This link will take you to the terms of the push up challenge, and this link will take you back to the results of day 5 of the challenge
When does this start to feel easier?
Day 6 Figures
Day 6 Progress
When does it start to get easier? There are fewer aches and pains but I start to feel the strain after only 12 or 13 push ups. Getting to 25 often takes a lot of effort. Getting up to 30 in each session seems a long way off.
Maybe it is the mental side that isn’t working. Using imagery is meant to ensure the brain doesn’t fix on the effort you are expending. I remember a presentation where a young woman was told she had to put out her arm and do everything she could to resist the instructors effort to move her arm. Not too surprisingly, the instructor was readily able to overcome the woman’s best efforts to hold her arm still.
He then guided her to think about the problem differently. Instead of clenching her muscles to resist his attempts to move her arm he guided her to visualise a spot of light coming from the end of her arm. In the visualisation, no effort was required to extend her arm and ‘point’ the spot of light onto a target of her choosing. Her task was then to keep the spot of light on the target.
Using this mental imagery the pupil was able to withstand much greater forces applied by her instructor to get her to move her arm.
For me, I am now attempting to visualise a laser beam coming out of the top of my head and effortlessly cutting through the wall in front as I move it up and down. The idea is that by concentrating on the laser beam I don’t think about the muscular effort reguired to move up and down.
So far it doesn’t seem to convince my muscles. I’ll let you know how this develops
I had previously used the image of my Push Ups moving a paint brush to paint the wall in front. That just seemed too depressing as I am not a fan of decorating at the best of times.
Despite it all feeling like a drag, I finished the day covering the daily target. There is nothing in my self imposed rules that says I can’t add extra sessions. Even in my spreadsheet I have allowed for up to 6 sessions (sets) each day.
Overall on target to satisfactorially complete the challenge. In the end, today was a new daily total of push ups completed.
That stretch target looks a big stretch at the moment
