The final summer challenge is a five-day pushup test: pick a starting number, then double it every day for five days. Start at one and finish at sixteen, or start at twenty-five and finish at four hundred — the doubling does the work either way. All summer we have followed Bruce Lee's rule: absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add in what is uniquely your own. This challenge closes the season, and it doubles as a toe in the water for February's 10,000 Pushup Challenge.
Watch now: press play on the video above, or listen in the player at the top of the page.
Pick any pushup number you can do today and double it every day for five days. Day one is your starting number, day two is double that, and so on through day five. If you cannot do a single pushup, start at one and finish the week at sixteen, on your knees if you have to. The point is to get involved, try something you are not currently doing, and test yourself a little.
For an easier version, start at ten: that gives you 10, 20, 40, 80, and 120 on day five. For a harder version, start at 25: that is 25 on Monday, 50 Tuesday, 100 Wednesday, 200 Thursday, and 400 on Friday. Pick a starting number that makes your Friday total something that genuinely tests you, whatever your level is right now.
It is a challenge we have run for the last two years where you complete 10,000 pushups in the month of February — roughly 300 a day for thirty days. It has grown every year, and this year we are bringing in sponsors, products, and some really cool extras. We keep a spreadsheet that projects your finish date at your current rate, and plenty of people bank extra reps and finish in fifteen to twenty days.
Start now, not in January. Use this five-day doubling challenge to test the waters, then build in blocks: roughly three weeks of increasing volume followed by one lighter week, repeated until February. The goal is to train your muscles, tendons, and ligaments gradually so you arrive ready instead of jumping off the couch into 300 pushups a day and getting hurt.
Absolutely. The format scales to any level because you choose the starting number. One pushup on day one becomes sixteen by day five. Do them on your knees, elevate your hands, or get help however you need to. Whether you make it ridiculously easy or ridiculously difficult is entirely up to you — the structure is identical.
All summer we ran five-day experiments: drink a gallon of water a day, sleep eight hours a night for five nights, follow a dedicated stretching routine, and more. The rule came from Bruce Lee — absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add in what is uniquely your own. If a challenge enhanced your life, keep it. If it did not, drop it or invent your own variation.
Here is the whole workout. It takes one decision and five days of follow-through.
I talk through both versions and what the buildup to February looks like in the episode. Press play in the player above.
We tried a lot of things this summer, some crazy, some easy, some hard. I wanted to close with a challenge anybody could actually do, at any fitness level, with zero equipment. Pushups are it. The doubling format means the same structure works whether your day one is a single knee pushup or two hundred strict ones. I explain why this one earns a permanent spot in the rotation in the episode, so press play in the player above.
The 10,000 Pushup Challenge has grown every year we have run it, and this year there will be sponsors, products, and a cause attached. Still, 300 pushups a day for a month is not something to jump into cold. This week is how you find out whether the big challenge is for you, and the block-style buildup afterward is how you arrive in February trained instead of injured. I lay out the timeline in the episode — press play in the player above.
Five days of water, five nights of sleep, five days of stretching — each one was an experiment on yourself. Some of them you kept, some you discarded, and maybe some turned into a variation that is uniquely your own. That was the whole point. You now know things about your own body that no article could have told you. I recap the season and what I am keeping personally in the episode, so press play in the player above.
You choose where you start, and you choose where you finish. That is what I love about this one — it meets you exactly where you are and still tests you by Friday.
If this week plants the seed for February, even better. Get trained up, stay uninjured, and I will see you at the 10,000 Pushup Challenge.
pushup challenge · 10,000 Pushup Challenge · Bruce Lee · five-day summer challenges · doubling progression · knee pushups · training blocks · February challenge spreadsheet
Physical Friday is my weekly fitness series for fishing guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen — the training, nutrition, and mindset to stay in the game for life. Watch and listen to every Physical Friday episode from Tom Rowland.
I'm Tom Rowland, a professional fishing guide based in the Florida Keys, host of the Tom Rowland Podcast, and the longtime host of the Saltwater Experience television show. On the podcast's Physical Friday series I share the training, nutrition, and mindset that keep fishing guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen strong, healthy, and in the game for life — short, practical episodes you can put to work the same day.
Subscribe to get the latest episodes, show notes, and exclusive content delivered straight to your inbox.