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Comment by nekopa | Hacker News Reader

I have just completed week 4 day 1 of this program (plus I am also doing the 200 sit-ups program at the same time). I like it because it is SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time framed. That said, I have spoken to a qualified physical trainer, and they weren't to impressed by it. She said a workout program should be more varied. But it works for me because I am extremely out of shape, so I have been using the program to develop the habit of exercising 3 times a week. Once the 6 weeks are up I hope to move to a more balanced and realistic fitness program.

The outcome of all this is that I have set a goal to complete a triathlon within a year (just the sprint TA: half km swim, 16km bike and 5.1 km run) Its a tough goal for me because I smoke heavily, drink a lot and I love to cook heavy gourmet meals.

All the same, this program (100pushups) is starting to instill the discipline I need to reach my one year goal.

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Most people have very different ideas and goals for fitness than a physical trainer. They come from the perspective of already having a minimum level of fitness, so a more rounded regime is necessary. For a bare beginner, the 100 pushup and 200 situp programs are great. They are compound movements, meaning they use lots of different muscles, rather than the typical machine workout you get with most trainers. I would only add a similar program to get you to 300 squats so that you get some lower body workout in as well, especially as your goal is a triathlon, requiring both running and cycling. The buildup should be about the same as the other exercises, so it should be as easy as multiplying the 100 pushup workout by 3. Good job for getting started and if you get really serious, I highly recommend looking up your local Crossfit affiliate (http://www.crossfit.com). They take it to the next level.

At the moment I work out M-W-Sat. I start with about 15 minutes of loosening up (I still remember my old kung-fu warm-up routines) then I go for a 2 km run. When I get back I do the program for the push-ups and sit-ups together. Its varied and interesting enough that I have been able to keep on schedule so far (even whilst having a bad hangover a couple of times:) The main goal is to really make it a habit, something I will just do without thinking. I am trying to educate myself on different aspects (i.e. I have been reading up on nutrition recently to try to fix my diet) I will look into the crossfit site, but I am currently living in the Czech Republic, (and I don't speak Czech) I don't like gyms and machines, but depending on where my studies of fitness take me, I may well end up using them. But I like the idea of body weight exercising, especially as I have a lot of weight to throw around. Should be good for a while... Thanks for the well-wishes.

I've been doing crossfit for six months on my own. I got good results, but lately I am feeling it is getting harder to do it and i feel I am not improving as much. Today, I am planning to start with MMA training. It just feels like more fun, now that I've got a good general fitness base.

Well, they're right -- a well balanced exercise plan does feature more variety. That said, I'm a HUGE proponent of calisthenic-type workouts, and I think that something like this is definitely more good than bad.

If you wanted to supplement this, without significantly increasing the difficulty, do something similar with situps on the off-days. If you're doing M-W-F for pushups, then do the same incremental workout with situps on T-Th-S.

Better still would be to add some walking to the mix. Walk a mile on Sunday, perhaps.

One other thing that I do to round out cardio (as I am also in horrible shape at the moment) is to start off each 'workout' session with jumping jacks. They're simple, easy, hard to screw up more than a little bit, and do a great job at getting you warmed up. Start with 10 or 20, and again, just keep incrementing upwards as they get easier. I personally would do jumping jacks (or jumping rope as they get easier) before every workout.

Regardless, good luck on your goal. Doing SOMETHING towards achievement is definitely better than doing nothing, regardless of how unimpressed your trainer friend might be.

I see it as doing something right now is more good than bad. I decided to get into this after I realised that I am currently doing a lot of mind work (trying to fix my weaknesses in Math and Statistics as well as programming) so I need to balance it with doing something with my body. You will see in my comment below that I am running and doing sit-ups too. I wanted to do something like squats or burpees, but I have slightly dodgy knees, so I am trying to strengthen them first before putting them under too much strain. (Note, I live out in the countryside here, so I run on grass which has less of an impact on my knees than concrete would. Oh, and to clarify, the trainer was happy I am doing something, and said she will help me balance out the training when I am finished with this 'habit-forming' stage. Thanks for wishing me luck, I know I need all the luck I can get right now as the program is starting to get tougher, but I am going to make it through. Cheers!

Having done permanent damage to my knees on numerous occasions, I can definitely relate. 3 minutes on an elliptical is about all I can stand before my knees start to buckle, though I can easily do MUCH longer than that on bikes or treadmills (as they work the knees and surrounding muscles less directly.)

If you're overweight, obviously, getting the weight off of the knees will help them tremendously too.

And yes, I don't know how I overlooked that you were already doing other exercise tasks, so my apologies for needlessly repeating what you already knew.

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