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?