I’ve committed to doing the 100 Days of Pushups Challenge and when I mentioned it on Facebook, lots of you wanted to make the commitment too.
So I thought about creating a Facebook group to keep us all on track. But you know what? I struggle to keep a page going, let alone a group. I’m not really a group person, truth be told. I don’t even like having to go to work meetings. Forgodssake, just send me an email. My colleagues love me. (Not really.)
Then I thought I could create a daily email trigger to remind everyone who signs up to do their pushups. But I hate emails like that myself, so I didn’t want to clog up your inbox with naggy emails you don’t really need or want.
Then I thought I might do a weekly progress post to (a) keep me on track and (b) remind you to keep on track. But my eyes glazed over just thinking about writing, let alone reading, a weekly update on pushups. Pushups, forgodssake.
So, here we are. I’ve revved you up into action and yet I’m unable to keep you firing along. I’ve made you sign up for something that doesn’t really exist. And yet…
Just do the f-ing pushups.
Same time every day, if that’s what works for you: That totally doesn’t work for me. I have to spontaneously want to do the pushups for me to do the pushups. So far, day one I did them the minute I found the 100 days of pushups challenge in the morning (4.5 pushups) and day 2 it was 10 minutes before going to bed (5 pushups). And day 3, today, I just did them during the sentence I just wrote – between writing “before” and writing “going to bed” (5 pushups).
You can do the ‘building everyday’ pushups thing: One pushup on day 1, two pushups on day 2, three on day 3… building to doing 100 pushups on day 100 (and then every day after that if you’re clever). I didn’t start out doing it this way (see above), but just now I decided that I’m going to start doing it this way. Tomorrow I will do 4 pushups.
You can start now or start 1 March if you prefer ‘clean’ starts: But, honestly, just start now. Right now.
You can like it if you want: I don’t. I have hated every second of the 14.5 pushups I have done in the past 3 days. But so what. This is something we do, not something we enjoy. Think of it as building a beneficial habit and put it in the brushing-my-teeth category.
You can video yourself doing the pushups: This is sooooooooooooooooo not for me. But how cute and motivating is this:
Check your form
I’m not a doctor (I think that’s abundantly clear), so if you think you ought to check with a doctor before doing this challenge, please do that.
Make sure you’re doing each and every pushup properly, right from the beginning. Scott Malin can show you how:
One pushup with correct form is better than lots of saggy pushups. Or those ‘halfups’ that I am prone to doing, where you just dip your body down a little bit and up again. Don’t do halfups.
I’m a reasonably strong person, but I weigh 1527 kilos, so it’s very hard to lift my body weight. To help me out with the 100 pushups in 100 days, I’m also going to try to get lighter as I go. Stronger me, lighter me. That 100 is feeling totally doable.
I wish you well on your 100 pushups challenge! Leave a comment below to publicly declare your intention to smash the challenge. PM me on Facebook if you want to check in with your progress.
Just do the f-ing pushups!
Terri Lynn Hart says
Push-ups? Hmmmmm…I’ll have to think about that. Of all my physical fitness goals that has never been one of them. BUt, maybe it would be a good one for me, being as I have weak shoulders/arms/upper body… hmmm… an intriguing idea! Thanks!
Cat @ life through the haze says
I am doing them on my knees (you know girly ones) for now until I get stronger so I am doing 10 a day on my knees. I am hopeful that by about day 15 I will be strong enough to do 5 proper ones but if not I will keep going on my knees until I can do 5 proper ones!
Sam Stone says
I am also squatting and planking every day too….so when I brush my teeth I squat…then I plank for as long as I can and then I do my push-up (that is right, at the moment it is singular)
Romi says
Great idea Bron,
Let’s do it. Kick some push-up butt.