Q: I have my 8 yr old son using your marvelous Combat Conditioning for Kids book, he loves it so much he sleeps with it. Not kidding. Anyway, I don’t want him to overdue it, so I’m wondering what is the maximum number of pushups he should do in a day? Your answer is appreciated.
Will
A: Will, I’m happy to hear your son sleeps with the cartoon images of el Furecat. Reminds me of all the boys who sleep with their brand new football, basketball or baseball bat.
As for the maximum number of reps to do per day, that’s a trick question. If your son wasn’t doing anything before, he can benefit from one pushup per day, assuming that’s all he can do. But once he gets stronger, he can easily upgrade to 10, 25 and so on.
When I was 14, per the advice of Ken Nurse, the older brother of my friend, NBA Head Coach Nick Nurse – (yes, we’re from the same hometown) I began doing pushups each day in sets of 25. Ken told me to do sets of 25 throughout the day until that number got easier. When it did, he advised doing sets of 50 pushups at a time. I would do them during the commercials of ballgames as well as throughout the day. After a few months of this, I was doing over 1,000 pushup per day.
With a young boy of 8, it’s not so much about the maximum number of reps. It’s more about making sure he’s enjoying himself as he does his exercises. If he’s using the card deck, (aka the Matt Furey Exercise Bible) that comes with the book, the workout will be fun, challenging and invigorating. Once he has sufficient strength, he could surprise you at how many reps he can do without being sore whatsoever the next day. The young chaps recover faster than mom and dad, that’s for sure. When my son was 8, it wasn’t uncommon for him to do a few hundred pushups in a single workout with the cards.
Keep me posted on your son’s progress.
Matt Furey
[To get your copy of Combat Conditioning for Kids and the free card deck known as the Matt Furey Exercise Bible click here. Yes, the program works for adults as well, but if you want pictures of the exercises with a real person, not a cartoon character, then you may prefer a copy of the old black and white version of Combat Conditioning. My goodness, you might even want the original DVDs that ride along with it. Yikes!]