10,000 and out
pre-ramble
Judging by the total number of readers on any post I've made about my 10,000 press-ups in a year personal challenge (push ups to you alternate English speakers), the figures show that nobody really cares.
However, that doesn't matter. I will continue to post occasional updates to how the challenge is going until it's done because, although I've recently had some posts that have been stupidly popular, it's really time to put a stop to that and get back to the normal level of interest in what I do.
ramble with numbers
Here's a thing though. I can stop providing updates to the 10,000 press ups in a year personal challenge because I have completed it this week.
On 5th June 2026, I added my morning press ups to the spreadsheet and the number finally ticked over to 10,020.
Woohoo.
For lovers of numbers, I submit the following for my 10,000 in 365 days challenge.
- actual days to target 243
- 243 is 66.575342465753% of 365
- Avg. per day 41.234567901235
- 10,020 is 20 more than 10,000
ramble
But I am disappointed it has taken this long to finish it. And I have been a bit scared too.
I started 6th October 2025. At the end of last year, things were going great and I was well ahead of schedule. Secretly I was thinking I could finish the 10,000 before the halfway stage of the full year.
In fact I was thinking, maybe, I could smash it and actually get to 20,000 for the year at this rate. My morning routine exercises also included lots of core stuff too, and the spring was coming, when I could start my outdoor cycling season.
I could actually be what I would be happy to call fit. And stronger.
I had already worked out that the minimum daily number of press ups should be 28 (actually 27.397260273973, but who's counting?). If I did 28 at least, per day, I couldn't fail to be on 10,000 for the year.
When I started, thanks to my lifelong cycling interest which largely ignored upper body strength in any way, it was a struggle to manage just five.
By the middle of January, I was managing 100 a day, 80 in a morning exercises routine, followed by a quick 20 more press ups in the evening before bed.
Then, January 22nd, the comments field on the spreadsheet I had done to track the numbers shows:
22nd - Resting: Had heart flutters and clammy spell last evening.
23rd - Rest day again. Still feeling a bit fragile. More palpitations.
24th - Breathing heavy going upstairs again… giving it a break for a bit
not rambling
Since then, progress has been a slow and tentative thing. The resting carried on for another week. Then another one after that. Ordinary daily life had been affected. And my MS was having a flare too.
But none of this was completely strange to me.
I have had troubles with my heart since summer 2023. Atrial Fibrillation, heart failure, medications, collapses, operations, and orders to take it easy. I was still 'in the system', being monitored regularly by the cardiologists.
I had started the press ups challenge as my typical bloody minded fitness push (and in my mind, a gentle one) as soon as the consultant had said he was happy I could start doing so.
As well as the exercise routine, I was putting in some major kilometres on the trainer bike as well.
Hindsight suggests this was all a bit much.
After some more consulting with the doctors, I knocked it all on the head completely for a couple of weeks. The GP was particularly annoyed with the cycling and me getting my heart rate up with that... "You're on beta blockers to slow your heart rate down, why the hell do you think that it is a good idea to increase it so much regularly?"
Oops. I told him I was deliberately keeping it reasonable but working quite hard. I wasn't trying to max it out. Much. I thought it would make the heart muscles stronger if it was regularly working quite (not extremely) hard.
He understood. But he was not impressed, so he told me to stop doing it.
Then I started feeling a bit better after a week or so of complete rest, so one day I tried just 20 press ups to see if there was a reaction. There wasn't, so I did it again the next day. And gradually I was able to regularly add numbers to the tracking spreadsheet again.
But this time, at the merest hint of any reaction or sign that it was too much, I had no problem leaving a 0 and entering 'rest day', or stopping at 11 if I felt a flutter or pain.
The rate of progress had dramatically slowed, and I was no longer looking at being able to get to the target in half the time. But I had a lot of wiggle room anyway as I was so far ahead, so I could take it far easier.
conclusion
Here I am then, at the completion of an arbitrary amount of specific exercises in an also arbitrary amount of time, and reviewing how it has benefited me.
My conclusion is: trying to get fitter made me more unfit, but I would probably be even more unfit than that if I hadn't got so fit.
Probably.
(NB: The press ups will continue, but I don't see that there's any point in counting them from now on)
post link for sharing: https://skryblans.com/10000-and-out
Email Me or Contact via Letterbird
If you got this far, you may as well click the star below on your way out.