I successfully completed 30 days (in a row) of my Triple 100 Challenge!!! WooT!
The Challenge:
101 reps each of Push Ups, Pull Ups (chair assisted) and Jump Squats every day, for 30 days!
I am elated to (finally) complete this challenge… for several reasons.
- June 9th was my 60th birthday and I wanted to complete the 30 day challenge on the 9th… but I couldn’t even start it due to nagging shoulder and knee injuries. I was MAJORLY disappointed… saying the words “I can’t” doesn’t come easily to me.
- Round 1: However, weeks later the joints were feeling better and I started “Round 1” with an outdoor workout, but had to call it off due to extreme air quality issues due to wildfires. That’s twice I had to say, ‘no’ to myself.
- Round 2: I started round 2 feeling good… too good actually. Instead of just doing 100 reps of each exercise… I felt so good I decided to do the maximum of each exercise in an hour.
And I really pushed myself doing them, so much so that I blew out my shoulder and my knee… again.
Dejected, disappointed, and mad at myself… I rested and rehabbed the joints. - Round 3: After the inflammation subsided, 31 days ago, I decided to give it another try. … except this time I promised myself to ONLY do 101 of each exercise AND to do them ‘responsibly’.
Responsibly in this context means… doing the reps orderly and with the awareness of the joints being used and worked.
FINALLY … success!
Never give up… never give in!!
These words are true about much of life … but especially true when it comes to diabetes and other illnesses of insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome.
Never… NEVER give up.
Closing with the words of Martin Luther King Jr.:
“If you can’t fly then run,
If you can’t run then walk,
If you can’t walk then crawl,
But whatever you do …
you have to keep moving forward.”
Absolutely AGREE!!!
Previous Updates
Round 2: of the challenge has ended. Officially, it was a failure. I was wanting to perform 30 days but only completed 18.
I’m putting the summary at the beginning so you won’t have to read through the entire post to get to the ‘meat’. You’re welcome. :)
I started Round 1 of this challenge of 100 reps each of daily push ups, weighted squats, and weighted bent rows… outdoors in the fresh air and sunlight.
Due to wildfires and the resulting poor air quality, I stopped and began Round 2 with an indoor workout that was less intense… performing push ups, jump squats and pull ups (chair assisted).
Because the indoor workout was less intense, I said that I would do more than 100 reps of each and at one point decided to do as many as I could do, in one hour.
Originally I had wanted to do this challenge back in April/May, leading up to my 60th birthday … but I couldn’t, due to the re-injuring of my permanently dislocated shoulder.
After a couple of months of relative rest (I still workout most days a week) my shoulder felt better so I re-started the challenge.
Enough about that …
Results: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
All was well when I started the challenge, all muscles and joints were responding well to the workouts.
I was ELATED!!!
But with success came thoughts that maybe my joints were healed and I pushed myself to do more reps … a lot more reps.
So off I went pushing myself more and more … until my old shoulder injury flared up. I stopped after day 18. Dammit!
Below are the daily details…
| Triple 100 | |||||
| Day | Date | Push | Pull | Squat | Notes |
| 1 | 7/21 | 142 | 143 | 145 | |
| 2 | 7/22 | 165 | 156 | 164 | |
| 3 | 7/23 | 180 | 142 | 161 | |
| 4 | 7/24 | 164 | 151 | 162 | |
| 5 | 7/25 | 171 | 160 | 163 | |
| 6 | 7/26 | 174 | 162 | 175 | |
| 7 | 7/27 | 178 | 171 | 178 | |
| 8 | 7/28 | 182 | 181 | 187 | |
| 9 | 7/29 | 183 | 182 | 190 | |
| 10 | 7/30 | 185 | 183 | 191 | |
| 11 | 7/31 | 193 | 191 | 195 | |
| 12 | 8/1 | 201 | 201 | 201 | |
| 13 | 8/2 | 206 | 204 | 207 | |
| 14 | 8/3 | 177 | 157 | 170 | Relative Rest |
| 15 | 8/4 | 217 | 219 | 215 | |
| 16 | 8/5 | 221 | 220 | 218 | |
| 17 | 8/6 | 228 | 233 | 226 | |
| 18 | 8/7 | 178 | 157 | 156 | Relative Rest |
| Total | 3345 | 3213 | 3304 | ||
| Daily Ave | 186 | 179 | 184 |
I’m glad to put this challenge ‘to bed’ but before I do, I just want to add.
EVEN though I quit on day 18 … I did *OVER* 3,000 reps for each exercise.
I did more reps in 18 days as I would have, had I done 100 reps each, for 30 days. :)
Nevertheless, I failed… mainly due to my own exuberance and yes, stubbornness.
Note: I did complete the original 4 outside, very intense workouts in 100+ temperatures and I’m very happy and proud of that.
This ends the summary … the rest of the post is previous updates. :)
Round 2 – The Restart
My initial attempt at this was thwarted when local wildfires (in British Columbia, Canada) caused air quality issues.
