I spent all of June participating in the Tone It Up Challenge hosted by Teal and Beth of Life is a Run. When I originally considered doing a challenged that centered around doing push-ups and planks, my first thought was not “yay.” But now that it’s over, I feel very Yay! In fact, I’m a little sad that it is over!
The numbers:
- I did my push-ups + plank every single day except for one. That’s 29 days total.
- My maximum number of push-ups at once was 30! (My lowest was 5.)
- My longest plank was held for 1:15.4 seconds! (My shortest was 25.2 seconds.)
- I did a total of 369 push-ups.
- I logged 1,165 seconds of planks.
My calendar looking all ragged because it has been loved, like the Velveteen Rabbit. Numbers in purple are my runs. The numbers in green are my planks and push-ups.
My reflections:
-I’m really proud of myself for being consistent and seeing major improvement. There’s no way I could have done 30 push-ups prior to this challenge!
-Despite my leaps and bounds of improvement, my month of push-ups has not translated into any real strength gain. I still struggle to carry Geronimo’s 40 pound food bag, and I definitely can not pick him up. (He’s 70 pounds, though. That’s like the size of a ballerina!)
-I think I’d benefit from doing the 100 push-up challenge and/or incorporating more weights. I usually shy away from strength training (it’s just not as fun as my other fitness endeavors), but it’d serve me well. Besides, this whole thing has motivated me to really bump up my strength.
Blizzdow! My totals scrawled at the top. Keep in mind, a mathematician I am not, but I did double-check my work.
-I don’t think know that I wouldn’t have done any push-ups or planks without this challenge. Challenges, plans, structure, whatever you want to call it, they really serve me well. I intend to make another strength based plan for myself to keep me on the motivation wagon.
-My friend Bianca had a brilliant idea to help with planks. Since surviving planks is often a matter of the mind not the body, she suggested speaking song lyrics while I hold a plank. Since you say the lyrics instead of singing them, they are harder to remember. This distracts the mind leaving you pleasantly surprised at how long you’ve been planking.
Overall, I’m really glad that Teal and Beth came up with the challenge! It was surprising fun and definitely good for me!
And now the Runner’s World Summer Running Streak is coming to a close as well. The last day is July 4th. Knock on wood, if I don’t end up injured between now and then, I’ll have run at least a mile every single day from Memorial Day to the 4th! Quite a feat! I’ll be back later in the week to share my reflections on that challenge.*
