Can TheFatGuy do a Push Up?

Can TheFatGuy do a Push Up?

Can TheFatGuy do a Push Up?

This is a question I will be glad to talk about now…………. but avoided in 2009! In 2009 I was not able to do a push up. Didn't try to do one, didn't want to do one, and couldn't even visualize myself doing one. As Executive Director of the local Boys & Girls Clubs, a board member came to me with a Push Up event idea in 2007. He worked VERY HARD to pull a Push Up fundraiser together with the owner of his training studio and a fellow trainer. They competed against each other in April 2007 to raise funds for the organization. The three of them went head to head for 45 minutes doing Push Ups and raising funds for the kids that needed it so much. I think it raised about $6,000 that year. In the spring of 2008 he developed a team concept and had 5 gyms/teams compete against each other raising funds and Pushing Up the kids that needed it most. He had a vision of a bigger and bigger event that he continued to grow.

I never dreamed of competing in this event or training to do Push Ups to raise money. In my role as executive director, I helped how I could. I MC'd the event in 2008, but never ever dreamed of doing Push Ups in front of a bunch of people! It would have been a Herculean effort for me to do one push up much less do pushups for upwards of 30 minutes. Heck, walking a flight of steps damn near killed me! So to answer the question, in 2008/2009 TheFatGuy could not do a pushup to 'save his life'.

Recently, Dr.J of Dr.J and TheFatGuy, asked me to join her Push Up team with MUSC to help raise funds for our local Community In Schools. I checked it out and who do you think was organizing it? The guy I knew as a board member had grown the event tremendously with the help of many dedicated individuals. I was impressed! But, even though I am in BEAST MODE now, the thought of competing in this event was a little intimidating. I started thinking back to the guy that could not do a pushup in 2008/2009. I started wondering. Then I checked out the recommended training program. Do 5 pushups every 20 seconds for 5 minutes then 10 minutes, up to 30 minutes. WOW, can I do this?

OK, now I took a reality check. I thought about all of the training I had done on the Total Gym that had helped transform me into a fit BEAST! I thought about how I had increased the resistance and number of reps each time I used the Total Gym and did thousands of chest and tricep exercises. I thought about all of the things I could do now that I could NEVER do before!  

And, as we know by now TheFatGuy started a journey, and TheFatGuy became TheFitGuy and grew into TheBEAST. Now let's ask the question again, Can TheFatGuy do a Push Up? Can TheFatGuy do a pushup!………..really, you are going to ask me a question like that. Come on, a pushup, sure he can do a pushup. I think he can do more than a pushup.

I was not going to ask the question, 'can I do this?' anymore.  I WOULD do this event, I WOULD train for it, I WOULD challenge myself, and I WOULD have FUN!! And guess what? I worked up to 2 training sessions of doing 5 pushups every 20 seconds for 30 minutes. Yep, if you can multiply you know that is 450 pushups in 30 minutes. Not bad for a fat guy that could not do a pushup in 2009.

I participated in the PushUp & Up event with Dr.J's team and we had FUN! And we did almost 2,000 pushups and TheFatGuy did over 400 of them.

I am truly blessed to have found my journey, to have found my health, to have found the best fitness of my life with the Total Gym, and to be able to accept challenges that I never dreamed I could tackle. No mountain too high! TheFatGuy has found SUCCESS in another way and built on it.

Note to ME and YOU: Challenge yourself! Nothing else, just challenge yourself, you may be amazed! Find your SUCCESS. A Total Gym could be the perfect way to challenge yourself and help you complete your journey!

TheFatGuyTheFitGuyTheBEAST

PS Chapter 7 in my FREE book talks about what SUCCESS looks like to TheFatGuy. A great friend read this chapter twice recently!! (Thanks Katie)