Day 17: I Needed a Savasana

“I need a Savasana.”

Those were the first words out of my mouth after today’s 30-Day Push-Up Challenge workout.

I finished the final push-up as fast as I could, rolled onto my back, stared at the ceiling, and let the remaining seconds on the clock disappear while I did absolutely nothing.

For a yoga teacher, it felt strangely appropriate.

Savasana isn’t just about lying down.

It’s about allowing your body and your mind to absorb everything that just happened.

Apparently…

I needed that more than I realized.

The Project Catches Up To Me

Today wasn’t necessarily the hardest workout I’ve done.

But it was the first day I realized this challenge had started taking up residence in my head.

Not just during the workouts, but all the time. 

I’m constantly thinking about push-ups. I reflect on the daily practice, assess how I could approach it differently tomorrow, and ponder how much rest I should take between intervals. I set goals for how many I want to do without my knees, how much energy to conserve, and always review the structure of the challenge to see how it can be adapted and modified. 

Then there’s filming the practices, editing them, adding the voiceovers, writing these reflections, creating shorts and reels, and the entire uploading process that, unfortunately, demands and eats a lot of time.

Sometimes it feels like I’m swimming in push-ups.

Funny enough…

That became the metaphor that helped me through today’s workout.

Just Keep Swimming

In high school, I swam competitively and played water polo.

Somewhere along the way, I started comparing different push-up variations to different swim strokes.

Diamond push-ups became the butterfly because they’re demanding, challenging, and you don’t really look forward to them, but you feel incredibly satisfied after you get through them.

Wide push-ups became the breaststroke because they’re strong, steady, and a little more forgiving.

And the standard push-up?

That’s freestyle.

It’s the stroke you settle into when you know you have a long distance to cover.

The one you trust when endurance matters more than speed.

That comparison probably sounds ridiculous, but somewhere around rep 150, your brain starts entertaining some pretty interesting conversations. 

Mine became:

“Just keep swimming.”

Or maybe, more accurately:

“Just keep pushing.”

One more rep.

One more minute.

One more interval.

One more breath.

That became today’s mantra.

So Much Ground Already Covered

Something else happened today that I didn’t expect.

I found myself thinking back to Day 9.

Back then, 45 push-ups felt impossible.

Today, I completed 153.

Nine days ago, I couldn’t imagine doing 100 push-ups in a single workout, and I’m now halfway to 300.

That’s when it hit me that the version of me who stood on Day 9 convinced he couldn’t finish this challenge wouldn’t even recognize the person writing this today.

That realization brought both encouragement and terror. Even though I’d already grown so much, I also knew, rep-wise, I wasn’t even close to halfway to the final day’s total. 

That thought sat with me while I stared at the ceiling after the workout.

17 days down.

13 to go.

And somehow the mountain looked even more enormous.

Climbing Up This Mountain

Maybe that’s why I needed the Savasana.

Not because I was physically exhausted, although I definitely was, but because I needed somewhere to put everything this challenge had become. 

The push-ups.

The planning.

The production.

The constant mental math.

The excitement.

The obsession.

The doubt.

For just a few moments, I needed permission to stop thinking.

Day 17 taught me something I wasn’t expecting: The challenge truly doesn’t ever get any easier.

But “harder” isn’t quite the monster I imagined it would be, either.

Every single day stretches you just enough that yesterday slowly becomes your new normal.

You adapt.

You grow.

You keep going.

Maybe that’s all progress really is.

Not waking up one day and discovering the mountain disappeared, but realizing you’ve quietly become the kind of person who can climb a little higher than yesterday.

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