Bodyweight workouts are the best. They’re simple, easy, and you can do them literally anywhere.
I’ve been traveling a lot this summer (Barcelona, Berlin, Portland, San Diego, Boulder, Denver, LA, Flagstaff, Bangkok and now Chiang Mai) and I’ve been much better about finding a gym as soon as I get my bearings in a place, but bodyweight workouts are still a lifesaver when I don’t have time to pick up something heavy.
On top of that, I love gamifying life and otherwise everyday experiences (adventure roulette, workstation popcorn and Atlantic challenge) into life-improvement tools. So, when I’m able to find the intersection of the 2 (gamified tools + bodyweight fitness) and add improvised torture devices, I get pretty excited.
Enter: The Pushup Grid
The pushup grid is a torture device from the mind of Bobby Maximus of Gym Jones. If you don’t know who he is, I highly recommend you listen to my interview with him right here.
The idea is that you don’t need any money, equipment or excuses to get a kickass workout in. You just need a sheet of paper and a pen. That’s all.
Interested? Let’s get started.
The Pushup Grid is super simple.
Step 1: Draw a grid on a piece of paper, like a tic-tac-toe box
You can make as many boxes as you like. The more boxes, the harder the workout.
Step 2: Do pushups. With each set, fill in a box. Your goal is to fill out the boxes with sets of pushups.
That’s it.
In the words of Bobby Maximus:
People keep asking about the push-up grid. Make a grid with as many boxes as you want. Throughout the day fill in boxes with push ups. Easy.
— Bobby Maximus (@BobbyMaximus) September 6, 2014
#boom
Pushup Grid Tips
If you’re making your very first pushup grid – here are a few tips to get you started.
- Start small – don’t make a 30×30 grid if you’re struggling with 10 pushups. Start small and be consistent.
- Don’t sacrifice quality. If you have to, space the grid filling throughout the day – but make sure the pushups you do are GOOD!
- Add this on top of your current workout. Treat this like “dessert.” Make sure you get in your meat and potatoes, then use this as a “finisher” to top it all off 🙂
- Want to really supercharge your pushup capabilities? Make this a daily habit. If you do, 100 pushups will be easy.
- If you’re traveling, this is the perfect airport exercise. Ignore your surroundings, bust out your notebook, throw on some music and get to work.
Your Fitness Challenge For The Day
Knock out a pushup grid RIGHT NOW.
Draw a grid and get to work.
If you do, take a photo and tag it with @impossibleheadquarters and #pushupgrid. Feel free to link to your post in the comments.
Bonus Ideas:
- For extra fun, make each set for every day in the month.
- Make it a full body workout by doing this with any bodyweight exercise (pullups, squats, lunges etc)
- Or, pick your age and fill that in. You can see Bobby’s “birthday edition” of the pushup grid here:
Now, let me know your grid looks like in the comments. Here’s mine => [link]
I think creating this sort of a “grid” is a good idea. I’m just wondering – if all exercise you ever do is pushups, won’t it be too much focus on certain parts of body and not enough focus on others? This grid will fill a good part of your day and won’t leave much room for any other exercises. What’s your take on this?
Read the full post. It’s not supposed to be your only exercise – you can use it as a “bonus” or additional workout. You can also use the same technique but with squats, or other bodyweight workouts.
Sucks that I can’t do pushups right now since I recently had a dislocated shoulder again… Will certainly do this when I’m recovered.
Nice idea! I realize I can actually apply it anywhere and not just with workouts! Definitely giving going to it a try