Remember when...

-Finisher-

Yesterday, I was playing on Facebook when I saw a post for one of the 100 push-up challenges being advertised.  I vaguely remember seeing the same ad last year and thinking that the guy in the ad was very cute and super muscular.  I guess seeing that, I didn't in see myself doing something that intense.  During that time period, I was in a one sided battle with my boss over fitness.  She is a runner and is very lean.  Me, not so much.  There was nothing fitness wise that she could do that I could do better.  No matter how much I tried, she was 12 steps ahead.  One day, she was talking to me about doing push-ups and I told her that I couldn't even do one.  It was then that very discreetly went online and downloaded some free version of the push-up challenge.  It said that you only needed to be able to attempt 1 in order to start.  Well, I could surely pull off an attempt at one.

Without telling anyone, I made my way through the push-up challenge.  I stuck to it and even downloaded the application on my phone so that I could keep up without having any excuse.  This was the first "challenge" that I had stuck to on this journey and so far so good!  Once I got to about 15 pushups in a row, I started getting noticed in the gym.  I would hit the number, drop to my knees for a breath and look up to some guy spouting off some goofy compliment.  That was at only 15 mens push-ups.  I had 85 more to go.  At 30, I had someone at my karate class challenge me to do 10 not knowing how many I could do.  Of course at 30, I made 10 look easy.  On my day to do 37, I decided to tell my boss that I could do a "few" pushups.  We both hung in and mutually gave up at 35.  WHAT A FEELING!!! When I hit 50, I told my brother that I was doing men's push-ups now and with out hesitation, he said..."Show me!".  So I did.  Proudly too!  Take that, you big bad Marine!  Once I hit 50, I had a few of the guys in the gym checking in on my daily to see what number I was on.  They all seemed pretty impressed. How was I to know that 50 push-ups for a man was a lot? I was in the gym the day I hit my 100 and very literally jumped up and down and cheered.  I completed a challenge.  Not some swanky challenge.  A REAL hard core challenge.

Like most things, if you don't practice, you lose it. I hit my 100 and moved on to another something or other.  A few months later when I started training with Xavy and he had me do push-ups, I could only do a handful. Well... you know Xavy, within a few weeks, I was doing 4 sets of 40 pushups per workout. I even did a few with my little cousin on my back.  We refer to the weighted push-ups now as, "Gracies".  Now I am doing row.  Not only is that a pushup, but it's one with weights in my hands. Up until that day, I had only ever seen that on T.V.. Since we moved on to another phase of training, again push-ups have pushed to the wayside on the plan but this time, I kept them up on my own. 

The day that I went to Ocean City, I wanted my arms to look extra good in my tank top.   When I was getting ready to go out, I did a few "Cosmetic Pump" push-ups on top of my regular daily 50.  Within about 5 minutes, I did 100 men's push-ups.  I then got up and shook it off and walked out of the door.  I was not huffing and puffing, moaning and groaning any more.  I did it and moved right along.  When I told Xavy about it, he got this big smirk on his face.  It was really touching to see that he was shocked and proud that his (female) client just voluntarily banged out 100 pushups for no good reason. 

Yesterday when I looked at that advertisement, all I could do was smile and be so thankful for this new found inner strength, my support group and my trainer for making me physically and mentally a stronger person every day.

http://hundredpushups.com/index.html