How to Do 1,000 Pushups? Quick and Simple Guide
One-thousand pushups are the ultimate pushups workout. I am asked Kelly from the Workout Family how it is possible to do so many pushups, so I decided to write an article explaining the actual 1,000-pushups workout and to outline a few basic strategies to get your body ready to complete the workout. It is divided into three sections: determining comfort level, building up repetitions, and the actual workout.
Determining Comfort Level
The first step is to test your current fitness level by doing as many repetitions as you can do, in one set. If you can do 50 pushups, then move on to “The Workout”. If you cannot yet complete 50 repetitions, then continue to “Building-Up Repetitions”.
Building-Up Repetitions
At this stage, do not concern yourself with your total daily reps. Just use the tips outlined below until you have built up your comfortable set-size to around 25 to 30 pushups, with a max-out of around 50 pushups. When you start out, complete sets throughout the day, whenever you feel confident and strong. Do not worry about exercising within an established time-frame.
Tip 1: Practice maxing out by simply doing as many sets as you can, of as many repetitions as you can complete.
Tip 2: Complete many, many small sets throughout the day (around 60% of your current rep-max, i.e. if you complete 20 pushups, then do sets of 12). The purpose of this strategy is to increase overall endurance.
Tip 3: Incorporate dips into your workout to strengthen your triceps and shoulders.
Tip 4: Do pushups-planks. Get into pushups position and hold the position. Pushups planks will train your stabilizer muscles, which will eventually allow you to focus on the actual target muscles (chest, triceps) instead of struggling to maintain correct posture.
The Workout
Step 1: If you max out around 50, and can comfortably complete sets of 25 to 30, then it is time to begin stacking sets. Start out by setting a total daily rep goal. At this fitness level, a daily rep goal of 500 pushups is reasonable. Do 20 sets of 25 pushups each throughout the day, whenever you feel confident. Keep a tally of the total number of sets completed.
Step 2: Compress your sets into an established time-frame. Establish a window in which you will complete your workout. Begin with something easy, like 4 hours. When this becomes easier, compress your workout further, into a 2-hour window.
Step 3: Compress your workout even further by timing your workout with a stopwatch. Complete one set every 2 minutes. In other words, start a stopwatch and complete one set. When the stopwatch reaches 2 minutes, do another set, and another at 4 minutes, and so on until you have completed 20 sets. When you have compressed your 500 pushups workout into 2-minute intervals, it is time to add more sets.
Step 4: Continue completing the timed workout in Step 3, and then begin completing additional sets throughout the day whenever you are comfortable, just as in Step 1. When you can comfortably complete the compressed/timed workout and an additional 20 un-timed sets throughout the day, move on to step 5.
Step 5: Continue completing the timed workout in Step 3, and begin compressing the additional 20 sets into a limited time-frame. Eventually, compress the additional 20 sets into timed, 2-minute intervals. Complete a one-time workout in the morning and a one-timed workout in the evening.
Step 6: Do your workouts back-to-back, with a 30-minute rest in between. Close the rest-gap, until you can complete a solid 40 sets; one set every 2 minutes.
Step 7: Congratulations!
Conclusion
Doing 1,000 pushups is not easy, and it will never become easy, no matter how many times you do it. Some people have more success with longer rest periods in-between sets. This article is only intended to share what has worked for me. You may function better with 3-minute intervals, different set-sizes. I encourage you to experiment until you find what works best for your body.
