Results From Doing 100 Push-ups a Day for 30 Days
By: Marx D.
Tags: Fitness, Fitness Tips, Healthy Lifestyle, Life Lessons, Health

Results From Doing 100 Push-ups a Day for 30 Days

Can doing push-ups replace a gym membership?

Photo by MIL-TECH PHARMA LTD via Unsplash

With today’s climate, going to a gym to get your workout in might not be for everyone.

It certainly isn’t for me. I canceled my gym membership after the first few months of the pandemic and decided to focus more on cardio instead of weight training. Doing cardio alone tones your muscles, increases lung capacity and improves blood circulation.

Still, I was missing something. That strain from being in the weight room and getting a good pump in. Pushing my muscles to the point of no return where they physically can’t do another rep.

These are sensations you can’t really get from taking a nice long run.

The dilemma here is I’m not comfortable enough to start going to a gym yet but I’m still looking for that feeling of a good pump.

I read things about people who did push-ups every day and had great results. I’m unsure if it was being trapped inside all day or the desire to lift something but I gave it a try for the month of December and this is how it went.

Difficulty Of 100 Push-ups Every Day

Not going to lie, it was tough. Doing push-ups every single day got old after day two.

Your muscles get sore quickly, they get tired and then they start to get rigid making it difficult to physically move them.

What I learned to do is break up my 100 push-ups into different segments throughout the day. I’d do 25 in the morning when I woke up. Another 25 after lunch, 25 more in the evening and the last 25 before bed.

This formula varied from day-to-day. Sometimes I’d wake up in the morning and bang out a quick 50 push-ups because I was dreading doing them later in the day.

My best advice for avoiding fatigue is to do as many push-ups as you can in the morning. You’re more rested and have more energy. Waiting until later in the day to do them is not wise.

Also, I can definitely say that doing my push-ups got noticeably easier after the first seven days. I could feel myself getting stronger week after week. My last day of doing 100 push-ups (today) was a breeze. I knocked out all 100 in the morning before starting my day.

Upper Body Differences

I definitely got stronger in the last 30 days by doing my push-ups but that’s not the only thing that happened.

To say doing these push-ups toned my upper body is an understatement. I would even go as far as to say as I gained a fair bit of muscle mass. Maybe it’s because I hadn’t lifted in eight months but my triceps and chest started to feel huge.

On top of that, my upper body was tight all the time for a solid week. I constantly found myself doing trunk twisters or other upper body stretches to loosen up my muscles.

If I could give a complete analysis of my upper body after 30 days of doing push-ups, I would say my triceps benefitted the most, followed by my chest and then shoulders.

My triceps went from loose to tight in a few days and stayed that way. I’m pretty sure it’s because push-ups directly target your triceps.

On the flip side, my biceps had no effect at all after the 30 days. This also makes sense because no muscles are used in your bicep when doing a push-up. It was a little disappointing to me because I wanted to see a change in my entire upper body but it’s alright.

My shoulders got a little bigger but the more interesting part about them is that they toned up so nicely. I started to develop cuts in my shoulders leading down to my triceps and even on the other side of my body toward my back.

Lastly, my chest muscles got tight. They were never really loose, but I never realized how much my pectoral muscles needed to be worked on until now. No real muscle mass was gained in my chest but I was happy with the progress of how toned they looked.

Bottom line for my upper body at the end of day 30: There was a noticeable difference in how I looked and I really loved it.

Push-ups vs. Gym Membership

So the real question everyone wants to be answered (including myself) is: Can doing push-ups replace a gym membership?

The answer: Hell no.

Honestly, I had my doubts from the start. It’s not even the same type of feeling when you do push-ups when compared to lifting weights. Lifting weights puts a heavy strain on your body where push-ups really don’t.

Maybe it’s because I use push-ups as a warm-up for lifting weights at the gym but that’s all they feel like still even after a month of doing them. It’s like I’m warming up to start a real workout.

Yes, the results were awesome and I highly suggest doing push-ups if you desire to get a little stronger and tone your upper body without weights. However, if you’re really looking to see some real gains and increase your strength then doing push-ups alone isn’t going to be your savior.

My suggestion is this: If you’re more into cardio then do some push-ups on the side because it’ll help tone your upper body more.

If you want to gain significant muscle mass and strength then doing push-ups is not the way to go about it.