I don’t talk (or write) about this much but I was not only diagnosed with diabetes, but asthma as well. The asthma symptoms disappeared about the same time as my diabetes symptoms… when I began lowering my carbs and starting an exercise program back in 2009. (Here’s a link to my meal plan…. a meal plan I can ‘live with’.)
While my asthma is in ‘remission’, my lungs seem to remain more sensitive than most to dust and smoke.
Therefore on days the air quality is poor I will do the ‘inside’ workout, doing the outside workout when I can. This way, I won’t have any excuses for not doing a “Triple 100” workout every DAMN day… for 30 days! :)
Original Plan:
100 push ups
100 weighted squats
100 weighted bent rows
I will continue this workout when I can … I’m calling this the “outside” workout.
On the days when it’s too smokey, I’ve added an “inside” workout, it will consist of
New “Inside” Workout: (as many reps as possible in an hour)
Push Ups
Jump Squats
Pull Ups (chair assisted)
On the days I do the “inside” workout, I’ll try to do more than 100 reps (as many as I can in an hour) … since the inside workout is easier and less intense.
Original Post
In the past I’ve ‘tested’ myself often with intense exercise challenges. It’s a great way to self-assess my health and fitness level. It can be dangerous too, so I don’t recommend *YOU* do this particular experiment. I’ll provide links to some of my previous intense challenges.
When I first began exercising after a diabetes diagnosis, as a chronically sick obese person, walking to the mailbox was literally ALL THAT I COULD DO. But with diet, exercise and lifestyle changes, I quickly began to increase my health and fitness. If you struggle with diabetes and health issues, you can improve your health and fitness too.
Forecast: Record Highs
I was going to do this challenge prior to my 60th birthday (June 9th) but I couldn’t do it physically due to injuries, namely an aggravated permanent shoulder separation and a nagging knee injury.
As the end of June approached I saw the weather forecast for ‘record high temps’ over 100F (37C) and I decided to see if I could ‘mechanically’ perform the challenge without causing additional harm…. I could.
And with temps expected to be well over 100F (37C) … it was shaping up to be a valid ‘test’ of my health and fitness… for a formerly obese, 60 year old, who’s been a diabetic for over a decade. By the way, I have maintained normal weight and truly normal blood sugars since 2009… and I THRIVE!
Here’s the latest forecast:
The Exercise Challenge: Triple 100
Perform these three exercises daily for 30 days.
100 Push Ups
100 Weighted Squats (85 lbs)
100 Bent Rows (85 lbs)
Honestly, I’m most excited about the next five days due to the expected high temps. If I can do this for five days in the full sun… it will be a valid test of my conditioning and overall health.
However, these exercises are the minimums, I’ll also try to do other exercises. Yesterday (Day 1), in addition to the triple 100’s I also did weighted shrugs, lunges, farmer carries, a few hill runs (definitely not sprints) and various other less intense exercises.
By the way, I attribute much of my health and fitness to exercise … but more importantly to my VERY low carb, real-food diet, “A Meal Plan You Can Live With“. By real food, I mean fatty meats, fibrous vegetables with occasional low carb nuts and fruits (berries).
Daily Results
| Day | Date | Start | End | w/o length | Push | Pull * | Squat * | BG Pre | BG Immed | BG 1hr | BG Next | Notes | ||
| 1 | 6/27 | 5:05 | 5:50 | 45 mins | 108 | 109 | 104 | 91 | 147 | 111 | 104 1.5hr | Temp 103F, 1.5 hr tot w/o | ||
| 2 | 6/28 | 2:05 | 3:55 | 50 mins | 113 | 106 | 108 | 95 | 151 | 112 | Temp 101F, 1.5 hr tot w/o | |||
| 3 | 6/29 | 2:32 | 3:29 | 57 mins | 105 | 105 | 104 | 98 | 133 | 109 | 91 2hr | Tempt 102F, no bonus w/o |
Daily Results Commentary
- Each day it takes longer to complete the workout… as the temps go higher. This wasn’t done purposely. Today (6/30) the temps will be even higher, I’m going to attempt to keep the exercise under an hour.
- Blood Sugars – When performing very intense exercises, it’s not uncommon for a 30-40 point pop, immediately following the exercise… but I was a little surprised at the VERY high BG readings the first two days.
- After completing the workouts the first two days, after a 5 minute rest, I continued on with a lowER intensity exercises. I did not feel comfortable continuing the ‘bonus’ exercises on day 3.
Previous Intense Exercise Challenges
A primer on Exercise and Diabetes – as usual the medical industry doesn’t get it exactly right… “Diabetes & Exercise“.
Here are a few links to some of my other posts concerning diabetes and my intense exercise.
1058 Push Ups
eXcellent eXercise eXperiments (XXX) :)
35 Minutes of Hell
Thriving at 55
11 Year Check Up
Love the Way I Live!
As a formerly obese, formerly drug and insulin dependent diabetic …
I love the way I eat.
I love the way I play.
I LOVE THE WAY I LIVE!!!
Thriving at 60… with diabetes.
#ThrivingAt60 #ThrivingWithDiabetes
#Triple100 #Triple100Challenge