10,000 press-ups in a year update: first of 2026
As I quietly didn't do a monthly update for the end of January at all, you might have thought I'd given up the personal 10,000 press-ups challenge I'd started back in October. Unfortunately for you, I haven't, so I will have to carry on writing these occasional updates for a completely indifferent readership, just for my own personal record of said challenge.
Update
Up until now, I'd been posting updates at the end of each month, but as the end of January came and went I had got myself into a bit of a hole, both physically and mentally.
I had been pushing up the amount of press-ups I was doing per day, and adding more and more sets of exercises to the core routines I was doing at the same time. Having started in October with doing 30 a day, by the middle of January, I was doing 100 press-ups per day, and with a few sets of core routines added to that every other day too.
I was going great guns – and starting to grow some great guns too. (Everything is relative... I'm not pumped, or hench, or whatever else the cool way of saying like a baby-oiled body-builder is these days... there is an inescapable and stark reality to a nearly 60 year old body which was not treated very well for over thirty of those years)
Then, on the 22nd January I had to stop completely as I was hit with a wave of AF heart palpitations, accompanied with a shortness of breath at the merest physical exertion. Just going upstairs was making me pant. It shocked me, again, and it was obviously too much, so exercise was shelved for a unknown time while I hoped it would settle down.
Then my MS joined in and had me so mentally depressed and physically exhausted that thinking, doing, and generally living was an effort, let alone blogging or exercise. So I had to have a complete rest from doing anything at all for a while.
According to my spreadsheet, I didn't record doing any press-ups, or any other exercise at all, for seven whole days. Shocker.
When the AF had settled a bit and I did start again, it was tentative. Twenty press-ups in the morning, none in the evening. Easing back into it to make sure I don't poke the twin beasts of AF and MS again.
I know what happens if I get too fatigued and push it. It's the same reason as why I'm not doing my cycling just at the moment. Extended sessions of high heart rate and exertion stresses my physiology too much, so I HAVE to be mindful of it... but I want to explore where exactly that limit is all the time.
I knew I was already far ahead of the game as far as the 10,000 target went, so as long as I could keep adding some to the total, I should be OK.
As it stands now, I have gradually increased the amount of press-ups per session by about 5 every week again, and added just one type of core exercises for now.
Spring is pretty much here now, allegedly, so I'm hoping I can soon add some occasional proper cycling outdoors to my days too, without pushing over the tiredness edge or poking the continuing heart problem into action again either.
Here's hoping.
The numbers:
End of February marks 146 days of the total challenge period - 40%
6914 press-ups done - 69.14% of the target.
Press-ups left to go to hit 10,000 - 3086
Previously...
I read this post –
10,000 Pushups And Other Silly Exercise Quests That Changed My Life
by WJ Gilmore
and I decided to try for 10,000 push ups in a year myself.
Previous progress reports:
December 2025
October 2025
November 2025
post link for sharing: https://skryblans.com/10000-press-ups-in-a-year-update
If you got this far, you may as well click the star below on your way out.