Fat Butt Friday: Me vs. the Push-up

There are two fitness monsters in my life that I have NEVER been able to overcome: 1.  The Chin-up (or Pull-up) and 2. The push-up (I'm not talking about the one on knees, I mean the one with straight legs).  When I did the fitness test for P90X, I gave it my best effort!  You know how I did on the chin-ups (If you forgot, click here), and I gave it my best effort to do a standard push-up and failed miserably.  So I did like 3 on my knees before crashing on the floor in exhaustion.

"Oh, come on, sweetie, you can do better than that!" My dear sweet, sensitive hubby said to me.  This coming from a man who eats push ups for breakfast.  I had a few choice words to fling at him topped off with a nasty glare or two.

When I started P90X I watched a million testimonials of people who started out just like me and ended up being able to do chin-ups and push-ups... but as far as I am concerned, it seems like a long road still.  Tomorrow marks our half way point, and even though I am getting some great results, the fact remains that my weight doesn't seem to be going anywhere still lingers around my mind like a bad smell.  "I can only get so far with this spare tire around my waist, Ben!"  I remind him in my moments of frustration.  I KNOW I can do several of the moves if I wasn't carrying around all this excess baggage!  Including that blasted chin-up!

However, for those of you who know me, I am not a quitter!  I am hanging in here for the full 90 days, and if it sucks the life out of me I am going to be able to do at least ONE chin up by the end!

As for those pesky push-ups...

P90x only requires you do a million a week.  Every exercise has some form or other of the push-up and after several weeks, I thought my knees were going to be permanently bruised.  Then a couple days ago, I realized that if I kept this up, I would NEVER do a push-up because I wasn't trying.  So I decided that every push-up workout we did, I would try to do it the way they were first before I dropped to my knees.  I mean, that's how I was doing everything else right?  But that stupid little voice we have in our heads that puts us down kept telling me that I was setting myself up for failure and disappointment.  "Shut up, voice!" I told it.  I dropped down into the standard push-up position determined to give it my all...

Now, sometime during these last 6 weeks something happened to my body.  I do believe I grew a few muscles.  Because I did not one, not two, not even three push-ups... I cranked out 15!!  Oh yeah!

And it felt great!

The moral of this story is:  You never know what you can do until you try.  How long, I wonder, would I have gone without knowing I could do it if only I gave it go?

So now I can check that fitness monster right off my list.  Next up:  The Chin-up...

Wish me luck!!