December 2012 I started doing 100 push ups every day – yes yes, I should say press ups being English, but I don’t). I was intrigued by an eBook selling the idea of 100 daily pushups as a ‘system’. Being the skinflint tightwad that I am, I decided to create my own, i.e. just start doing it.
36,500 pushups is yes, 100 per day for 365 days. Here’s what I learnt from the experiment.
1.
I put things off till I have to do them, but I do do them. And I’m ok with that.
Due to work, family and existing concerns, finding time to do the pushups was hard at first. I tried sneaking in 10 here, 10 there, but that felt like cheating to my pig headed brain, albeit right or wrong. So my routine quickly became (and still is 90% of the time) to do them before I go to bed. I liked to tell myself that it is raising my metabolic rate and other crap, as well as that I'll burn fat during the night and.. and and and and. Whatever, it’s really because it’s bloody taxing and I like putting off difficult things to the end. And that's how I am for now.
2.
The idea that being motivated by fear is wrong is a LIE!
Enough with the hippy hugathon love-ins people! Once I had established a routine for my ‘nightly 100’, some programs indicate that you can slacken off to 100 every other night. I feared that a break in the pattern, i.e. having a ‘night off’ would cause slow erosion of my willfulness to do it. Hence deciding to continue to do it nightly. Now I … *pauses for reflection* … don’t think I am motivated by fear of the broken cycle anymore, or rather hardly at all, and feel like it is just part of ‘who I am’ or so it seems. Either way, I’m ok with that, it helps me get stuff done. I recognize this is my rigid thinking.
Keeping the ritual going through sickness was hardest *before* I carried it out rather than during it.
I recall doing the daily 100 during bouts of food poisoning, flu, a well as exhaustion and hurty joints (medical term). what I noticed was this. The thought of banging out 10 sets of 10 or 2 of 20 or whatever was, during these times of sickness, almost unbearable, almost torture. I remember feeling surprise and delight when I actually did my sets of pushups that my *physical* strength had not magically diminished, and although it certainly was hardship (more than normal), it allowed me to reconnect and remind me of the underlying strength under the hood despite feeling like crap – it was even a nice if fleeting break it. Which wasn't nice as such, but certainly a pleasant distraction.
4.
Baby steps are still steps, and may even be the most important ones. Maybe. It sounds plausible at least.
I remember the early days or doing my 100. I was about 2 stone (12kg) heavier than now (Christmas debauchery not withstanding) so grinding out 100 was rough going. When I felt like I was spent and and unable to continue I would stop. breathe, then do one more. I had in my mind the ill fated workhorse ‘Boxer’ from Orwell’s 1984 and his quote “I will work harder”. I know the poor sod ended up in the knacker’s yard in the end, but I did like my mantra of “I can always do one more” – It served me well in any road, and helped get me to complete 100 on the tough days.
5.
There are consequences to pushing yourself beyond your limits, some good and some bad. Genuinely paying attention to feedback can save you further pain. No, REALLY.
Upside: I discovered I actually *was* capable of progress (I unearthed a whiff of long standing doubt within myself) by way of being able to do more than 10 pushups at a time. This was just as driven by the monotony of 10 sets of 10 repetitions as much as it was a desire to progress.
: overly stretching the limits of this resulted in temporary (several months) loss of feeling/nerve damage/whatever in the upper thigh of my right leg that shook me up a bit. Annoyingly and typically there was no visible sign of it so it garnered bugger all sympathy from my wife. Grrr.
: stop before you feel you’re going to feint, and know there’s nearly always a workaround (you can do pushups on one leg if you need to, just cross your legs).
6.
I like to experiment, but not that much.
Eventually I got bored and sought out push up variations to mix things up a bit. This took me months to reach this level of stagnation though, notably. I experimented, and enjoyed doing so, changing things a bit, but found on low energy days (often after having already done weightlifting and getting a beating at Jiu Jitsu) I had to revert to the vanilla, the old faithful standard. It is only in the last month or so that I’ve permanently switched to the 3 chair push up (Google it or use your imagination). These are because they’re a damn sight harder than the standard and I cannot bear not optimising what I’m doing (there goes that useful fear response again).
7.
I became conditioned to the idea of the hardship but not the hardship itself (because I gently keep pushing myself).
I was drying my children’s hair the other day and completely out of my mind was any kind of inner ‘oh crap’ response to the fact that, relaxed as I was, I had to bang out 100 later. It pleased me that I felt so relaxed about what hardship was to come, and spite of that, doing them and still finding it tough as ever; finishing my sets with my customary way, a good old fashion cuss.
8.
The first cut is the deepest No wait, the first set *is* the hardest.
I always do flimsy and a slightly pathetic warm up stretch before I kick off proceedings. It usually looks like the kind of nonsensical movements that people used to do in the 1930s before going for a swim. But I digress. The first set seem to be the hardest one to do. Psychologically, my own power-procrastination born of the pain of the first set, added to the *actual* pain of the first set, creates one stinky amalgam that will have me putting them off till the bitter end most days.
But I always do them.
No. Matter. What.
9.
Doing something monotonous and (fairly) tough religiously, made me feel strong minded.
This added to daftly doing these often late at night gave me the perfect opportunity to wallow in my single mindedness, feeding my vanity and my motivation all in one hit. The ego has landed folks. Never underestimate the power of vanity, it beats desire for health hands down every time.
10.
If in doubt BREATHE. There’s a difference between knowing and doing.
Even though I regularly coach others on breathing exercises with a client – be it a Fighter, Business person or therapy client, I still have to remind myself to breathe, when I’m under pressure. In the past during the push ups I have felt as if I'd become weaker by breathing, and lose core stability (this probably points to a core that needs strengthening). However, it comes as no surprise that instead of weakening, breathing into the set energises me, regulates me, destresses me and grounds me (even up on those 3 chairs!). Who knew. Really, it is so obvious, yet this is a case of “Physician, heal thyself already!” So, to reiterate, if under pressure, under stress, one thing that is almost certainly going to help is to breathe.
These are my findings to date.