1000 Push-ups In 10 Days

1000 push-ups in 10 days! It was a challenge presented to me by a friend who'd created an event on Facebook for others to join in the challenge with her. A seemingly impossible task when presented has been conquered (and more easily than I expected!). There was a LOT of pain on days 2 & 3, but after that my body resigned to its daily torture. See the details below for my day-to-day experiences during this journey!

Day 1: 

Completed 3 sets of 10 between 7-8am, 2 more sets of 10 the next hour, then 1 set of 10 each hour until 3:00pm

Soreness in traps, lats, teres major, serratus anterior, and abs after completing 3 sets of 10. 

Felt soreness bordering on pain in my lower back. Researched this and learned it could be due to improper form. As the hips dip toward the floor during the push-up, it places too much stress on the spine and the muscles supporting it. The last 5 push-ups of the day were done modified-style, with knees on the floor. 

Day 2:

Day 2 was rough. I woke up feeling like a big rubber band was pulled taught across my pecs. Holy lord.  I started out at 7am, doing 2 push-ups regular style, then the next 8 modified style. It wasn't my back that landed me to my knees, it was my entire upper body. I did another 10 modified style twenty minutes later while the dog was frolicking in the yard.  From then on, I was doing them every hour until 4:00, at which point I just did 20 so that I could be done with it for the day. 
It was like I was intentionally lowering myself onto spikes aimed at the upper armpit area of the pecs. Every. Single. Time.
Soreness today in pecs, traps, lats, teres major, serratus angerior, abs, and obliques.

Day 3:
Completed 5 sets of 20 between 7am and 11am. Performed "bench style" on surfaces ranging from 24-36 inches in height. Doing the push-ups in a different position seemed to help immensely. 
Soreness today in traps, deltoids, pecs, triceps, biceps, abs and obliques.

Day 4: 

Completed 2 sets of 5 with a ten-second rest in-between 10 times between 7am and 5pm. Performed regular style. Stretched for about a minute following each ten push-ups, which probably helped the soreness factor.  

Soreness lessened a lot. Still noticeable in armpit area of pecs, obliques, and abs (abs especially when I sneeze!)

Day 5:
Completed 10 sets of 10 between 7am and 4pm. Performed "bench style" on surfaces ranging from 20-30 inches in height.
Less soreness but still haven't been able to do more than 10 in a row - even though the bench style is easier. 

Day 6:
Day 6 fell on a Saturday. Weekends have proven (over YEARS of various workout routines) to be elusive when it comes to motivation for working out. I wasn't sure how this would go since it takes so little time and prep to actually do.  I completed 8 sets of 10 between 7am and 9pm. All but one set were performed "bench style" on the bathtub ledge. One set was performed regular style with a lot of breaks. 

Day 7:
Sundays are a really rough day for me in any aspect of movement. It's the end of the week. The end of 50+ hours of work and the 2nd day of very late nights followed by early mornings. I usually take a few naps and read on Sundays. Sometimes, Sweetie and I will watch a movie while laundry is going.  At the end of the day though, I had done 110! I completed 10 sets of 10 "bench style" and one set of 10 regular style with one break.

Day 8:
Completed 4 sets of 10 at 7am on the bathtub ledge. Then I decided I would push hard and do the rest of the sets this day regular style. Not only did I do all 7 remaining sets regular style (I had one set added to make up for the loss on Saturday), but I was able to do all 10 at a time during the last 2 sets! I was pretty excited about that!  I noticed on this day that I hadn't had soreness in a couple days. I was thankful for that but at the same time realized that it was likely due to not pushing myself to do the regular style push-ups. 

Day 9:
I had expected to feel a little more soreness on Day 9 because I'd started doing regular style push-ups again. The only noticeable soreness was in the deltoids and traps. Not bad! Woke up late so I didn't get any sets in before work. I had decided to only do regular style push-ups the last two days, which I can't do as many of at one time, so it took quite a bit longer throughout the day to get them in but I did it! Completed most of the sets doing 10 at a time, resting a few seconds, then another 10 at a time. I was able to do 15 at a time during my first set of the day but never was able to repeat that. The most I was able to do in one go (including rests) was 25. I actually inadvertently went 5 over my goal of 100 for the day during that bout of 25. I was just pushing to see how many I could get before I truly could not do a single extra. 

Day 10:
Completed the first set of the day with 15 at a time, a short rest then 5 more. At lunch I did 10 at a time, followed by a short rest, 5 more, another rest, and 5 more. Around 2:30 I did 20 at one time! I was pretty excited to see that barrier broken and I think the adreneline got the best of me because I tried to do more. I got 5 more in and they were shaky and questionable, LOL. The other sets had 10 and 20 with various rests.