Now that you clarified your point, I don't disagree. Push-ups have serious limitations with regard to strength training, of course, since it's really difficult

Now that you clarified your point, I don't disagree. Push-ups have serious limitations with regard to strength training, of course, since it's really difficult to increase resistance. (I've toyed with the idea of rigging a special backpack and putting weight plates in it.) For a beginning trainee, especially a sedentary person trying to get fit, I think that a hundred push-up program is a safe and easy way to start. I certainly don't think such a program is "laughable"; it'll produce noticeable good results in a fairly short period of time. Those gains will hopefully encourage the trainee to begin strength training with free weights. In general, I personally prefer to be able to do 100 push-ups (one set), 25 pull-ups (one set), 100 sit-ups (one set), and then run 5 miles — resting no more than a couple of minutes in between — and I'm willing to sacrifice some strength gains for it. I'm still working on hitting that goal. :)