One Hundred Push-Ups

The last few months I've been exercising fairly consistently, swimming about 4-5 times a week, walking, and even running a few times. I can definitely tell my clothes are fitting better, and people have told me my face and body look thinner.

The scale, of course, is not budging, and I'm not so delusional that I'd believe I've replaced fat with muscle mass. So I'm working to jump-start the actual weight-loss and toning aspect of my goals. I'm especially hoping to get shapely arms and a trim midsection, since these seem to be the areas that make me look heaviest.



Last night I did the initial evaluation for the One Hundred Push-Ups challenge. I've been talking about doing this since December, but I never actually got down to it. A friend of mine who is also working to get fit challenged me to a contest online last night, and while he smoked me, it did make it more fun.

At first I did 10 "regular" push-ups then 5 more modified "girly" ones (using my knees). I realized that these were not done with good form, as my lower back was sagging forward and I couldn't keep my upper body straight.

So I tried again, competing with my friend, and I did 23 consecutive, good-form modified push-ups. I wanted to give myself a lot of excuses, that I'd just gotten home from swimming a particularly challenging work-out, that I had already kind of done 15 before that 23, that I could have done more if my knees didn't start hurting etc, but 23 is a fine starting point, putting me at level 3 of 7 for the program.

I have to decide which days of the week I'll do the work-outs, but I can tell already from the soreness in my abs and shoulders that this is going to be a beneficial addition to my fitness regimen.

I think I'll start Two Hundred Sit-Ups soon too!