30th Birthday 3000 Pushup Challenge

Last year I started a new tradition on my birthday, every year I would do some sort of challenge on my birthday. Since I am living a healthier lifestyle now, it only seemed fitting that this challenge should be some sort of physical challenge.

Last year was my 29th birthday, and this is what I did:

29 pullups
290pushups
290 situps
Lifted 29000 total lbs
Read my son 29 books
Kissed and told my wife I loved her 29 times

I threw the last two in there just for a fun, and to include the fam in my challenge.

Well this year I was turning the big 3-0, and wanted to do something truly crazy, so last week I came up with the insane idea that I would do 3000 pushups. Yep 3-0-0-0, three thousand, seemed insane, and impossible, but what the hell. This was a big birthday, and I was going to bring the new decade of my life in with a bang.

My son, he's 2, did the honors of waking me up at 5am, so seemed like as good a time as any to start. I didn't want to burn myself out in the beginning of the day, so I decided on sets of 20, this would allow me to knock out the numbers at a decent pace, but wouldn't burn myself out. That first hour I knocked out 300, it wasn't too bad, but I knew it would get tougher.

I kept up that pace until 10am when it was time for a special birthday breakfast. I was at 1100 pushups, and feeling good, so I took an hour break. 11am, and I was back at it. A little sore from my break, but feeling good. By 1pm I was at 1450, and it was time to put my son down for a nap. I was feeling a little tired, so me and the wife took a nap as well. When we got up, by grandmother cam over. I was stressing a little. It was 3pm and I was still stuck at 1450. I kept running upstairs and knocking out 20 pushups, but I needed to do more.

They left at 330, I was at 1500 pushups, I needed to complete the last 1500 pushups in 6.5 hours if I was going to finish before it was too late. That meant I needed to knock out 115 every half-hour. So I set a timer on my watch to go off every 2.5 minutes and did 15 pushups.

When I hit 2000, I started doing more on my knees, my arms were shot. so every other 15 were on my knees. This allowed a sort of rest, but still allowed me to push.

I was able to maintain that pace, and by 935pm I completed my 3000th pushup. Of those 3000, 500 were on my knees, I wish it was less, but that was the only way I was going to complete it. I was at it for 17 hours, taking into account the 3.5 hours of breaks, it took me 13.5 hours to do this. That breaks down to a little over 222 pushups an hour, or almost 4 pushups a minute.

This was a seriously tough challenge, I ache from top to bottom, not as bad as I was expecting, but so satisfying. This is something I never could of accomplished at any other time in my life, and to of done this on my 30th birthday, just proves that age is just a number. I'm so happy I've made this change in my life. IT was just 3 short years ago that I was pushing 305 lbs, and would get winded walking up a flight of stairs. Back then 20 straight pushups would of been a feat. Now, I can say I've done 3000 pushups in one day, not to many people can say that.

Now, to come up with an even crazier challenge foe next year :drinker:

- Adam