Sunday, March 17, 2013

Todai Ryan's Push-Up Challenge




Todai Lian emailed me earlier in the week and suggested that we should devise some fitness challenges for the Online Todai and all others who want to participate, endeavors that will help us increase strength, endurance, stamina, and/or flexibility while upping our personal bests at various exercises. After further discussion, we figured that any challenges should be able to be met within a 10-15 minute time span each day, so that none of us would have an excuse to neglect it, even on the busiest schedule, and that we should have at least one challenge running that involves no special training equipment, so that everyone who might want to can participate. I promised to come up with something to start us off, a challenge that would include push-ups and stamina. Given the participants that I know right off the hop will be involved – myself, Lian, and Kang – this is what I came up with…

A challenge that blends push ups (chest/ arms) and the stances (legs) of our CLF form. Here’s what I’m thinking:

Monday: Bow; Drop into horse stance and max-out the hold; Go down to the ground and max out as many regular push-ups as you can do; Attempt to kip-up; Drop into arrow stance and hold for ten breaths each side; Go down and max out on push-ups again; Attempt to kip-up; Drop into deep cat stance and hold for ten breaths each site; Go down and max out on push-ups a third time; Attempt to kip-up; Drop into cross stance and hold for ten breaths each side; Bow

Tuesday: Bow; Drop into horse stance and deliver chambered punches in the manner of our CLF form (aim for at least 20); Go Down to the ground and do a pyramid of regular push-ups, pausing in plank for as many breaths as the last repetition, maxing out on a set you can’t complete, then attempting to work back down to one; Attempt to kip-up; Drop into horse stance and deliver another round of chambered punches like the first; Bow

Wednesday: Bow; Drop into horse stance and max-out the hold; Go down to the ground and work through a training set of 6 push up variations of your choice, resting as plank between, with the number of reps determined by your ability (5 at minimum); Attempt kip-up; Drop into cross stance and hold for ten breaths each side; Bow

Thursday: Bow; Drop into horse stance and deliver chambered punches in the manner of our CLF form (aim for at least 20); Go down to the ground and work through as many sets of push up variations as you can, resting as plank between, with the number of reps determined by your ability (5 at minimum, and if you can do more than 9 sets then you know you need more reps next time you try this); Attempt kip-up; Drop into horse stance and deliver another round of chambered punches like the first; Bow

Friday: Bow; Drop into horse stance and max-out the hold; Go Down to the ground and do a reverse pyramid of regular push-ups, starting with the number you were able to climb to on Tuesday, working down to one and then trying to climb back up; pausing in plank for as many breaths as the last repetition; Attempt to kip-up; Drop into a low cat stance and max-out the hold on both sides; Bow

Saturday: Consider which of the preceding five days you found most difficult, go ahead and repeat that

Sunday: Take a break, review what you’ve done, prepare to do it again the next week adding reps to your sets as needed

This challenge will run for 6 weeks, starting tomorrow. I will film each of my sessions and post them on the FMK YouTube Channel. All participants should either film and share your own sessions or comment under mine to report your success for the day. I will also post a video notice on the YouTube Channel this evening to invite any FMK fans to join in the challenge. So who’s up for it?


14 comments:

  1. As simple as it may be, i never thought about counting breaths, it's a good idea, i'm so used to count reps, sets and seconds and minutes, it's like i forgot the most natural way to count; counting breaths! Thanks for the idea!

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    1. I haven't worn a watch in more than twenty years (unless you count the modern pocket watch, a.k.a. cell-phone), so when I'm trying to do something like hold a posture for a certain span of time I alway go by breaths

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  2. I think you did a great job with this. It looks like a lot of fun. I like how you added the stances into it. I'll try to record it. The kip-up attempts will probably be pretty funny.

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    1. I used to be able to kip up, when I was a teenager, lol. Now I'm like too stiff and undynamic. But over the six weeks, I'll get it back

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    2. I'm already thinking about other challenges we could do. I think I'll get one started every three weeks or so, and have them all run six weeks in duration. That way we always will have a couple of challenges rolling

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    3. I wonder if I'll be able to kip up by the time we finish this. I've watched videos on how to to do it, but I just can't get it yet.

      Should I post my videos on here, or just leave them on my You Tube account and you can share them from there?
      I think my daughter did better than I did today. I'm sure I'll improve by the time it's done.
      That would be cool if you make more. I wonder who all is going to participate in this.

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    4. Maybe put a link to the video as a comment to my video, as an example for others on how to participate. But I'll also copy your video separately to the FMK channel

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    5. Since I only announced the challenge the afternoon before we're beginning, it won't surprise me if it takes other Todai, or that fans, a week or more to get interested and excited about the challenges, and want to participate. I hope we can get some activity going. Kang said he wanted to participate. So we'll see. It's cool either way, as another good way for Online Todai to engage

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    6. I think that's a really good idea. My chest are probably one of my weakest muscles so I probably should participate. This challenge may also improve my stance hold and possibly help me get to the Red Rank faster. In that way, people might take me more seriously if I want to get them more fit. I just saw the announcement tonight after school but I will start it anyway.

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    7. Sounds good, Kang. It'll be awesome to have you get in on Day 1

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  3. I tried to post my video as a video response to your Day One video, and it didn't seem to work. I finally got my second one up.

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    1. Right on. I'll copy and post it

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    2. I found the pyramid way more brutal than the 3 max-out sets. But both of them were pretty tough

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    3. I think you're right. The pyramid was tougher. I only got up to 5. For being short workouts, I can really feel it. Now I get to figure out which 6 types of pushups to do today. This could be interesting.

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