The 10,000 push-up challenge is finishing 10,000 push-ups in a month — about 300 to 400 a day — and the way to get started is to begin on an incline, break the reps into small sets with short rests, and write down every set as you go.
On this Physical Friday I talk with Kevin Burns, who not only completed the challenge but has done 10,000 push-ups every single month since 2021. He started at 57, uses push-up bars or dumbbells to spare his wrists and shoulders, and tracks everything in a simple document. His advice for anyone on the fence: do not try to boil the ocean.
Listen now: press play in the player above and follow along.
It is completing 10,000 push-ups across a month, which works out to roughly 300 to 400 a day. Kevin Burns has not only done it — he has done 10,000 push-ups every single month since 2021. You can break the reps up however you like throughout the day, and the goal is approachable for almost anyone if you start small and stay consistent. It is as much a mental challenge as a physical one, especially at the beginning when the number sounds impossible.
Kevin Burns recommends starting on a slight incline so your body gets used to the volume — it is easier than going straight to the floor and it is not cheating if it helps you get stronger. Break the reps into manageable sets, maybe 30 or 40 at first, then rest 30 to 45 seconds to a minute before the next set, writing down each set as you go. Build toward 300 to 400 a day, which is what you need to reach 10,000 in a month. As you get stronger, the set sizes naturally grow.
Kevin Burns uses push-up bars or dumbbells to take the strain off the wrists and keep a slight incline, which eases the shoulders too. He found that as he got into his sixties, push-ups did not beat up his body the way heavy bench and military presses did — you can hurt yourself trying to keep up with the young guys at the gym, but careful push-ups let you keep training. He also stresses recovery as you age: a protein bar or shake and eating right to help the joints bounce back.
Kevin Burns started with a simple notebook and dates, then moved to a Word document where he tabs in the date and the number of reps for each set. An Excel spreadsheet works just as well, or a notebook — whatever you will keep up with. The key is writing down each set right after you do it so the totals add up reliably across the day and the month. The tracking itself becomes part of the discipline that gets you to 10,000.
Absolutely. Kevin Burns started at 57 and has kept it going into his sixties. My own dad did it in his eighties and is doing it again at 84, knocking out around 250 to 400 a day. For him the real benefit is not even the push-ups — it is getting down on the ground and back up, which they say correlates directly with quality and length of life, so the challenge delivers a powerful byproduct: repeatedly getting onto the floor and standing back up.
Kevin Burns says do not try to boil the ocean. You do not need 250 in one session — do 15 at lunch, 15 in your office, and suddenly you are at 75, then 100, and you build from there. Start on an incline if you need to; it is not cheating. There is a mental hurdle at first when you can only get 10 or 15, but as you have at it through the day, confidence grows and the reps pile up. Anyone can do it by spreading the work across the day.
Kevin Burns is living proof that the 10,000 push-up challenge is not a one-time stunt — he has done it every month since 2021, starting in his late fifties. I wanted him to walk people through how he broke up the reps, kept track, and protected his shoulders and wrists, because his approach makes the whole thing feel doable. He shares exactly how he does it, and why he kept going, in the episode, so press play in the player above.
Here is how Kevin Burns suggests beginning the challenge. We cover more in the episode.
I unpack each of these in the episode. Press play in the player above.
Kevin Burns made a point that stuck with me. As he hit his sixth decade, trying to keep up with heavy bench and military presses at the gym started to risk injury. Push-ups, done carefully with bars or dumbbells, gave him the strength work without beating up his shoulders. It let him keep training hard while the heavy stuff would have sidelined him. He explains how he dialed it in over the years in the episode, so press play in the player above.
My dad is 84 and getting ready to do the challenge again, around 250 to 400 push-ups a day. The push-ups are great, but the real gift is getting down on the ground and back up over and over — and they say your ability to get up off the ground correlates directly with quality and length of life. The push-ups are almost the byproduct. I share more about his routine in the episode, so press play in the player above.
The hardest part is the number in your head. Break it into 15s across the day and 10,000 stops feeling impossible.
The 10,000 push-up challenge starts February 1 — sign up at tomrowlandpodcast.com/pushups, and I will be doing push-ups live on Instagram so you can join in. Press play in the player above.
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.
10,000 push-up challenge · push-ups · Kevin Burns · incline push-ups · push-up bars · recovery · protein · getting up off the ground · Physical Friday · Tom Rowland Podcast
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 enough to do the things they love — hunting, fishing, hiking, and more — for life.
