My buddy Jed and I were looking at the goals board at the gym back in May and noticed somebody had written 1,500 total push-ups as that month’s goal. I’m unclear on the details after that, kind of like that time I drank a bunch of wine and tequila sunrises in Sardinia and I may or may not have ended up singing karaoke and swimming in the pool in my underpants before absolutely wrecking the bathroom and lying in the shower, trying to remember the word for ambulance in Italian, but Jed said later that I had committed to doing 1,500 push-ups during the month of June.
I had started doing regular push-ups, no modifications, a month or two prior, so I thought, “All right. Why not?” Granted, I could do only about four or five that looked decent before they morphed into something akin to a really bad and slow break-dancing move, but whatever. Fifty a day. I’d get really good at them.
I averaged fifty a day for nine days before I started being really grumpy about it. My upper back and shoulders felt like I’d been in a really violent car wreck. That’s when Coach Phil was all, “Yeah, you’re supposed to rest, dumbass.” Actually, he was much nicer to me than that and even drew graphs to show that I was not doing myself any favors with my current regimen. But I realized he was right and called myself a dumbass. I took the day after that off, and—miracle of miracles!—my push-ups the following day were EASY.
So periodically, I’ve rested, once for two days in a row, and I’ve done up to 124 in a day. A lot of them still look ugly, I’m not gonna lie. And the only reason I’ve done them is because I made this ridiculous pact with Jed. (Thanks, Jed!)
But it’s June 28, and, people, I have 151 push-ups to reach 1,500. Now’s when you cheer me on.
<3
Hell yeah! you got it! GO AMY, GO AMY, GO, GO GO AMY! You have inspired me to make that my July goal :)
Go, Army, go! Wait. That’s not right. Go, Amy, go! That’s much better.
Don’t forget to count the pushups you don in burpees (if you are doing them correctly)! Today’s WOD will help you on your way!
I know you can do 151 push ups by the 30th. Of course you can. I know you will! YES!!!! Go get em Amy..
YOU CAN DO EET!!!!!! i’m so proud of you!!!!!
go amy go! then you can say to your kid someday “i did 50 pushups in that rest area . . .”
Finished the last push-up at 6:30pm EST last night! Woot! Thanks for all the encouragement, y’all.
(And, Margo, it’ll be, “Ah, the Red Roof Inn in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Where I did ten push-ups in the parking lot.”)
Your inspiration on this was my beloved. Jayme started the month of may aiming for a thousand pushups, and then decided by the second day that 1000 pushups in a month is for weaklings, and upped it to 1500. She was thrilled to see a couple people on the board this month aiming for 1500. :-)
Your beloved is a total badass, Cliff Dyer. And you are very strong. Coach Phil can’t stop talking about it.
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