A fitness failure

For as long as I can remember, I have been a scrawny kid. At 5’11’’ and 140 lbs, I am all skin and bones, and no amount of food can improve my skinniness. My attempts to eat massive amounts of protein have never produced results, my forays into working out and weightlifting have proved ineffective, and despite my above average height, I have never progressed past the status of a featherweight.

Because of this, I knew exactly what the goal of my week of healthiness would be: to get some bulk on my arms. My plan? To do 200 push-ups every night, to eat immense amounts of protein and to hold off on sweets for a week. Little did I know that these simple goals would prove to be impossible to achieve.

The first night of the week, I prepared to crank out push-ups at record pace and to finish within five minutes. I started with 30 push-ups in a row, but my sets shrank to 20 each as I neared the halfway point. However, after I had done 100, the push-ups seemed to become exponentially more difficult, and I began to feel lethargic. By the time I was finishing up, I could only muster 10 at a time, but I still felt satisfied when I finished the 200.

When I woke up the next morning, I immediately felt my triceps aching. That afternoon, I played a tennis match and felt significantly hampered by my overworked arms. Lucky for me, I had six matches during that week, and I soon realized that I would have no success if I continued my push-ups at night.

Although I felt embarrassed that my adventure had only lasted one day, I realized that I could continue any other week, and that I owed it to myself and to my team to put tennis, my main source of fitness, first.

Although I failed in my push-up goal, I succeeded in creating a sugar-free, protein-heavy diet for myself. I do not have much of a sweet tooth anyway, but I felt more active without the unhealthy food weighing me down.

Ultimately, my experience is a confidence boost for anyone who feels as if they have failed to reach a fitness goal. As long as someone lasts more than one day, he or she has accomplished much more than I did that week.