100 Pushups a Day for 123 Days Straight. . .

The humble pair of pushup bars.  Cheap, easy to use, they give good results when used consistently over time, and could even be disassembled and tossed into a suitcase to travel with you should Monday through Friday business, or a family vacation take you on the road.

It's a well-know fact that many guys go a little batty in middle-age.  Some choose the Just for Men route and dye their remaining hair, eyebrows, and beards/mustaches just a liiiiiiiittle too dark if you know what I mean.  Some, if they don't go whole hog and spring for hair transplants, start doing a comb-over that is glaringly obvious to everyone else (and their dogs) from two miles away. 

Other guys buy the red sports car and begin wearing pinky rings with fur coats during the colder months.  Some go so far as to jettison their wives and acquire the younger trophy girlfriend/wife in fairly short order.  

Then, there are some guys who inexplicably purchase a MASSIVE motor home/caravan that gets used twice a summer but otherwise sits beneath an equally huge cover the other 50 weeks of the year.  These men, too, tend to acquire a second wife in fairly short order, though the gals involved are usually not quite as 'trophy' as those women who seem to accompany the pinky rings, fur coats, and red sports cars.  

We live across the street from one such couple.  Wife #1 checked out about the same time that the motor home arrived two summers ago.  Poof!  She was gone.  I suspect the new motor home was simply the straw that broke the camel's back.  I can almost hear the exchange.  

"Now Bob, you just drive that thing right back to the dealerhip now, or I'm taking the kids and going to mother's!"  

"Aw, Myrtle!  The Badlands of South Dakota!  You're gonna love it!  Honey?"  

The Girlfriend has appeared this summer.  While not exactly a prize, she at least seems to approve of the motor home as far as we can tell, though it still spends most of the summer camping season beneath a cover parked in the driveway.  I wonder how long it might be before either one, or the other is no longer on the scene?

Returning to the point at hand, some men of a certain age start a midlife crisis rock band and splurge on the guitars/drums/amplifiers that they wanted desperately but could not afford as teenagers, treating the neighbors to the opening bars of Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water ad nauseam.  Or, if you're lucky, the same 10 or 12 songs, rehearsed two or three evenings every week in lieu of a bowling league.  

Still other guys find a beaten up old muscle car -- think a '71 Nova SS or an old Chevelle -- through publications like The Pennysaver "to restore."  However, that little project somehow never quite makes it off the blocks in the garage, or the body putty filler is never quite finished, sanded, and repainted. . . much less the engine rebuilt so that it actually runs. 

Then, there are those of us who do pushups. 

Today marks the end of my fourth straight month of 100 pushups everyday (without any missed days mind you) using these bars, for 4" of extended range.  That's 123 straight days, or 12,300 pushups since May 1st if my math is correct.  

I'll spare you any photos -- Who actually wants to see a 50+ guy with his shirt off no matter what kind of shape he is in? -- but bigger shoulders, upper arms, and vastly more toned forearms, chest, upper back, and midsection have resulted, plus improved posture, all of which were the goal rather than to pack on crazy muscle mass.  I've always been a fairly trim sort anyway, so no reason to change that now.  

But, if you're after an exercise that you can do anywhere with little to no equipment and that has a number of health benefits, the plain ol' pushup has a lot going for it.  A nice side benefit is that a toned body helps make whatever attire you might hang on it look even better.

-- Heinz-Ulrich