15 down, 15 to go

Over the last 15 days, I have learned something. push-ups get easier and harder at the same time.  Let me explain...  The first few days it was hard pushing through the 100 physically and now it has become a mental game.  Not a game I particularly like to play but I am happy to play if it means the push-ups themselves are getting easier and they are.  I have got more in-tune with what my body is able to do in a given time and that is important when I had already worked out and want to prevent injury.  I pushed it a little much on Thursday this week as I did a CF class and tried to do all my push-ups in 5 minutes.  Not only was it a lot tougher than stretching it out by a few minutes, I woke up the next morning with a very sore back.  Coupled with a workout that was focused on legs and back, I think my form suffered and put a lot of pressure on my back muscles.  This experience will keep me reminded to spread the them out throughout the day and not to wait until 11:45pm to get them in.
Outside of that, keeping up with everything is getting tougher.  I have a 2 year old who seems to down an entire pot of coffee before I pick him up from school and an understandably sick/pregnant wife who should not be responsible for keeping up with his sport-focused mind.  This puts some additional focus on father-son bonding and keeps me from keeping up on eating and going to my classes.  This is no fault of either of them, I just have had a tough time finding the motivation to keep the wheels turning when I do have the time.  The push-ups have helped but I need to keep my focus.  Mama is headed out of town this week so I will have to put in the extra effort in being dad-of-the-year and keep my momentum.  Wish me luck...

-N

Why Push-Ups? Why NOT Push-Ups?

In the month of September, my older brother challenged the family to do 100 push-ups a day (hence the blog name).  That isn’t a tough number for the most part but day after day it tends to wear on you.  It is only day 6 but I can feel it in my arms and shoulders and they feel tighter.  I don’t know if it’s because they are not happy with me or if changes are already happening.  It is most likely the former but I can hope.

Check out the video below that prompt the challenge.  These two show that in just a little amount of time, you can see some real changes.  

Small steps lead to big changes.

100 Push-Ups

-N

Welcome to The Push-Up Diaries!!

First off, I want to thank you for taking the time to read this original post.  Hopefully you can get a good idea of what we are all about and come back for more.  

I wanted to start Push-Up Diaries as a place for anyone who wanted to share the story about their fitness journey and how they have either got there or plan to get there.  The idea for this blog is not a new one but for me, I was inspired while in the middle of a set of push-ups during a monthly challenge my brother set out in front of our family(which will be a staple for us if you want to join in).  I wanted a place to document and share and motivate and blah blah blah, etc.  No matter the stage in your journey, we'd love to hear it.  This is a safe (yet public) place to share all things ranging from workouts, healthy recipes, progress photos, all the way to the story of your path to fitness (whether goals were met or in-progress).  With that, I will start...

I need want to be good at sports. That's the long and short of it.  I don't care which sport either and it all stems from a long standing battle with 7 brothers and 4 sisters for athletic supremacy while growing up.  We were all roughly average height and weight so naturally, we thought beating each other at random (sometimes made up) sports changed that.  In our house, it did.  You walked a little taller knowing you had won.  It even got to the point where we developed the "Older Brother Advantage".  This didn't just develop with age, size and strength (even if you were bigger than the big), it was the fear of being the little beating the big and having a target on your back.  In most cases, you took your chance if you had it to win but those were few and far between. The OBA developed over time and became more of a psychological hurdle the littles had overcome. As we got older, those hurdles became less and less on the physical side but the psychological side remained.  To this day, we still call our littlest brother (12 of 12) "Drew Bledsoe" to try and remind him that when he was younger, he was slower than us.  He has seemingly got past that hurdle as he has accomplished more in the running world than I could dare to take on.  

This all leads to my present day, 35 year old self.  I was involved with random recreational sports but found myself wanting more no matter how much I would win or put forth to try to win.  No one could challenge me the way my family could.  

Randomly, in roughly October of 2016, a few of my brothers and I started up a text string that really pushed me to that next level.  We got to talking about what we were doing on a daily basis, what we were eating, etc.  This gave me the drive to make sure I didn't quit.  I didn't want to be the first person to break and that was an amazing motivator.  Now that we have all proven we can keep up, it has been a great source of motivation and inspiration seeing what they are doing and how they got there.  In the time we have started the text string, I have joined a CrossFit gym, lost 30 lbs and overhauled my eating to make sure it matches the effort I put in during a workout.  

For me, no matter what groceries I buy or who is next to me, pushing me to do more at the gym, having someone to hold me accountable on a daily basis that I truly respect and admire has been the biggest piece to my puzzle.  And once I found that piece, everyday became more and more fun to see how far I could take it.

If you would like me to post your story or want to be an admin for this blog, email me at pushupdiaries@gmail.com.  I look forward to hearing for you in the future.

-N