Fast forward a year, and in June of 2009 Steve published his first book, 7 Weeks to 100 Pushups.

It’s a very quick read, and the programs offered in it seem even more accessible than the ones on the website. You should be able to read it in one or two sittings without any trouble.

The first thing that you’ll notice about the book is that it is 7″x9″, which was not what I was expecting when I ordered the book. It has more of the feel of a training log than a book that you would sit down and read.

The advantage, of course, comes from the book staying open on the floor in front of you on the page with that day’s workout, so that you can easily see how many pushups you should be doing for each set. (Unless your cat is wanting to play and keeps closing it on you, anyway.)

7 Weeks to 100 Pushups is divided into 4 parts:

Part 1 is an overview, which explains a little about the history of the pushup and why it is such a good exercise to take part in. There are a couple dozen success stories from folks that have used Steve’s program and some beginner’s tips frequently asked questions. Trivia about the pushup is sprinkled throughout this section.

Part 2 is made up of the 6 different schedules. The number of pushups you can currently do in your initial test determines which schedule you should start on. The 2 beginner programs are each 10 weeks long, while the intermediate and advanced programs are each 7 weeks long. All of the workouts are between 5 and 8 sets.

Part 3 contains 15 variations on the pushup that you can use to further challenge yourself, including different positions that you can use and different props that can change how the angle you work out at or the stability of your body while doing the pushup. There are large pictures and step by step instructions for each variation.

The Appendix is split into 4 parts:

• The Warm-Up Routine
• The Post-Workout Stretching Routine
• The Preliminary Program
  (for those not strong enough to do a pushup)
• A Training Log for recording your workouts

The appendix seems rather strange to me, as the preliminary program would make more sense near the start of the book rather than at the end, and the warm up routine and stretching routine should bookend the actual pushup programs.

Of course, if all of those sections were placed earlier in the book, then the pushup routines would not fall near the center of the book and it wouldn’t stay open to the page you want it at when you are working out, which I assume is the reason that they were pushed off to the back.

I enjoyed reading through the book when I first got it, but I am interested in little trivia items related to fitness. If your only interest is in the pushup schedules themselves, I’d still recommend picking up the book.

Will you be able to do 100 consecutive pushups within 7 weeks? That depends upon you and how strong you are at the start of the program and how well you improve throughout. You will certainly be stronger at the end of the program than you were at the start, and if you don’t make it to 100 pushups the first time through then you can always move on to the next advanced program.

How well did the program work for me?

Before I answer that, I’ll go briefly into my own pushup history.

In 2006, I was in relatively good shape. Pushups were a part of my lifting program, but certainly weren’t the bulk of it. One day, I randomly tried to see how many pushups I could do and managed 46 before stopping.

In August of 2008, I hurt my hip pretty bad during a road race and stopped lifting weights for about the next 10 or 11 months. When this book was published, I picked up a copy and decided that I’d use it to get back into shape. On June 29^th, I did 23 pushups in my initial test, which isn’t too bad for having not done any lifting most of the past year and for cutting the test short a little when my wife had me giggling while I was trying to do the pushups. A week later I started the Advanced 1 program in the book.

Over the next 8 weeks (as life got in the way and I took an extra day of rest now and again) I managed to complete every workout, and did at least a few extra pushups at the end of the last set each day. For the most part, I kept going until I was uncomfortable and not until failure, but it was always past the minimum I needed to do so I was happy with it.

The only exceptions were in my last few workouts of the last week, where it was a bit of a struggle to reach the full number of pushups. The only workout I actually failed to complete was the very last one, where I was supposed to do at least 60 pushups in the last set and I got noodly-armed after 57 pushups and could only get about halfway back up on the 58^th. Having done 179 pushups in the previous 7 sets before starting that last set, I expect that when I start the Advanced 2 program next week that I’ll be able to do quite a few more pushups in my final set and will get into the high 70s or low 80s (if not higher).

Now that I’ve been through the program once, I definitely notice a difference in my body. My muscles are a little more defined, and I definitely feel stronger.

I broke my foot halfway through the program and haven’t been able to run for the past 4 weeks or so, and I’ve managed to only lose about 3 pounds in that span of time. (When I stop running, I normally shed weight at 2-3 pounds per week unless I’m sick, in which case I might lose more.)

Have you done the 100 pushups challenge? Have you read the book? Share your experiences or thoughts below if you have. If you are interested in purchasing the book, you can buy the book at Amazon.

If you’re familiar with the book, then you’ll get a kick out of Chris’s appearance on the Daily Show last night (click through for video):

Upon returning to Maine Running Company, Bart signed copies of his book, My Life on the Run and gave away training logs, Runner’s World magazines, Powerade, and pizza. One lucky runner even got a free pair of Saucony running shoes. (They had their tour bus there and were performing gait analysis and shoe fittings.)

Bart told a few jokes and described some of his varied experiences in different races and cultures before settling down to chat with folks individually (video after the jump):

It was a pleasure to finally meet Bart; I had an opportunity back in January but I missed his talk at the expo because of the traffic and he didn’t arrive to the race until after I started and was gone before I finished. (His wife ran the marathon while I ran the 50 miler.)

Have you read My Life on the Run or met Bart before? Share some of your favorite stories in the comments below if so.

Once a Runner will officially be released in the 2^nd quarter of next year, and runners have been waiting for years for the book to be printed again. For a (very) limited time you can get an early copy of the book at the Maine Running Company, as a case of the books has arrived in stock.

If you want to pick up a copy, I recommend that you don’t wait to get over there and buy one. I don’t expect them to last very long.

