Bodybuilding is a constant struggle of working on what you want versus what you need.
You may need to work on your calves, legs, and rear delts, but what you really want is a big chest. Luckily for you, it doesn’t take that much extra time to build a great chest. In fact, all you need is about five minutes per day and zero equipment.
I’ve always seemed to have opposite problems of most guys. My legs have always been my strongest part of my body, but my upper body is where I was screwed genetically; especially my chest.
Five years into training, and I had built a body that I was proud of (as long as you weren’t looking at my chest). I knew I had to do something about it because training it 2–3 times per week wasn’t cutting it. It seemed like the rest of my body would grow, and my chest would just sit back and say, “It’s OK guys, you go on without me.”
About six years ago, that all changed. I was visiting the Canadian Military Base near my hometown, and I noticed one thing: Everyone had a great set of pecs. At that moment, I felt both smart for my discovery and stupid for not figuring it out sooner: pushups.
When the military is training, they do pushups—lots of them. They do them every day. I’m sure they do them so much that they are doing them in their dreams. So I set out with a plan.
I did pushups every day for three months straight. In that time I made more progress on my chest than I had in the past three years. It was insanely satisfying. That’s where the 5-Minute Pushup Challenge was born.
The 5-minute pushup challenge
On day 1, I want you to do as many pushups as possible. Rest 60 seconds, then do another set of as many pushups as possible. You are only to count full range of motion pushups. As soon as you start to fatigue and lose your form, you’re done. Record the number of full range of motion pushups you completed. This is your starting point.
For example, if you were able to do 20 perfect pushups your first set, and then 13 perfect pushups your second set, then your total number for that day is 20+13 = 33. Once you have this number, you will do one more pushup every day for 90 days. So on day 2, you’ll do 34 pushups, day 3 you ‘ll do 35 pushups, day 4 you’ll do 36 pushups, and so on.
Here’s the protocol. Do as many pushups as possible (with perfect form). Rest 60 seconds, and do as many pushups as possible with perfect form. Rest another 60 seconds and keep going until you’ve hit your total number of reps for that day. This shouldn’t take longer than five minutes per day.
I challenge you to do this routine for 90 days straight in addition to your current gym workouts. If you love it, keep going with it and extend it for 180 days. The beauty of the program is that you can stop when you’re happy with your chest size. One thing you should know is that this is not a substitute for what you do in the gym, it’s simply an accelerator. Use the workout above, and I guarantee in 90 days, you’ll have a bigger, wider, and stronger chest.
