Harlem Quijano

I can’t remember when was the last time I actually did an exercise much less a complete workout.  I think it may have been the last time I was in California, which was about four years ago.  Four years is much too long to be intermittently sedentary, meaning, I wasn’t a complete lazy bum.  I still lived an active lifestyle filled with the frenetic coming and going of taking kids here and there  (sometimes on my back and sometimes with more than one on it at a time), fixing things up around the house and “whatnot”.  I occasionally play some basketball and when I am feeling especially good I consider doing a few calisthenics.  Usually the feeling passes before I get seriously hurt.  All this preamble to say that I am not as fit as I used to be and to also lead you into how the initial pushup test went.

But, first, why a pushup?  I first heard of the 100 pushup exercise regimen when some famous running back (can’t remember his name at the moment) was advised to do it as a way to get bigger during the off season.  As the story goes, he worked his way up tp  100 pushups and earned a spot on his high school roster a year after he was cut for being too small (I think, but makes a nice Disney movie nonetheless).  Then my son who is all of twelve years old challenged me to do the program with him about a year ago and I did it for about a week and then kept giving him excuses for being unable to do the program.  Excuses like, “the next episode of Heroes is on.”  I know what you’re thinking because I was thinking it at the time as well, ” I am so LAME!!!!”  Then my friend Peter mentioned it to me again last week and I gave it some serious thought, then asked my son, who abandoned the program a month after I did, if he wanted to start up again.  And, he looked at me with a grave look in his eye and said, “don’t whimp out on me” and waited for my reply.  I said I wouldn’t and we set a date to start the program.

Well, that date has come and gone.  And I eeked out 14 really good pushups  [Insert sad trombone sound here].  Mind you they were really good ones, that is; body was plank straight, arms planted in a natural position, fully extended all the way up, and chest about a fists width from the ground on the down position.  I might have been able to squeeze out a dozen or so more, but I would have sacrificed form.  So, I stopped as soon as I felt that my head and upper body was beginning to propel the rest of my body upwards.  My son, his name is Meshach, did quite a bit more but i was a bit more lenient on his form.  So there you have it, 14 is my starting point and on to the meat of the program today.  For more info on the program head over to hundredpushups.com.  Til then.