If I was going to pick ONE exercise as my arbitrary goal I think it would be burpees (squat-thrusts). Not sure if I’d target an absolute number in 2 minutes or how long it would take to do 100 though. Or maybe Turkish Get Ups?
You including a pushup in your squat-thrust? And a jump? (Damn - I hate burpees more than I hate pushups!)
Yeah, that’s probably better than push-ups alone. I guess I was comparing them to something like a single weight lift - like benching. What is that good for other than making you good at benching? 
IIRC, a local guy was recently going for the world record in burpees. Some insane number.
Another thing, one MA instructor I had included pushups in the warmup. But his thing was that you should never be able to do more than 12. So he had all kinds of ways to make them harder: diamond hands, elevate legs, ankles crossed, 1-arm… Just thought it was a kinda interesting approach.
The phrase was “fairly long, lean build.”
I think doing 50 is a pretty good challenge if you can only do 7 or 8 right now. Getting to 100 is a Jack LaLane-level accomplishment, which isn’t saying you can’t do it: the human will can accomplish A LOT. But, it’s like being 6-foot and having a goal of dunking a basketball… versus touching the top of the backboard.
(I can’t say how far you’d get if you rested during the count; I wouldn’t count it as legit, but YMMV.)
At my strongest – which wasn’t quite elite, but pretty good: weight 185, bench press max 365 – I think I maybe got 60 pushups in one set. Even though I didn’t focus on stamina I still had very good stamina. Tacking on another 40, forget it. That’s almost twice as much. There are just limitations.
Umm, if you want to mix in PED’s…
The op phrase was precisely:
Yes Dinsdale full burpees.
The advantage of the bench as its PART of complete strength training is that it is easy to be progressive in resistance. Your instructors creative approaches show push ups can be that but it takes some additional thought.
Sorry - I fear I am belaboring a minor point, but I guess my emphasis is on the first part of the quote. A complex motion - such as burpees, exercises various groups and gives both aerobic and an-. Push-ups are good for what they do, but I think most folk would acknowledge that they are only PART of a complete workout.
I recall hearing/reading that Herschel Walker did not lift weights, but instead, simply did insane numbers of push-ups and sit-ups. I imagine I either heard incorrectly or my source was mistaken, but my personal belief is that a limited number of cals, in addition to regular aerobic work, can satisfy most people’s exercise needs with no need for expensive equipment, trainers, or gym membership. JMO
I don’t think we are disagreeing. And that is what motivates the asking why this was chosen as THE goal, rather than one that is more all over strength and also aerobic/anaerobic capacity.
It has never been clear to me exactly what Walker did and did not do other than that it was body weight, but I doubt all he did was an insane number of straight forward push-ups and sit-ups. As that instructor demonstrated, body weight can be progressive resistance too. It just requires some thought about it.
I agree that even if one’s goals are exclusively strength focused a single lift is not enough. “Whaddaya bench?” is far less meaningful than a powerlifter’s combined total.
Anyway I found online a goal of doing 100 burpees in 12 minutes as a target. Tried it this morning. Not. Even. Close. So I am not stopping my other stuff but I am going to see if I can get to beating that. Anyone else want to join me? OP?
This was the local guy I had heard about. 10,000+ in 24 hours! Googling suggests it was since surpassed. :smack:
I’m an old fart, so I just focus on keeping the carcass moving. Bike and swim 2x each per week. My “goal” is to supplement that with a “reasonable” number of pushups/crunches" (several sets of 20-ish). Yeah, I know they may not be the best, but in my book, the most effective exercise is the one you can convince your lazy ass to actually DO! 
Right now, I’m not even doing my sets of 10 each. :o
I was responding to a different post, not the OP.
gdave’s- which was disputing my post that the op’s “somewhat skinny” build gave him somewhat of a head start to this specific goal based on his anecdotal experience as someone with “a fairly long, lean build”.
Dinsdale, no argument. And FWIW I am an older fart than you!