What I learned doing 5,040* push-ups in a month
Lesson one: Bigger goals are actually easier
I have no idea why this is the case, but I’ve tried so many times to do exercise regularly in the past, I would be able to keep up with it for 2 to 3 days, at best I would be able to manage a week, but then I would forget, get too busy or have some other reason/excuse and stop.
The size of the goal and the challenge itself gave me a certain level of focus, it was about the bigger picture of doing 5000 push-ups in the month, if I miss a day or two, I know I would regret it later, so I just did them. 20 here, 30 there, slowly I managed to build up the numbers
Lesson two: Breaking the goal down helps
I decided to start this challenge in February which only had 28 days and dividing that by 5,000 is roughly 180 pushups in a day, I know with my fitness level, I should be able to manage around 30 pushups at a time without too much suffering, that’s 6 sets a day. All of a sudden that doesn’t sound as scary, a set in the morning, a set before lunch… etc it kept me going
Lesson three: It helps to include backup plans
Since my goal is to do 5,000 in February and not 180 a day, it’s ok to miss a set or two, I feel like I should be able to catch back up. As long as I get an average of 180 a day, it's actually OK. Comparing this to before where soon as I missed the goal for one day, I immediately lose the will to continue. This plan allowed me to recover
Lesson four: Have a clear end goal in mind
Doing push-ups just for February meant I just have to do this thing for 28 days. It’s not forever, that makes it much more manageable.
If I were able to build up a positive exercise routine, that would be a lovely bonus, but not a must.
Lesson five: Measure
I learned very earlier on I cannot possibly rely on my memory to keep track of how many I have done, so I simply write it all down, this had the added bonus of encouraging to see how far I’ve been. There are also plenty of apps out there to help you keep track of habits, but I didn’t want the extra reason for picking up my phone and end up getting distracted instead of doing more push-ups.
Lesson six: Keep it interesting
A change is as good as a rest. I started to get a bit sore and frankly bored after the first few days, so I started playing around with different types of push-ups, such as hand placements, putting my feet up on a chair, spider-man push-ups, having my kid on my back… etc, it kept it interesting and challenging that way.
Lesson seven: Rest days
I had to skip a day or two due to family commitments, of course this meant the number of push-ups I had to do in subsequent days went up, but considering how much better my body would feel after these unplanned rest days, I think it’s actually worth it.
If I were to do these types of silly challenges again, I would definitely plan better and include rest days.
Benefit
The obvious benefits from doing this challenge is of course I am physically stronger now, my arms are much firmer and are even a bit bigger. It’s also a pretty nice feeling to know I can do something like this when I put my mind to it.
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**The figure itself is not supposed to be impressive, I’m sure there are plenty of individuals out there who can do this with relative ease. That’s not really the point of the story. I just wanted something that I felt would be challenging yet remotely feasible.
