10k pushups challenge

On March 3 my old friend told me he was doing 10k pushups for the month of March. He issued the challenge for me to join him and “hundreds” of other people. I was pretty skeptical, as I sat there trying to figure out in my mind how many pushups a day that came out to. And as I sat there looking at him I had to ask “What kind of pushups are you doing?” He said “I’ll show you on the way back to my apartment…” I couldn’t wait.

He proceeded to tell me about a guy who was almost 70 years old who was taking the challenge. This guy hadn’t done any exercise in almost 30 years but was going to try this. I asked if he was going to feel guilty if anyone died.

When guys get together there can be a lot of friendly banter and trash-talk. Any challenge tends to be directed at your manhood and can easily motivate where "lesser encouragement” can fail.

On the walk back to his apartment, he drops down on the sidewalk and demonstrates with 40, bringing the elbows to 90°. I figure 10k of anything is a whole lot.

Just a few years ago my mom was visiting her Aunt Lela who was 92 yrs old. Lela proudly announced she could do 5 pushups and proceeded to do them. I was provoked when I heard and started trying to do 40 a few times a week.

So I decided to jump in and am trying to finish by the end of March. It is amazing how many push-ups you can do if you space them out with a couple minutes in between sets. And in the back of your mind that you’re a wimp if you can't…

I told my oldest son and he said “What? How many is that a day? Are you seriously going to do that?” I think he was thinking the same thing I was thinking about the 70 yr old.

So he decided to join us in the challenge. He seemed to be motivated that if his dad can do it, surely he can. He asked if I had taken before and after pictures and thought that would be cool. No, I didn’t.

If Aunt Lela can do 5 at 92, and Scott can do 10k at 49, then I can do 10k.