If you’re looking for a way to kill a few hours in quarantine, you might want to try something other than what fitness YouTuber Daniel Lewis did. Inspired by a video in which influencer MattDoesFitness did 100 pushups every day, Lewis decided to up the ante and attempt 500 pushups every day for a month… and soon found it was more pain than gain.
Starting at 7 or 8 a.m. in the gym, Lewis churns out at least 250 reps to start. Then, he completes the rest at home. “It’s not 500 consecutively, but it’s still very challenging,” he says, “especially when you reach that 150, 200 mark, and you’re only giving yourself a few minutes to rest. It gets very fatiguing very quickly.”
“I wanted to give my body time to get acclimated to doing 500 pushups a day, and to be honest, it has not got used to it,” he says on Day 8. “No matter what variation I do, my entire upper body feels so tight.”
In order to help offset that tightness and soreness, Lewis begins alternating between regular and close-grip pushups on different days. But while that helps with his discomfort, it doesn’t make the reps themselves any easier.
“I just think the number of pushups I’m doing every day isn’t healthy at this point,” Lewis says midway through the challenge. “My chest and my triceps are just exhausted.”
By the end of the month-long challenge, Lewis has noticed more visible definition in his chest and triceps, but ultimately concludes that it isn’t a particularly effective or sustainable way of building muscle. He advises against anyone else trying it, saying it’s “not feasible” and creates a lot of “wear and tear” in your shoulders and triceps.
“I definitely still feel the aftereffects,” he says, “I still feel sore in my triceps and my chest… If you do want to challenge yourself with a bodyweight movement, I suggest maybe doing 100 pushups, or maybe 150, 200, something a little more modest, not 500.”
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