A Humbling Experience

You may recall me bragging in this post about how fit I was in high school and putting forward my goal to complete 20 pushups in a row. Well, I decided to start yesterday. I roped Mike into doing this as well. He has been wanting to improve his fitness, so I suggested we do the program together. It basically takes you from whatever fitness level you are at and trains you to do 100 pushups in a row. He was intrigued.

The first part of the program involves doing an initial test to determine your current level of fitness and to get a customized program. Mike went first. He eeked out 20 good-form pushups and we laughed about how few he had done. I knew I wasn't going to do very well and would probably manage far less.

Now before I tell you just how many I managed to complete, let me point out that I spend most of my day hauling around an 18 lb baby while completing various tasks. Just today, I held her while vacuuming the bedrooms. I guess this made me think that I had some upper body strength. Boy was I wrong.

Are you ready for it? I completed 0 pushups. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zero. Goose eggs. Mike thought it was the funniest thing ever and to add insult to the injury (and my bruised ego), Laney thought it was the funniest thing she had ever seen as well and had a giggling fit right in front of me on the floor as I kept trying again and again. I tried from the ground up. I tried up, going down. As much as I tried, I could not lower and lift myself up. In my defence, I think breastfeeding has caused my boobs to weigh at least 40 lbs, increasing the amount of work one pushup involves. However, since I can do zero pushups, I am going to start the program using the girly ones. Hopefully after a week or two I can graduate to real pushups. I think this is going to be harder than I initially thought.

In the spirit of being totally open with you, I am going to post some pictures of my upper body. I can only hope to have some better ones to post a couple of months down the road when I AM able to do 20 pushups in a row.


Finally, I'd like to challenge you to participate in this program with me. There's nothing to lose but some flabby arms! Come on now, it will be really fun. There is no fancy equipment required, it will only take a few minutes of your time, and you don't even have to leave your house. At least check the program here. I'm sure that will convince you if I've failed. If you would like to do this too, then let me know. Make a post about it and put the link to your post in my comments. Don't forget to take some before pictures.