Anyway, Colin, what your book says made me curious, so I asked around. I don't do twitter, but I have facebook (and if you're wondering why I didn't ask in the Hive, it's simply because you guys are too fit! )

My question simply was: how many push-ups can you do in one go? And how would you rate your current fitness level?
I had quite a few answers (not nearly enough for a reliable scientific study, but still).

You may be interested in learning that apart from a few guys who train rather regularly, most men who replied have a hard time doing more than 10 push-ups in a row. I'm talking about guys in their forties with no health problems. Some of them train with me at the dojo. If I had to move house, I could definitely consider asking them for help. None of them are weaklings in my opinion.

For the women, most of them are in the 0-5 range. The fittest can reach 10 on a good day.

The thing is, when we spend a lot of time hanging around with people who work out on a regular basis, we tend to forget how much better at certain exercises they are than the vast majority. Not simply because they have bigger muscles, but also because their nerve system is used to those specific movements and helps them perform at the top of their capabilities. Maybe that's what happened to the people who wrote that book...

Thanks for that, Redline , that just cracked me up so much!

If I remember correctly you need at least 25 (30?) people to get a normality curve (or whatever it's called).

What a good discussion, thank you, Redline Gandhalfit , Zastria PetiteSheWolf Mamatigerj CODawn , and DaithiMeyer! And thank you for all the kindness and encouragement as ever!

Sorry if I missed anyone.

I've gone on about push-ups before, Redline. I think they're a big psychological thing, perhaps particularly for men, for cultural reasons. They are an archetypal expression of fitness and strength - think of any training montage in a boxing film, or any basic training sequence in a military film. I've said in the past that we don't acknowledge how hard they are - you're lifting most of your body weight! - and simply expect ourselves to be able to do a lot. I've got a particular psychological problem around to-failure sets (I think Zastria and me have spoken about this in the past), in which I often find myself doing fewer than if I were set an actual number to aim for! Last time I did any of these I found out that I did much better on to-failure sets if I don't count.

That survey is interesting, Redline, and encouraging! I wonder if anyone has ever surveyed the Darebee userbase? I think it would be interesting, both for the site, and perhaps for some academic somewhere. In fact, because Darebee is such a different and (to me) encouraging thing that it would be great to have some academic looking at it. I've used forums in the past (around addiction) that have been surveyed by academics and used in studies. Darebee would be a great case study - where are the exercise science and public health professors?!

The book is OK, honestly! And the directory of exercises is really great: very correct, comprehensive, and useful, with advice on form. Those workout plans are interesting though. I honestly think the weight lifting coach chap (Radomir Cioroslan is his name) may just be so used to working with elite athletes that he's got raised expectations. Some of the plans seem much more reasonable, starting, for example, with walking before moving onto more demanding stuff. Do you have Men's Health where you are? I haven't read it, but I see it in newsagents and it seems very much an "aesthetics" sort of approach to fitness, with film stars or six pack abs always on the cover. It's aimed at young men first and foremost...

And I am not that! As my bookclub confessions establish! Book fairs were great too, Zastria!

DaithiMeyer Hey Daithi. Yes, I do do weighted punches sometimes. I have a little set of 3kg dumbells that I use for weighted punches. I do punches in sets of 100 because I love them: I find it a very quick, empowering, and easy way to get some energy during my work day. I also sometimes do the workouts from the Precision Striking YouTube boxing channel, which has some nice punch workouts - BECAUSE PUNCHES!

My thoughts exactly. Even though I'm not sure if young men are the only ones who dream about having six-pack abs...
Anyway. We do have Men's Health in France. But like you, I don't read it. That doesn't mean they can't give good advice... somewhere among all those ads...

Yesterday, through the day:

DD with EC: 20 jumping lunges. I really love this exercise!

100 Punches: 1 squat punches, 1 weighted punches (see above!), 1 combo (this is a jab, cross, hook, upper-cut combo). BECAUSE PUNCHES!

Age of Pandora Chapter 35:

1,300 high knees. (That's a lot of high knees!)

Then - conveniently! - a strength circuit of press ups and squats, which I did at Level I (5 press ups, 10 squats). A bit disappointing, and I probably could have managed level II (10 press ups, 15 squats), but, that old psychological block thing - also doing squats after 1,300 high knees is a bit tough!

2 minutes push the sky away.

I've just realised I missed out a through-the-day set of 200 side kicks/back fists combos. I'll do that today to catch up. I've been forgetting to log the touch your toes challenge - I'm on day two of that.

Still waking early, but otherwise I feel very healthy and fit. I'd like to be spending more time outside. I felt tired yesterday, physically. I think that's just a natural result of doing my usual thing of dropping out then starting up everything at once and maybe doing a little bit too much and wearing myself out. My main aim remains to do at least "something" every day. When I get the chance though I'd like to work out more of a proper plan. To have some goals and work towards them.

A good day all in all, and I hope you all have good days today! x

The fitness test could be used for that, maybe.

for me that's pull-ups (but I can't do them yet).

For the record, I had about 15 replies. What do you call that? A semblance of normality?

I just gave a coworker my never really used pushup handles and he is just working onto 20 in one go. He might be the fittest not-bee in our school.

Rep count is only one criteria for performance...not a very good one if the quality of the reps is not equal. Bodyweight, height, form, stance, ROM...

Even in comparison to yourself it does not work properly...

Best quote:
"Do not count every rep, but let every rep count"

I don't think so but thanks, I'll check the songs out, hopefully sometime soon. Never heard of them

Not such a great day yesterday. A bit of a relapse.

But, I did something:

DD with EC: 30 ninja lunges

200 back fist/side kick combos.

Better today I hope. . .

I hope today's going better for you too Get some punches in, that always improves a day!

Thank you, Zastria! I probably did. Though that was a while ago now. How quickly time flies!

I've been in a bit of a hole. Nothing serious though.

I haven't done a great deal of exercise, though I did quite a bit of walking and a bit of sea swimming on holiday in north Wales (photos to follow!).

We've also had visitors coming and going, so it's been hard to get into a routine again. I feel pretty fit and healthy in most ways though. I just want to get started again doing something then I'll either start back on Pandora II or possibly start a different programme. For the moment the plan is to do something - DDs at least - every day, and to start meditating a bit.

Here we go again!

I've tried to catch up a bit around the Hive, so some of you have had millions of notifications of likes on your check-ins!

Bee!

Lovely to see you buzzing about again, Colin!

Always nice to read from you!