Can You Get Buff Doing 100 PUSH UPS a Day for 7 MONTHS?

What Does BUFF Mean?

To answer the title question of this article, let’s first define the word buff so that we are all on the same page. I looked up buff on Urban Dictionary. This is how it is defined:

A person that has big/huge muscles and good looks

– Urban Dictionary

I also considered the Buff Dudes, and awesome YouTube Channel that helped me lose over 100 lbs. over the years. You can read my very first blog article, Feeling Fat? These YouTube Channels Helped Me Lose Over 100 lbs., to see who else has inspired and motivated me throughout the years. Back on topic, they define buff using the following acronym:

B.U.F.F. = Better Understanding of Food and Fitness

– Buff Dudes

So, can you get buff doing 100 push ups a day for 7 months?

Honestly, it depends on so much more than just doing 100 push ups every day. If we are just talking about your chest and shoulders, then sure, you could get bigger and more buff! If we are talking about your entire physique, however, then this becomes an incomplete training routine. This also fails to address your weight and body fat percentage, which is important for your good looks.

All that being said, I did do 100 push ups every day for the last 7 months. Let’s take a look at my before and after results to see how much more buff I have become, and how you can achieve even better results than I did…

Consult a Professional

Push ups are a physical exercise. Training the same muscle groups every day is intense. Seven months is a long time. Consult your personal doctor, physical therapist, or personal trainer before beginning a training routine of this intensity, volume, and duration. This article is intended to inspire and entertain, not to replace professional advice.

Results After 100 Push Ups A Day for 7 Months

You are about to see eight progress photos taken over the course of seven months. Here are the dates for each photo as a reference point:

  • Day 1: June 15, 2019
  • Month 1: June 15, 2019 – July 14, 2019 (30 days)
  • Month 2: June 15, 2019 – August 14, 2019 (61 days)
  • Month 3: June 15, 2019 – September 14, 2019 (92 days)
  • Month 4: June 15, 2019 – October 14, 2019 (122 days)
  • Month 5: June 15, 2019 – November 14, 2019 (153 days)
  • Month 6: June 15, 2019 – December 14, 2019 (183 days)
  • Month 7: June 15, 2019 – January 14, 2020 (214 days)

I weighed myself on each of these dates to track how my weight changed over time. I use these numbers to manage my weight, and to see how weight affects my buffness. Here are the official numbers which correspond to each of the photos below:

  • Jun. 15, 2019: 198 lbs. (90.0 kgs.)
  • Jul. 14, 2019: 184.8 lbs. (84 kgs.)
  • Aug. 14, 2019: 184.1 lbs. (83.7 kgs.)
  • Sep. 14, 2019: 187.2 lbs. (85.1 kgs.)
  • Oct. 14, 2019: 186.6 lbs. (84.8 kgs.)
  • Nov. 14, 2019: 183.5 lbs. (83.4 kgs.)
  • Dec. 14, 2019: 189.7 lbs. (86.2 kgs.)
  • Jan. 14, 2020: 184.6 lbs. (83.9 kgs.)

It will be tempting to quickly look at each of the photos and move on. It may also be tempting to just look at the results from Day 1 and Month 7. That’s fine.

However, I also encourage you to look at the weights for each month. Try to find months that have similar weights, then compare my physiques in each picture. You might see that even though my weight is the same, my physique is very different. That has to do with a decrease in body fat percentage, or simply, more muscle and less fat. Have some fun with this…

Before and After Photos from Each Month:

Day 1 – 198 lbs.
Month 1 – 184.8 lbs.
Month 2 – 184.1 lbs.
Month 3 – 187.2 lbs.
Month 4 – 186.6 lbs.
Day 153 – 183.5 lbs.
Month 6 – 189.7 lbs.
Month 7 – 184.6 lbs.

Before and After Photos from Day 1 to Month 7:

So, am I buff yet?!?

I will leave that judgement to you. What I will confirm is that I do have bigger muscles now than I did seven months ago. I will also confirm, I think objectively, that I look better now than I did seven months ago. I also have a better understanding of health and fitness. Therefore, based on the definitions that we established at the beginning of this article:

Doing 100 push ups a day for seven months caused me to be more buff!

– Fat, Broke and Stupid

It can do the same for you, if…

The Results are NOT Only from Push Ups

This article is about push ups and my chest. Still, I’m sure you can see that other parts of my physique improved over the last seven months, too. For example:

  • I lost 13.4 lbs. over this seven-month period! That’s about 2 lbs. a month. That’s about 0.5 lbs. per week. Those are slow and steady numbers if averaged out. They are sustainable. Over time, they become more noticeable. I did not starve myself; rather, I improved my understanding of food and applied it consistently over a long period of time. NOTE: My own weight loss was not linear like this. I lost most of the weight in the first month and have been maintaining that weight loss since then. Linear or non-linear, I have kept is off, which is the most important and challenging part in my opinion.
  • Diet is as important as the daily push up training! Seriously, I could have gotten bigger and stronger by eating more, but then you would not have seen my muscles as defined as they are now. Additionally, my better (not perfect, but better) nutrition fueled my muscle recovery and growth. It also kept me happy as I enjoyed what I ate. Do not neglect diet and nutrition on the road to getting more buff. It’s part of the definition, after all!
  • Train more than just your chest! Yes, this is a chest and push up article. But did you see how much better my abdominals and core muscles look?!? That was not from doing 100 push ups every day. I trained my whole body along with my daily push ups. Getting buff requires training more than hitting just one muscle group. Symmetry is important in having a buff body, so hit all of the muscle groups while you also doing your push ups every day. Training only push ups will make your chest and shoulder bigger and stronger, but it will neglect the rest of your body and make you look unsymmetrical. That is not buff.
  • Get plenty of rest! Muscles do not grow in the gym. They grow during periods of rest. I got plenty of high-quality sleep during the last seven months. I made it a priority. I also got plenty of rest between my sets of push ups. I tried to always keep in mind that this is a marathon, not a sprint, so to speak. Small changes, done consistently over long periods of time, can make for big changes. Rest is an important part of that process.  
  • Develop a routine! Ask the buffest people you know when they go to the gym. I can almost guarantee you that the answer will include the word always. For example: I always train in the morning. When your training and nutrition become a routine, or habit, it is so much easier to stay focused and to perform your 100 push ups every day. If you have to think about it, you are less likely to do it. If it is just something you automatically do, you will probably do it without even thinking about it. I happen to train in the morning. Every morning. The days I do not train in the morning are the most difficult because my routine is thrown off and I have to think again. Don’t think, just do…
  • Have a reward system! Every day, when I finish my 100 push ups, I put a smiley face sticker on my calendar. Seeing those stickers is a great source of pride for me. If a day were every to go by and I did not put that smiley face sticker on my calendar I would be devastated. Seeing it grow and get bigger, however, brings me so much joy. You do not need to do the same, but having some sort of reward system for yourself should not go underrated.  
Each smiley face = 100 push ups. And no, that is not English!

The Jack Clancy YouTube Channel

Now that you finished reading this article, I would be thrilled if you would check out my Jack Clancy YouTube Channel. Click that link and see what content I have already published. Watch my Month 7 Push Up Update video here:

Remember to hit the subscribe button and the notification bell. By doing that, you will get all of my monthly update videos sent to you directly as soon as they are published.

Learn More About This Challenge

Get even more updates and information at my 100 Push Ups A Day for One Year website page. See how my body looks currently, and get direct access to all of my blog articles, YouTube videos, and more…

Jack Clancy

Everything I do is focused on this concept: "To inspire personal change, so that together we can become the people we wish to be."

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