I challenged myself a while ago to do 137 push-ups and 137 sit-ups a day for a week. This is the daily average an I Ho Chuan team member needs to hit to make the 50,000 yearly goal. I was curious to see if I could do it and wanted to experience just a small taste of one of the challenges they accept for the year. Since then I decided to continue with daily push-ups and sit-ups and set my daily target at 100 of each. This has gone really well so far and I'm seeing changes in my muscles for sure. Both definition and strength. It's still hard though. That was 13 weeks ago and I still have to force myself to do them each morning. Will it get easier? Will I eventually be able to just pump them out without much thought? I'm not sure. I can understand how this might become increasingly difficult throughout the year. Miss one day due to injury, and now you need to make up 137 of each. Miss a few days and it starts to really snowball.
Probably best to pad the numbers for a rainy day.
You are dead right on this - "pad the numbers for a rainy day." This daily task, like any daily task, is a challenge - until it is not. We all find our rhythm (no matter the task) where our effort becomes effortless. As a kid I (eventually) accepted school as a fact of life. I stuck with the routine and it was no effort to go to school everyday. Yet every September when the new school year began, it was a nightmare circus of pain for me to get back into the swing of things. Come October - effortless effort.
ReplyDeleteYour pushups, your form reps are really only a reflection of your engagement with your art. They keep you honest and they keep you immersed in mastery everyday. Take a day off and you feel the consequences immediately. You sense the hole you have dug for yourself (hopefully) and your response to that awareness is the difference between a brown belt and a black belt.
Take consistent action until it become effortless effort. Kung fu and mastery will take care of themselves.