THE RICHEST MAN IN BABYLON AND 400 PUSH UPS: STORIES FROM MY YOUTH

A thanks is owed to user “oldbeancam” on t-nation for suggesting this post, despite the fact I have it on good authority he is not a member of the legume family, nor is he particularly aged.

Like most boys that grew up with a strong male presence in the family, my dad was my hero.  Honestly still is.  He was a big influence on me too.  As a kid, he was always the strongest and smartest man around, and anything he said I took to heart.  He lifted a little when he was in the military and a little when he got out, hurt himself and stopped later, but when I was really young he was still staying in shape, so that struck a chord.  Anyway, I say all this because the things he would tell me when I was young would stay with me for a LONG time, and, in turn, it sets up the reasoning and origins behind this story.

Although my dad's advice to "never get a girl pregnant" messed me up a little when he would never go on to specify "outside of wedlock"

My dad would always tell me stories about guys he knew in basic training or tech school that could do amazing things.  I was into martial arts when I was young (started Tae Kwon Do when I was 9, YMCA karate before that, super into the Ninja Turtles, etc), so my dad would tell me stories about a guy that did Tae Kwon Do that would do jump spin kicks over the heads of the guys in the barracks.  Or how he knew a guy that was a boxer that would reach out and snatch flies out of the air.  But one day, my dad told me the story about a guy in the barracks that went to take off his shirt to change uniforms and was completely jacked out of his mind.  My dad told me how he stared at him agog, and then asked him “Dude, how did you do that?”  The guy’s answer?  “200 push ups a night, every night.”

So, of course, that implanted the seed in my brain.  If you do 200 push ups a night, every night, you will be jacked.  Moving on, a few years later, when I was about 14 or 15 or so, my dad gave me a book called “The Richest Man in Babylon”.  For those that haven’t read it, it’s a very short read that basically gives financial saving and investing advice in the form of Babylonian parables.  Honestly very enjoyable, but at one point in the book, the author goes on to explain small investments staying up to something big with the following example (paraphrased): “Let’s say you were to do just 1 more push up a day, every day.  Just 1 push ups doesn’t seem like much, but after 100 days?  Suddenly you’re doing 100 push ups.”  I imagine my Dad had no idea that I would read this book and completely miss the message there, but my mind locked on to that notion and I wondered “Wait…will that actually work?”

The fact I've tried all sorts of crazy ideas but not this should say something

So teenage me set out to try it out.  I went and tested my top amount of push ups for the day and clocked in somewhere in the low to mid 40s.  With a baseline established, I decided to keep testing.  I did them every night before bed (remember, it’s push ups a NIGHT, not a day…because reasons), never missed a session, and true to form, I was able to get to 100 with that approach.  And now, the fire was lit.  I was halfway towards a childhood goal.  If I could get to 200, and then do them every night, I’d be just as jacked as the recollection of a guy that I had never actually seen before.  Yes, 30 something me realizes how silly this was in retrospect, but as a teenager it was brilliant.

I’ll spare dramatics and just say, 100 days later, I had made it to 200.  I’ll unfortunately spoil the end here and let you know that a 158lb 17 year old doing 200 push ups a day honestly doesn’t look very impressive. My teenage friends would call me jacked, but you be the judge

I still own that shirt by the way

Sadly, this was one of those fish stories.  I don’t doubt my dad that he saw a visibly impressive looking guy whose claim to fame was 200 push ups a day, but I imagine the hidden variable is a dude that walks around at low bodyfat and will look impressive from any muscular development.  As a person that naturally carries higher bodyfat, I wasn’t looking like much of anything.  Still, I diligently kept the 200 push ups a night going for as long as I could on top of a regular regimen of weights and sports training. 

Wait, doesn’t the title say 400? Alright, here we go.  I kept up the 200 push ups a night thing for a long time, but with me not seeing a great deal of benefit from it and college looming, it eventually fell off my radar in my later high school years.  However, once I got to college, the spark got re-lit.  For one, I went from my very bare bones high school weight room to (what seemed like at the time) a very well stocked college weight room, and my lifting took off.  Along with that, I put on about 12lbs of mostly shoulders in about 3-4 months upon arrival, and was suddenly becoming “big”.  It was like 180-185 at 5’9, but having transitioned from wrestling 152 in high school, I felt huge.  And so, I thought, this might be the time to REALLY get the most out of those push ups.

Yes, I may have had some other influences at the time too

I started it up once again, and found that I could get 100 in one go when I first tried.  Huh, interesting.  Looks like all that time before had a little carryover.  Well, on to 1 more a day.  And so I went, and once again worked my way back to 200.  And then, in a true Forest Gump-esque fashion, I wondered how far I could push this.  Since I was doing 200 a day, it was getting to be pretty easy to add 1 more, so I started adding 5 a day.  When I got to 300, I went with 10 a day.  Finally, there I was, home for a fall break, doing my daily push ups, and I worked my way all the way to 400.  The “set” took about 20 minutes, because I operated under the rules that I could rest as long as needed in the top position, I just couldn’t break 4 points of contact.  The first 200 flew by, the final 200 sucked, I collapsed in a heap, sweating and panting…and wondering what the hell I was doing.  I didn’t look any different, and didn’t feel any stronger, and I couldn’t see any sort of end in sight.  If I just kept it up, where was I going to go?  Was 500 going to matter more than 400?  And thus, the end of the journey.

But why do I share this?  A few interesting things of note.  Remember how I said that, when I tried to do the push ups again, I could do 100 in a set at the start?  Well that “memory” became even crazier after getting up to 400, because that set pretty much documents the last time push ups were a regular part of my training.  I pretty much never do push ups when I train.  However, I take a physical fitness test once a year with a max push ups in a minute, and without practice always manage to hit the max (68 up until very recently) with about 20 seconds to spare.  I do Murph once a year, and have no issue with getting in the push ups, even with the weighted vest.  And my 1000 push ups in under an hour challenge workout is a thing.  I have some sort of “push up reserve” in my body now that won’t ever go away, despite my last serious attempt being about 15 years ago. 

Inspiration for the 1000 push ups came from this dude, who is a legit badass

Along with that, this is literally the easiest program ever, and no one EVER believes me when I tell them about it.  If you have a goal that involves doing as many push ups as possible, I can’t think of a better approach.  You don’t need the 100 push ups program, or grease the groove, or anything like that: just do 1 more than you did yesterday.  Once you’re at like 40 or 50, it’s REALLY not a question of getting stronger or more endurance: it’s purely a mental challenge.  It’s about having the willpower to do just 1 more, and when it IS “just 1 more” it’s easy to overcome.  And you can see how those “just 1 mores” can add up to something great.  In a roundabout way, I learned the lesson my dad was trying to teach me, I just had to live out the allegory.

And finally…doing 200 push ups a night won’t make you jacked.  Neither will 400.  Quit eating so much you fattie.