Skip to main content

Drop and Give Me 10

Push ups.....does anyone else feel like a deformed, broken worm doing these?

Push ups bring back old elementary school PE class trauma because I've never been able to do an actual, on my toes push up until this past year. So why this year? The hubs and I decided to be more active. Go to the Y, take hikes, bike around town and try to do these things together. And a big part of this for me was to work in strength training in addition to cardio and running. I just don't see any positive changes in my body (i.e. increased endurance, clothes in the closet fitting) unless I'm lifting weights which is the reason I can now do these stupid, wonderful, frustrating things called push ups.

Back to PE class, I remember being about seven or eight and performing group exercises with my class. Our PE teacher would call out different exercises, and I loathed when he said push ups. This is where the deformed, broken worm analogy came to me. After that, I've always just completed push ups on my knees or skipped them in a workout altogether.

But I knew when I was making this list, that I could push myself to the 10 classic push up style mark. My physical list items are definitely the most intimidating, but this first hurdle completed gives me some hope.

But here's the disclaimer. I went back and forth on whether I would post this video of me completing the push ups or not. You'd trust me that I completed the list item if I just told you, right? I really don't want my struggle to do 10 push ups to be on the internet forever or become some awful meme. But I finally decided to post it for someone else who may be struggling with or trying to set a fitness goal. It's worth it. Are my push ups perfect? Nope. Does my nose touch the ground and back up? Um....that's a big nope. But it's my current best version of a push up, and I can do about 10 of them. It's leaps and bounds better than a year ago, and I hope it continues to get better. So for everyone that can go and beast out a bunch of push ups without breaking a sweat, kuddos for you. 

Here's how the rest of us do it - https://vimeo.com/149169540

(Note: Breaking form on number 10 about brought tears, but I think it makes it more real. Hence, why I posted this video versus a redo another day.)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

And The Journey Begins

29.....it got here a lot quicker than I thought it would. Looking back over those 29 years (and yes I know that's not a lot comparatively and I hope to have many, many more years for adventures and experiences), there are many things I'm happy to reminisce about. A great childhood with loving parents, playing softball and experiencing life with my sister, attending the University of Tennessee, completing an undergraduate and master's degree by 24, making life-long friends, marrying my best friend Chance and finding ourselves currently living in, working for and loving the Best Town Ever .  There are also thoughts of missed opportunities, what if's and heartbreaks in those 29 years; the biggest of which is the loss of my father in 2007. But as I got closer to my 29th birthday, I realized that I wanted a challenge. And I of course could have picked a goal, a race, a task to strive for....but to all those that know me, I'm a bit of an over-achiever. So, I decided to

Eat All the Veggies

I love to cook. Preparing meals is not stressful for me; it's my time to relax and unwind in the evening and a way I show others that I care. But, I could go without doing the dishes. And for the month of June, I ate and cooked exclusively vegetarian. One of the reasons I wanted to try being vegetarian for a month was the challenge it would present in cooking. A big thank you to  all my social media friends for sharing your vegetarian recipes, favorite bloggers, staple ideas and quick non-meat dishes that you enjoy. Below are some of the suggested items that I also enjoyed: Slow Cooker Enchilada Orzo   Pizza Quinoa Casserole Quorn Products I'm not a big fan of meat substitutes, but these were good. Tofu and seitan make me want to throw up.  Grilled Zucchini Hummus Wraps Zucchini Meatballs - LOVED these! Put artichokes, havarti cheese and pesto onto some fancy bread and make a panini.  Cookie and Kate (blog) The First Mess (blog) Naturally Ella (blog)  And f

Light My Fire

Remember old TV westerns and lost in the wild style movies when someone needs to start a fire they just go grab two rocks, strike them together and maybe in two tries they have a fire? Well, I tried something similar and it took more than two tries. Don't ask me how I came up with this list idea item. Maybe I saw a Man vs Wild promo and thought "What survival skills should I know before 30?" Or maybe I was trying to channel my inner Katniss and didn't have time to master archery in a year. Regardless, starting a fire with flint made its way onto the list. Like any other 29 year old, the first thing I did when preparing for this was visit my trusty, know it all friend Google. And the nuances I found were both entertaining and strange. There were many fire starter purists that gave examples of how to make our own char cloth, the pros and cons of u shaped versus c shaped steel strikers and preferences on the type of flint family rock to use. Here's one example