March Push Up Exercise Challenge (MarchUp)

The Monthly Exercise Challenge for March is #MarchUP, nothing to do with marching but much to do with push-ups. This challenge is back to basics with Push-Ups. We’re going to be challenging ourselves with this fundamental bodyweight exercise, and you should join us.

Don’t let the word ‘Push Up’ put you off, we have 3 levels and 3 push-up variations, including a wall press suitable for the absolute beginner or a full push-up for the seasoned push-up king.  

The press-up or push-up exercise is a staple of physical fitness, used in testing by police and military forces worldwide, and for good reason. It’s an excellent way to test an individual’s overall strength because it relies on many components of fitness, including muscular strength from the shoulders, arms, and chest, as well as core stability and joint range of motion, especially at the elbow and shoulder. It’s also a metabolic exercise, as it activates multiple muscle groups and requires good cardiovascular efficiency and capacity.

Amazing really! That’s why many personal trainers love this exercise and why it is a fundamental test of strength and fitness.   You can start at your own level and ability, progressing from a standing wall push-up to a half push-up, and finally to a full push-up. There are also harder progressions, such as a decline press-up.  

Push Up Test

This challenge is progressive; you should see some improvement in strength over the course of it. We can test its effectiveness by conducting a simple press-up test at the start and end of the month. This is really simple to do. Read our article, Push IT with the Press-Up Strength Test, on how to conduct your own test together with a tracking sheet. You will also find normal values in that article, which you can compare yourself against.

The test simply involves you performing as many press-ups as you can until you reach failure. This is also a good way to determine which press-up variation you should choose for the challenge. 

Scoring Sheet

The challenge is split into 3 levels, for which you can score your progress. You don’t need to keep to one level; you can mix & match and go up or down a level. Each level has a score. Use the free-scoring sheet available for download below to track your progress and tally your total score for the month

You get either 1,2 or 3 points for the target level and either 1, 2 or 3 points for the Push-Up variation. That’s a maximum of ‘6’ per day, a minimum of ‘2’ unless you skip a day, in which case it would be ‘0’.

e.g, if you choose the LEVEL 2 target guide and the Full Push Up, you will get two points for the targets achieved and two points for the exercise variation for a grand total of four points for the day, simple.

Download Scoring Sheet

March Up Push Up Challenge Scoring Sheet 73 KB 50 downloads

Scoring sheet for the March Up Push up Challenge …

Download

MarchUP Daily Target Guide

Download the #MarchUP daily target guide, share it with your friends and pin it to your fridge.

Challenge Design

This challenge is progressive, with a periodized training structure that allows for adaptation, recovery, and progression throughout. The target guide, as you can see from the chart below, is a classic example of a periodized training programme. The programme features a rise and fall in intensity, progressively increasing the overall load. We have used this style of programming to structure our #MarchUp Push-Up challenge,

MarchUP Push Up Exercise Options

Select the push-up variation suitable for your fitness level.

Top Tips

• Maintain a neutral spine posture by looking down at the mat
• Keep your body rigid, don’t let your hips drop towards the floor
• Look for a 90-degree (right-angle) at the arms.
• Engage core stabilisers.
• Perform slow and controlled, 2 seconds up and 2 seconds down.