100 push-ups, 50 pull-ups challenge

Curious why you believe a 5-min recovery would be necessary for someone who works out regularly. I think it varies by person and what they’re used to doing.

When lifting external weight, a standard rule of thumb that works well for me is take 60 seconds to recover in between sets of 10 to 12 reps, take 90 seconds to recover from 7 to 9 reps, and 120 seconds to recover from 5 to 6 reps.

I’ve always found it easier/faster to recover from body weight exercises. Generally, 45 to 60 seconds is all I need for those.

It all depends on the intensity of the set and how good you are at executing the exercise. There's the famous 20 rep squat program, "super squats," where you do one set of 20 squats, 3x per week. You will be tired for the rest of the day. Go read up on it if you want.

I've witnessed a lot of runners do 10 "pullups" where they swing their legs and do a half rep and go as fast as possible. I wouldn't be surprised if they said they could do 10 more in 60 seconds. Then watch a gymnast do pullups, the quality will be 10x better. They'll likely need more time to recover because they executed at a much higher level.

lmao dude did about zero full reps. Cleary very strong though.

Pullups would ve very easy for me. Im approaching 57, but my best after 50 was 48 in a minute. Full lockout, form etc. I don't like push-ups, never been good at them really.

A record or two still listed here. I guess I'll have to set M60 Pullup WR in a few years.

Well, im married to 5 min but lets just say if you utterly max out on pull ups your body is pretty trashed as far as doing it again in 1-2 min. Its a compound upper body exercise and there is a reason why the majority of people cant do 1. Tons of folks can do 1 push up. lets just say it would be hard to do even 2 sets in 5 min and that would require 25 each set. That's little wrestler/gymnast guy territory.

Absolutely zero problem. 10 sets of 10 pushups/5 pullups each minute? Child's play. I'd say that if you are a man (any age) and can't do 50 pushups and 10 pullups in one go, you seriously need to make some changes. That will ruffle some feathers- and it should.

"That's little wrestler/gymnast guy territory."

Completely false. You're making excuses because of your inability to do it. It's just like anything else- you train your body.

Sure, if someone is using a slow cadence and/or squeezing at max intensity for each contraction, more recovery will be necessary. I was talking about regular reps.

I think you'd be surprised by what people who work out regularly are capable of doing. I'll try the challenge next week and report back. I need to wait because I did a pull workout on Monday and a push workout yesterday, and I only work out each muscle group once per week. I'll be disappointed if I can't complete the challenge in under 10 minutes.

What's a regular rep? To people who do pullups regularly, it means going to a dead hang, pausing for a split second, pulling the scap in, raising your chin above the bar, then lowering yourself down under control, all without swinging with a hollow body position.

In my experience, for most runners, a "rep" is about half the effort of a real pullup.

If you do any exercise to failure, or near failure, you will need many minutes of recovery to reach the point where you can do an equivalent set again. Doesn't matter if it's bodyweight or weighted or running reps on a track.

The short answer is no.

My pull-ups PB is 16 consecutive pull-ups. I tried to do so many as possible in 10 minutes a couple of months ago, and ended up with 55 or 56 (I can't remember which one)

My PB for most consecutive pushups is 57

(I'm 177 (5'10) 74-76kg (163-167lbs) 30 years old)

I do pull-ups regularly, and I agree with your description. That's how I do them. I've been working out for over 25 years. I've never needed "many minutes" to recover from doing a set to failure.

I follow Jeff Cavaliere, who is big on proper form and going to failure on every set. He doesn't prescribe long recovery periods. They're not necessary.

99% of the regulars at my gym, whom many would view as strong and/or fit, could not complete a set of 10 strict pullups.

I mean no offense, but saying you only work each muscle group once per week and your "rules of thumb" about rest, tells me you're still in the beginner dogmatic bro split phase of strength training. That's the running equivalent to swearing by heart rate zone training for your 20 min 5k attempts.

Report back when you can snatch your bodyweight.

Holy sh!t, you outted yourself so hard with this one.

To elaborate,

Jeff has lots of good advice for beginners about technique. He's the running equivalent of someone saying, "Run more often, and sometimes run kind of fast, and sometimes do some strides" to a total beginner.

Anything beyond that and his advice is often contradictory and a mashup of bro science and fake weights.

Far from a beginner. But I'm also not a fulltime bodybuilder. The name's McRunnin, not McLiftin.

I'm talking strength training and athletic performance, not bodybuilding. Very different things that a beginner would mix up.

You may have been lifting for 25 years, and I'm about 5 years behind you in experience, but that doesn't automatically equate to skill, knowledge, and proficiency.

Are you not aware that he trains professional athletes? I enjoy his workouts. They challenge me, I like the variety, and I've gotten great results. Who are your influences?