Day 23: I’ve Been Here Before

I walked into Day 23 of the 30-Day Push-Up Challenge with a prediction: I was going to surprise myself.

I wasn’t fool enough to believe things would suddenly become easy, but I had a different approach, mentality, and process for today. No intervals, just 23 minutes with one planned two-minute break built into the workout.

Just like I did six years ago when I tried this for the first time. 

While scrolling through Instagram one day during the COVID lockdown, I came across a push-up challenge presented as a pyramid ladder, suggesting either Ascension or Descension. I loved the add-on-or-subtract method and, at the time, had done a lot of push-ups after I dusted off my old P90X videos to stay fit in isolation. 

I fought through 23 minutes of hell doing Ascension, but I managed to make it all the way to the end with no reps leftover.

And for years, I wondered if I would be able to do the same thing while taking it from a Descension approach instead.

Today, I tested that theory.

Why This Challenge Exists

The whole reason this challenge started in the first place was because of my desire to try this magic number, 23, with a Descension focus. I knew I couldn’t just jump straight into it, and that I would have to build up to it if I wanted to be successful.

When I created this challenge, I had very much underestimated the weight of the push-ups done leading up to today, and even after working up to it, I didn’t know if I would be able to do it.

But, over the last week, especially, I’ve just put my focus on one number:

16.

If I can average roughly 15 to 16 push-ups per minute on the hardest Descension Days, I’ll be on pace for Day 30.

So, while my aim at the start of today was on getting out as many as I could to give it my best shot, my benchmark became just 16 push-ups per minute, with the hope it would both get me through the end and also give me a snapshot glimpse at what Day 30 would look like when I got there.  

At first, it wasn’t so bad. I got through three minutes with 16 reps per minute, and then I started to falter.

The pace dwindled down to 14.

And then 11.

I told myself it was okay, and that I just had to keep going and giving everything my best effort. Just like I tell my students all the time. 

The plan today wasn’t about perfection, but about gauging where I was six years after the first time I took on this challenge, and how crazy I was to do it again in the first place, let alone in this challenge’s format. 

Slowing Down Doesn’t Mean Stop

The two-minute break I’d nestled into the time toward the end became a lifesaver. It gave me the chance to organize, count my reps, track them, and gauge how many I had left for the final run. My arms, chest, legs, and abs all thanked me for the opportunity to shake things out for more than half a second.  

I cleared my head and got back to work once the break wrapped, but I didn’t focus on how many I had left. The last chunk of this challenge required as much mindfulness as strength, so I focused only on this minute. This push-up. This set.

By the time I got to the end, I still had 38 push-ups remaining. On the surface level, that sounded worse than how I did on Day 20, which, at the time, I didn’t even know if I’d be able to complete. 

But I knew better. 

I’ve Still Got It In Me

Unlike on Day 20, I didn’t have intervals today. 17 of the 38 push-ups were also the ones I’d already accepted I’d have to add in some fashion, because they made up for the two minutes I’d taken off in the middle. Without that break, I would’ve expected my leftover count to land much closer to what I’d already experienced on previous Descension Days.

I’d still gained a lot of strength in this challenge, and even though I wish more than anything I’d chosen to make this the last day of my challenge just because it worked up to a day I’d done before, it’s funny how different my thoughts are now compared to a couple of weeks ago.

How recently I couldn’t imagine doing 100 push-ups.

How I’ve now done more than 2,000.

But it’s more than just realizing how far I’ve come. It’s about how much I don’t dread the coming days. All of a sudden, I’m planning for Day 24. I’m thinking of something different for Day 25. I’m feeling, dare I say it, excited for the last leg of this challenge.

I must be going crazy. 

But I’m genuinely curious what else I’ll learn before this challenge is done. Whatever it is, it’s still a completely different mindset that started with, “Can I survive today?” and turned into, “How can I crush tomorrow?”  

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