fulls?
And, sometimes when I just don't think I can push back up, I lower my knees just for a second to get me moving back up. Can i do these 'halfway' fulls?

[Becky]

(1) make sure you're really maxing out in your last set every workout (I only mention this because you said week 2 seemed too easy), and

(2) for everyone in group 1, and probably some in group 2, if you want to do a combination of knee pups and full-length ones to continue adding reps, then try step-down sets. Each workout, do the first two or three sets full-length, and the rest on your knees. Or, each set, do the first 75% of the reps full-length, and the rest on your knees. Then you can either move on to the next week the same way, or repeat the week doing all the reps, or more of them, full-length.

It is difficult to add on when you're starting from sets of fewer than 8-10, just because each rep takes such a high percentage of your strength. You're strong enough to do something else to bring you along, but not another full rep. That's where step-down sets can help.

Week 2 to week 3 is a big jump, and it's going to be tough. That's a lot of the way the plan works - consolidate your gains in week 2, to get your body ready to go to the next level in week 3. Now's probably a good time for all of us to start thinking about exactly what our ultimate goal is in this plan (if we haven't already) and what type of pups will be the best way to get there.

Really good point about maxing out. I don't think I was doing that early on, as I discovered when I did my test last night and found out what exhaustion really felt like. Would it be crazy to move on to week 3 and hope that my strength catches up enough to pull it off (maybe do step-down sets)? Or should I repeat week 2 and work harder?

[Flur]

Wow, week 3 is HARD! I had to take a few breaths in the middle of the sets for all the sets except the first, and I did the last set in groups of 5 with one breath rests in down dog. I hope that still counts In any case, I'm sure I'm still getting stronger b/c I feel maxed out and will probably be sore tomorrow.

[jobob]

I think I wrenched my shoulder a bit on Saturday lugging stuff around at the W2W rest stop, and I didn't help it riding up Mt Tam yesterday.

It's not bad, but just not up to massive numbers of pushups - or, at least, the paltry number I'd be capable of doing on a good day

So I'm going to give it a rest. Have fun, gang!

[ridebikeme]

Week 1 Day 1 7-7-5-4-5
Day 2 9-8-6-5-7
Day 3 10-8-8-5-10

[OakLeaf]

wow, what is that, four on IR now

Heal up quick jobob!

[OakLeaf]

Would it be crazy to move on to week 3 and hope that my strength catches up enough to pull it off (maybe do step-down sets)? Or should I repeat week 2 and work harder?

I don't really have an intelligent answer for that (maybe someone else does)? My inclination would be to repeat week 2, but do column 2. So you're still moving up, but not by as much.