Block 1

Day 1 (Monday)

20 pushups, 5 times a day.

No problem, right?

I have been doing 100-150 pushups a day occasionally over the last year or so.  I meant to be doing them everyday, but the reality is that I do them for a week or two, then miss a day, then another.  Eventually I am doing them once a month instead of once a day.

Regardless, this is something I know I can do.  Yet, I am sore after the first set of 20.  It has been about two months since I did any decent amount of pushups and this body of mine remembers ‘lazy’ far better than ‘activity’.  I am able to complete the day’s pushup without any real difficulty, but I am definitely feeling it in my arms and shoulders.

Day 2 – 7 (Tuesday – Sunday)

Day 2 starts with moderate muscle soreness and fatigue, but no serious pain.  I have no issues doing all of my pushups, but I do occasionally miss a set due to the demands of a busy life.  This means I am making up sets by doubling up when I have the time to do so and although I am able to do 40 pushup sets, they are the very limit of my strength.  Once a day, I can manage, but I am very worried about my ability to go into Block 2 next week as I had planned.

The jump from Block 1 to Block 2 is the most difficult jump, as you are doubling the workout load from 100 pushups a day to 200 a day (100% increase).  Each transition beyond Block 1->2 is a smaller and smaller percentage of additional work compared to what I am currently doing.  Block 2->3 adds 100 daily pushups to the 200 that I will be doing (50% increase), while Block 9->10 adds 100 to the 900 that I am already doing (11% increase).

I am going to push towards Block 2 regardless.  If I struggle, then it builds me and strengths my resolve as much as my muscles.  It won’t be easy, but nothing worth doing is easy.  While I was a Marine in my youth, I spent some time with Fox Company, 2^nd Marines, 5^th Battalion.  Fox Company had a motto back then, perhaps they have the same one still today.

 

“Get hard, or die.”

Morgan Freeman said, “Get busy living, or get busy dying” as Red in The Shawshank Redemption.

And so I go. 

I choose life and health because I am worth it and so is my family.  What will you choose?