Early this month I mentioned that I was taking on the CMHA push-up challenge. Proud to say that I just hit 2000 moments ago. Three days early! Every one of those two thousand push-ups has been full range and of excellent form, as I’m a stickler for stuff like that.

Is this impressive? No. Am I proud that I stuck with it? Yup. Actually incorporated more of a daily target for a variety of similar exercises and will maintain this as an ongoing thing.

Conditioning is a fascinating thing. Three days in my chest and triceps absolutely killed, and carried from day to day, and eking out 10 reps was unpleasant. I had to go to the well frequently through the day to try not to fall behind. Now on day twenty, there is zero residual pain or fatigue day to day, and banging out 25 reps on demand is easy.

To try to spin this as broadly wise, we all have an enormous number of ways of staying fit without needing expensive equipment, memberships, and so on. The basics are all that most people need. For almost all of my adult life I’ve carried one or more gym memberships, taking advantage of it sparingly. I’ve probably accomplished more just doing a random challenge this month.

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