Evil Pushups

For all of my life I had skinny arms, even riding horses and roping didn’t change that.  About 4 years ago my dad had me start lifting.  I had been running for the previous 4 years I’d been living in DC but was a very naïve runner and didn’t understand how important lifting/ building and maintaining the rest of your body was.  I told you, this whole fitness thing has been an evolution for me.  He took me to the gym and got me started with a few basics, but stressed the importance of the push up.  Of course if you’ve met my dad, you also know this was followed by a long talk about osteoporosis, women’s health, etc, etc.  And let’s be honest, I sucked at them.  But I kept trying, getting advice and help from friends and trainers on building up.  Eventually got the point where I was doing 3 sets of 20 at the end of each gym session.  And then I met the elbows tucked in, hands under your shoulders push up and it was back to square one.  I understand the reason they are important but they are tough.  And my shoulder is on the mend, making them all that much more awful.  But I work on them, just like anything else because I refuse to get beat by a stupid push up.  And I’m getting there, my arms are no longer what were once described as chicken wings but yet they still can’t rock as many pushups as I’d like.    

 

And now a girlfriend has put down the 100 pushups challenge.  It’s a 6 week plan to get you to do 100 consecutive pushups.  First I love that the whole group of girls is all in on doing this.  But right after that, I’m kind of freaked out by having to tackle the one thing that I am stagnant with.  And by stagnant I’m convinced I might actually be regressing.  As much as I put myself out there, it’s all a calculated decision because I’m not so keen on failing.  But I’m doing it.  Tomorrow is our baseline test.  And then it begins.  In theory I’ll be starting out the new year by knocking out 100 consecutive pushups….