I was inspired by the CBers that have been doing 100 pushups a day. I am not in terrible shape, but I had not done pushups or much fitness since last summer. On June 15 I took up a less challenging goal of 50 pushup per day and I have been happy with the results so far. On day 1, I did the 50 pushups over several sets within about 15 minutes. It was brutal--I struggled to get them all in and my form on the last few was pretty poor. The next few days my body ached and I actually thought I had injured my right tricep due to the pain. Nevertheless, I pushed through and did several sets of 10 throughout the day at work in my office.

During week two, the pain had subsided and I could do a set of 15 pretty easily, so I bumped my daily efforts to 4-5 sets of 15 every couple hours before work and at work. Last week, I would include a set of 20 at least once a day, but I was still stretching out my pushups through the day at work.

On Monday, after 3 full weeks of doing between 50-100 pushups per day throughout the day, I did 50 pushups in less than 10 mins (3 sets - 25, 15, 10). I've now done that every morning this week. If you had told me after day 1 that in less than 1 month I would be able to pound out a good set of 25 pushups without stopping, collapsing, or sacrificing form, I wouldn't have believed you. I'm actually surprised at how quickly my fitness level has improved over the last few weeks. I also started running on 6/15--I ran/walked 1.87 miles at an average pace of 11:42. This morning I ran 3.37 miles without stopping at an average pace of 8:56. And I feel great.

I'm sure this sounds pretty lame compared to what many of you are able to to do at your fitness level, but I wanted to share because I'm sure there are some of you that can't do 10 pushups--maybe not even 1. You have to start somewhere. It sucks and may be painful at first, but if you start slow, don't expect too much, push yourself to improve (even just a little), and persevere, you can reach your goals. It's worth it.