A man embarked on a demanding journey of performing 50 pull-ups and 100 push-ups daily for a month, sharing his transformative experience.
Noticing a decline in his fitness, YouTuber Scott Luu challenged himself to regain his physique through a rigorous routine of pull-ups and push-ups.
Although such a workout might seem daunting, Luu established guidelines to make the challenge more feasible.
He allowed himself to break the routine into manageable portions throughout the day.
“As long as I achieved a total of 50 pull-ups and 100 push-ups all with good form before I [went to] sleep, that was a successful day,” Luu mentioned.
To kick off his challenge, Luu gauged his starting point by testing how many reps he could manage before fatigue, initially averaging eight pull-ups and 28 push-ups.
Luu stated: “My plan was to perform the push-ups and pull-ups throughout the day, five different sessions spread out by three to four hours.”
However, as is often the case with exercise routines, other commitments posed challenges, prompting Luu to adapt to a schedule of three daily sessions.
Despite this adjustment, the challenge proved more taxing than anticipated, leading Luu to admit: “After just two days, on the third day we were forced to take a rest day because my body couldn’t handle it.”
This led Luu to revise his plan, aiming for 100 push-ups and 50 pull-ups four times a week, with recovery days in between. Despite initial setbacks, after a month, he attempted the full challenge again without rest days.
Restarting from day one, Luu adhered rigorously to the routine, yet after 12 days, his endurance faltered.
“It was really painful to grip the pull-up bar,” he noted. “I ended up getting a little internal bleeding on my right hand, under the callous, probably because I was gripping the bar way too tightly, so it made it very very painful.”
Luu faced ongoing discomfort in his forearms and persistent soreness in his chest and lats, but persevered, finding time for exercises even at 3.30am.
“Miraculously, my body began adapting and I felt less pain and soreness,” he reported.
He soon surpassed his personal record for pull-ups, managing up to 17 in one session. Luu claimed the challenge made him stronger than ever. At the conclusion of the 30 days, he recognized that the most significant change was not physical.
He expressed: “Sometimes you need to push beyond what you think you can do so then you can unleash what you are already capable of doing. I put in the work of strengthening my body so I can physically do it but my mind hasn’t caught up to what I’m capable of yet.”
Luu concluded: “It’s instilled an unshakable confidence that, even if the challenge is difficult, when things get extremely tough, I can still get it done.”