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Pushupdate
So, we’ve completed week two of the Hundred Pushup Challenge. And I’m feeling stronger for about five minutes a day, followed by feeling much, much tireder with wobbly muscles for the other 23 hours.
Today was the second test in the program – to find out how many more pushups I can stand to do now. I started at 20, and with this morning’s test, I’m only up to 25, which means I’m going into week three in the second group. Fine, but I expected more progress. I can now stand to do more sets than I’d ever attempted before, so I just assumed my starting set would be higher.
Not making you want to try this, am I?
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Who wants muscles?
I like to feel healthy, so I’ve recently changed my mind about working out. Where I used to believe in all or nothing (kill yourself with a long, drenching run or you’re a cockroach) I have fallen in love with moderation and the easy, daily workout, which means that I actually do one.
It all boils down to this: just do something everyday.
And since I’ve faced facts: I’m not going to be able to live with fewer than one hundred things, I’m committing to something I know I can figure out how to do: one hundred consecutive pushups.
I never thought of myself as a weak little girl until Eric suggested I do a few pushups two years ago, and I promptly embarrassed myself. Sure, I was able to pump out a few “girl pushups,” but I saw him pressing out one-legs, one-arms, and triangles, and I wanted to do it too.
But it took lying on the cold hardwood, frustrated and unable to push myself up above an inch at full stretch, to realize that I needed to learn how to do it, just like any other skill. So, we started with reverse pushups.
A few months ago, the Times decided to focus on this essential exercise, and in Drop and Give Me Twenty they asked New Yorkers if they could, right there on the street. Many admitted defeat without even trying. And at the time, the best I could’ve done without a gun to my head was ten.
The push-up is the ultimate barometer of fitness. It tests the whole body, engaging muscle groups in the arms, chest, abdomen, hips and legs. It requires the body to be taut like a plank with toes and palms on the floor. The act of lifting and lowering one’s entire weight is taxing even for the very fit.
I can now do twenty consecutive (again, no gun) so I’m starting the one hundred pushups program in group three, and my six weeks begins tomorrow. I’ll post updates to keep me honest, and maybe some photos of [proper and] different forms to keep me entertained. (I really hate straight pushups).
Now you do it, too. Come on, go. Yeah, you.