It's challenge time! At the beginning of each year we have a tradition of challenging ourselves with new things simply to learn more about ourselves, our strengths & weaknesses, and ways of living life differently that just might improve it hugely.  

I'm going to try two-week challenges for awhile and see what we learn. Some will be easy. Some will be hard. Which one it is... depends mostly on you. 

TWO-WEEK CHALLENGE #2

100 press-ups per day.

We'll officially start Valentine's day, Tues Feb 14th.

And to make this once accessible, we're going to ramp it up...

• Tues - Fri ( 4 days ) 50 press-ups per day
• Sat - Tues ( 4 days ) 75 press-ups per day
• Wed - Mon ( 6 days ) 100 press-ups per day

The press-ups don't need to be done in a single set, you can do 5 at a time in small sets throughout the day- whatever you're capable of and comfortable with.

Vary the press-ups how you want, by changing your hand positions. You'll find that changing where your hands are positioned relative to your shoulders changes a lot.

Wider is harder, and so is higher, towards your head. Also try much lower, towards your hips, to change how the exercise works, and try rotating your hands slightly inward or outward as well to create variations.

WANT MORE CHALLENGE?

• Do as many as you can per set. Ideally, you want to finish on the last day able to do the entire 100 in a single go.
• Change your hand positioning as described above. Find your limits and work them.
• Raise your feet. Use a stool, chair, sofa arm, or stairs to position your feet on something firm and stable. If you get higher, use a railing or wall to get more height.
• For harder challenges do the pressups on your fits, fingertips, or go for one armed pressups or pressups where your hands are elevated differently - one on a block, one on the floor. Have fun with it, it's all good.

IMPORTANT TIPS

Start first thing in the day. If you wait, it just gets harder to reach your goal.

Shoulders hurt? Change your hand positioning and orientation.

Too easy? Make it harder.

Always do as many as you can, even if it's not te nice round number you were aiming for.