Get Ripped With 100 Pushups
The “Hundred PushUps” app has a narrow focus, but its clear-cut goal makes for an effective, if tough, program.
Eager to tap into the cross-training trend, many fitness apps go for a comprehensive approach to physical exercises, offering a mixture of cardio, stretching and strength training workouts on the go for optimal conditioning. Hundred PushUps takes the opposite tack, offering a six-week training program to boost upper-body strength.
What’s the App?
The app, created and developed by Software X from the Web program and available for Android and iOS devices for $2, is a simple, targeted fitness app with an apt name: its sole goal is to help users increase the number of pushups they can do. Over a six-week span, the app offers a training routine to increase upper-body strength. You start with an initial pushup test, and based on those results, you choose one of three program levels. Over the program’s six-week time-span, you perform three pushup workout routines per week. The number of pushups to perform varies, but increases with each workout, building strength over the duration of the program. The overall program is almost old-fashioned in its simplicity.
The website offers the complete program, but the app provides a lot of support in starting and sticking with the workouts. It automatically schedules your workout, as well as notifications so users don’t forget. It also allows users to record and measure their progress, as well as make adjustments, letting them reschedule workouts to continue making progress. For motivation, it keeps track of how many pushups you’ve done overall, and offers a “tip of the week” as well as advice on good form. It’s all packaged in a bright, simple design that’s easy to navigate. There aren’t a lot of bells and whistles beyond basic connectivity to Twitter and Facebook, but the simplicity suits the equally cut-and-dried fitness program.
You’ll Want It If…
You like your fitness easy to follow and simple, and are a fan of other programs such as Couch to 5K, which offer measured, incremental progress on single activities. The app offers convenient portable access to the upper-body strength program, but its ultimate success lies in its simplicity: its clear-cut goal, and the steady, sensible approach it takes to reaching it. The app is easy-to-use, making it a fine mobile complement to a bigger goal.
It’s Not My Thing — What Else Ya Got?
Some fitness diehards might scoff at Hundred PushUps’ modest yet formidable goals. Pushups? Pshaw! Others might quibble with pushups as the only measure of upper-body strength, and worry about overdeveloping some muscles at the expense of others. Those users will likely gravitate towards programs like the P90X, which also offers its program via app. That grueling program operates by offering a cadre of workouts targeting different areas of the body as well as mixing cardio, strength, yoga and calisthenics. Others may want a more developed fitness community, a need well-catered to by the LiveStrong app.
And there are those who may also choose to complement Hundred PushUps with equally focused cardio-based apps like RunKeeper, adding some all-important aerobic exercise and fleshing out a conditioning program. Certainly with the glut of healthcare and fitness apps out there, users can easily assemble a patchwork of apps into a comprehensive, tailored program of their own. Hundred PushUps may be a valuable addition to a roster of exercise apps, not to mention helping users notch an impressive-sounding physical feat on their hopefully tight belt.