Hi! Happy Friday!
Do you have any fun plans this weekend? Since my birthday is TOMORROW (and yes, I have been playing the birthday card this entire week ;) ), Kyle and I are headed on a fun trip this weekend! I’ll give you all the details on Monday. I’m super excited to get out of Minneapolis where we’ve been going stir-crazy in this toocoldtobreathordoinganythingworthwhile weather!
Sadly, I don’t have a wine to share with you this Wineday Friday. I had all of the best intentions of posting one today but I haven’t had one recently that I felt worthy to share. This weekend should be full of great wine and beer and cocktails so I will be back with a wine for you next week!
In the meantime, I have a challenge for you. Are you ready?
I had a kick-butt CrossFit class on Monday night. (This story eventually leads to my challenge… stick with me here!) My trainer wanted each of us to scale this workout for obvious reasons so my scaled version is in parenthesis below. Also, we were limited to 6 minutes total for the pull-ups and were cut-off at the 30 minute mark for the entire workout.
- 100 Pull-Ups (70)
- 1000m Row (700m)
- 100 Squats (100 – no scaling)
- 1000m Row (600m)
- 100 Sit-Ups (100 – no scaling)
- 1000m Row (600m)
- 100 Push-Ups (45, mostly on my knees)
- Die —> Okay, this really wasn’t part of the workout ;)
Can you find the weakest link in my workout above? Yep, it’s push-ups! For some reason push-ups are one of the most difficult exercises for me and I think a lot of you would agree. We ALL want to improve our push-up skills, right? They are a great strength-training component for multiple muscle groups (back, chest, core, arms…) and require no fancy equipment or expensive gym membership.
So, I thought what better way to improve our push-up abilities than to host a challenge! Who’s with me??
Here are the rules:
- Must complete “real” push-ups – No knee/girly ones in this challenge!
- Your chest must TOUCH the floor during each push-up – Us ladies have it a little easier for this one ;)
- No resting in between push-ups (AKA – Dropping to knees or lying on the floor)
**You can obviously still participate if you would prefer to do “knee” push-ups but I’d like to challenge you to try the real ones!
The Push-Up Challenge will run from January 28th-February 28th. Your beginning push-up number should be counted on January 28th and your final – and much improved! – push-up number should be counted on February 28th. I plan on doing a push-up workout every Monday/Wednesday/Friday in order to improve my strength and slowly increase the number of push-ups I can complete!
Make sure to comment below if you are going to do the challenge with me!
As a test, I attempted some push-ups last night and I struggled to get to a whopping 5 ;) I am going to re-test my abilities on Monday but for now, my personal goal is to get to a total of 15 uninterrupted push-ups by the end of this challenge!
Are yYOU going to join my Push-Up Challenge??
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I’m in the same boat with push-ups. My goal is to stop doing knee push-ups – or at least start on my toes, do as many as I can that way, and then drop to my knees if I have to.
That’s a great goal!!
Pushups not on my knees? Psshhh, I wish! Not only am I super weak, but my joints are super hypermobile so they dislocate if I try to do a full pushup. Needless to say, I despise pushups with a passion. And that CrossFit workout looks freaking KILLER! Good for you for finishing it, no matter how scaled!
Goodness! Please don’t try a full push-up then!!! I don’t want to see photos on your blog of your arms and legs bent in funny directions ;)
That sounds like an awesome challenge. I would love to hear about your pushup workouts too!
I plan on posting my push-up workouts every Mon/Wed/Fri! Are you going to try the challenge with me?
I am so in on this one… I always do knee push-ups and I can do like 25 of those but regular? MAYBE 5 if I’m grunting and screaming for the last one haha, lord my upper body strength is awful. You know, I have also never done a pull-up. I just CAN’T!
I’m excited you’re going to do the challenge! I can’t do a real pull-up…. I have to use 2 extra strong bands which help.
I am totally up for the push-up challenge! We have a health coach at work and she does fitness evaluations every 6 months. I got “poor” for push-ups in September – I could only do 18 girl push-ups uninterrupted! I vowed to get at least “average” by the next one in March. She only measures girl push-ups for girls though, which is why I’ll stick with those for now. Tomorrow I’ll have to measure how many I can do at this point! Have a happy birthday tomorrow :)
Woohoo!! You’ll definitely get to an average or above average if you keep practicing :)
Happy Birthday!!! Enjoy your trip!
Thanks! :)
I suck at push ups! However, I am good at drinking wine. I will raise a glass to you this weekend! Happy Birthday girl!
I’m in!!! Im down for the challenge…Also happy birthday!
Thanks :) We will be push-up queens by the end of the challenge!!
Hey Happy Birthday! Are you going or already up north? Duluth or close? I was on the north shore at a resort last wknd, it was FUN……………super cold but beautiful winter weather at Cove Point Lodge………………want to go back in the summer–ha. It was great to check-in and get a complimentary bottle of wine—ahhh, relaxed instantly:) Enjoy your bday wknd!!!
Thanks hun! Just got here about an hour ago. Can’t wait to check into the B&B!! I’m sure I’ll want to come back in the summer too!!
I’m joining! I used to only be able to do 2 sets of 5 but the other night I did 4 sets of 5! I was so excited to say that I did 20 pushups that day and they were manly ones too! haha
Push-ups are the absolute, without-a-doubt, hardest “bootcamp-style” exercise for me to do. And I NEVER do them where my chest touches the ground. As a matter of fact, I’m going to try that right now…
… yep, it’s hard. I need to work on this.
I know!! I wish I was better at them and that they were easier because they are a great exercise.
Oh, and happy early birthday! Have fun on your trip!
Happy almost Birthday!! I want to join this push-up challenge. Maybe I wont wear a very supportive bra when I do it so I can touch the floor sooner hahah!
Hahaha love it!
Count me in! I always feel like a wimp when I can’t do a ‘real’ push-up during my WODs :)
Same here! I hope this allows me to do at least a few real ones in my WODs!
I’m in! Love this challenge! I took today off from working out because I ran long on Saturday and did Bikram on Sunday!! Love this– do you have a button for this challenge? I’d love to link it back on my blog!! This is great!
I don’t have a button.. Is there a specific site I can use to build one? If so I’ll try to have one by tomorrow!!
I’m in the Army and last month we took a PT test one of the events is two minutes where you do as many push ups as you can. I did 41 and I need 46 to max out in the 22-26 age group. So hoping this challenge plus my regular workout will get me those last 5!
46?? That’s intense! You’ll have to keep me updated on your progress! I’m glad to help you out with my push-up workouts :)