Patrick Mouser created a series of trailers for the film version of Once a Runner as a design project, but unfortunately they aren’t based on a real film. As John Parker said when he spoke at the Maine Running Company last year, the easiest money he ever made was selling the film rights to the movie every time they expired because nobody ever got around to making it:

I was up to all hours of the night last night (and for the past few nights) writing a letter that describes exactly what is in the book. Printed, it is 13 pages long!

It needed to be that long though for me to describe everything that is in the book. I am also launching a community website along with it.

Tonight, I’m going to bed early, and I will be sleeping well! If you have any interest in running a marathon in the near future, then head on over and pick up a copy of my book: http://www.marathoning.org/marathon-preparation

Have you noticed that your butt is becoming a numb membrane of lipid filled tissue that fits ever so nicely into that comfy chair you spend countless hours in? If so you may be in need of my Blogger Proof Workout. Bloggers spend numerous hours creating content to feed the ever hungry internet and information world. Unfortunately, that process entails tons of sitting and limited physical movement.

The listed exercises can be done in a short duration of time in between your work tasks, and include moving your chair around your office and doing pushups whenever you break your train of thought to answer an email. So not only will he get you into better shape, but he’ll also help you be more productive.

You can download the Blogger Proof Workout for free as a pdf document, or read more about it over at Fat Man Unleashed.

Well, the work is almost done. I have sent out a dozen or so review copies of my manuscript, and I will be spending the weekend doing some final edits and getting my wife’s opinion on what I’ve written. I plan to make the book available for public consumption next week, so stay tuned for more details. In fact, if you join my mailing list you will not only be amongst the first to know about when it is available, but you will also be able to instantly download another book that I wrote a few months ago about the 3 components of an effective workout.

As exhausting as this process has been, it has also been a lot of fun and I can’t wait to share what I’ve written with you. Right now, the word count is standing at a bit over 31,000 words.

Now, there is a New Rules of Lifting for Women. I have not read the book yet, so I do not know how different that it is from the original book. According to Lou Schuler, most workouts that would work for men will also work for women, except that instead of gaining bulk they would just get in shape and look better as women do not have as much testosterone as men do.

Ryan Lee interviewed Lou Schuler last week about writing the book, and they discussed why he wrote it and some of the influences that Schuler had. You can listen to the 12 minute interview at Ryan’s site or by clicking play here:

I am looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of the book to see what the differences are between the original book and the new one, and to see what I should be doing differently when I train my wife. I would also like to see any updates that are included in the book that would be applicable to men as well as to women.

If you have read the book already (which has just been published) then let me know what you thought of it. I will write a full review of it once I have gotten a copy for myself.

Update: You can now read a sample chapter from the book over at the Muscle with Attitude website: Step Away From the Treadmill

A lot of people die in this book, and it seems to be a central theme that propels Quentin Cassidy into his quest for the Olympic Marathon. Not all of the deaths seemed necessary, either.

Not quite as much time is spent on his actual training in Carthage; an entire year is skipped from the end of one chapter to the beginning of the next. There is a more serious but just as comical “court” scene in the book, and it was interesting to find the different stories woven throughout that John Parker had told about his own life when he spoke at Maine Running Company this Summer.

Again to Carthage includes real people in it, unlike Once a Runner which only had fictional versions of real people. I have read in a few reviews that it could be a bit disconcerting as people were taken out of their proper eras and mixed and matched, but I was not given that same sense of discombobulation. First, the real people that appear in the novel are only very minor characters. They do not really impact the story very much.

Second, the peak of their careers were all before my time. I was born in 1980, and the book takes place in the late 1970s. I have only read about or watched taped footage of the people that appear in the book, and those that I have met in person are much older than they were in their prime.

The final race in the novel was a mix of the comical and knowing exactly what it felt like. John Parker has a knack for describing what means to be a runner, and while I’ve never had a race quite like the one in the book I have had individual experiences from it in different races.

The outcome was a little predictable, but I enjoyed the end of the race where he was running from his own ghost. I have had many runs where I thought that somebody was behind me, only to discover that I was running away from my own shadow or footsteps.

I am still looking forward to purchasing a 3^rd copy of Once a Runner, and I think that it is the better book of the two. When I first read it, I was living the life that was being described for Quentin Cassidy. I was a college runner with a college runner’s lifestyle. At the time that I first read Once a Runner, I could envision myself running on the team with Cassidy.

Perhaps in a few years my perspective will have changed and I will be able to relate a little better to Cassidy in Carthage. I haven’t quite reached the same point in my life, but I can certainly imagine it. Fans of the first book are going to enjoy reading Again to Carthage, and I think that it has enough mass market appeal that most people would be able to pick the book up and give it a read through.

I enjoyed reading it, and will certainly read it again. I do not think that I would consider purchasing a 3^rd copy after the first two went walking, though, or that I will read it as many times as I have read Once A Runner. Again to Carthage will make a great holiday gift for any runners that you might know, if they have not already picked a copy of it up.

Table of contents for Information (November)

1. A list of strength training forums
2. The best sources of running advice…
3. Strength Training Books
4. What’s your favorite running forum?

In a continuing collaboration with Scott over at Straight to the Bar, we will be writing about great sources of information for the month of November.

This week, Scott discusses old strength training books.

He divides the books up into rough categories based upon when they were published, and provides suggestions about where to find copies of the books both online and offline.

He includes books from the last couple of hundred years, from the 1970s when the lifting boom really took off, and more modern books from the 1980s through today.

Looking through his list, I only own one of the books but I have read 3 of them.

Are any of the books on your shelf?