Full transcript of the Tom Rowland Podcast, Episode 718 with Kevin Burns on getting started with the 10,000 push-up challenge.
Tom Rowland: What's going on, everybody? It's Physical Friday, and this Friday we're talking about the 10,000 push-up challenge. I have a guest here, Kevin Burns, who not only has done the 10,000 push-up challenge, but has continued to do 10,000 push-ups every month since 2021. Kevin, what's going on? How are you today?
Kevin Burns: I'm doing great, Tom. How are you, sir?
Tom Rowland: I'm doing fantastic. I really appreciate you being on, and we've been texting back and forth about your experience here. You have a tremendous amount of experience with 10,000 push-ups. I just want you to give us a sense of when you first started, how you broke up the reps, how you keep track of them, and then we'll get into why you continue to do them, 10,000 a month, every month since 2021. That's awesome.
Kevin Burns: Fantastic, thank you. So, yeah, first they started doing them on a little bit of an incline, so you could get your body used to that amount, and it makes it easier than just starting right out on the floor. And then as time goes on, you graduate, you get a little stronger. Although I still use push-up bars and or dumbbells to take the strain off the wrist, and it still gives you a little bit of an incline. Just a little bit. And it takes the strain off the shoulders and the wrist a little bit.
Tom Rowland: Nice. And so how do you break up the reps? Like when you first started compared to today, as you're doing them today?
Kevin Burns: Right, so when I first started, it might have been 30 or 40 at a time, and then I'd stop, write down the amount I did on a piece of paper with a pen, and then take a good thirty seconds, forty-five seconds, a minute, and then get back at it, until I could get to, say, three or four hundred a day, which is sort of what you need to get to 10,000 a month. And then, as you get a little bit stronger, you're doing more. So keeping track matters. And in between the sets of push-ups, I might use those dumbbells to do some curls or some tricep extensions, just anything to break it up a little bit, but still give your body a little bit of a rest so you can get back into push-ups.
Tom Rowland: Nice. And so a lot of people, when they finish the 10,000 push-up challenge for the first time, they don't want to do another push-up for many months, but you decided to continue to do that every month. How has that journey been for you, doing them every single month?
Kevin Burns: Yeah, I think for me, it lessened instead of going to the gym and trying to bench press and military press and do all those things, because as I get older, I recently hit my sixth decade, you can hurt yourself that way. But with the push-ups, if you're careful, you don't put that strain on your shoulders especially. So I just found that the push-ups did not seem to hurt my body as much as some of those heavy weights, and trying to keep up with the folks at the gym is something I just can't do anymore.
Tom Rowland: I don't know, man. I think they're gonna have a hard time keeping up with you. I think if you ask some of those young guys there if they can do 10,000 push-ups in a month, you may find your crowd around you decreasing quickly as you do that. It's pretty impressive to continue to do it. Now, how have you found over time the best way for you to keep track of them?
Kevin Burns: Yeah, so I use a Word document. I've just kept the Word document. You could use an Excel spreadsheet, you could use a notebook, whatever works. I think when I first started this, when you put this challenge out, I was just using a notebook with dates. What I found is that having a Word document, you could just tab in and put in the date and put in the number of reps as I'm doing them, or write them down and then go into the Word document and record it there, and just keep track.
Tom Rowland: Alright, well I'm assuming you're gonna be part of the 10,000 push-up challenge in February. So I'm glad to have you, and I'm sorry that I created such a monster for you, but 10,000 push-ups a month since 2021, man, that's impressive. That's very, very impressive, and you've obviously got good dedication and discipline to be able to continue to turn them out like that. So good job to you.
Kevin Burns: Yeah, well thank you so much. I really enjoy it. And I think, you know, one of the things too is just make sure as you get older, you recover. Maybe you take a protein shake or a protein bar, but just do something to help yourself recover. As we get older, the joints, you have to be careful with them. So I think eating right and doing some of those things that we need to do helps you recover from this. But that's like any exercise. I've enjoyed it immensely, and I can't thank you enough for putting this out there. I think you had mentioned that your dad, in his eighties, had done it one year.
Tom Rowland: He's gonna do it again this year. He's 84 now, and he was telling me the other day, he was like, I'm doing about two-fifty a day to be ready for the 10,000 in February. And he'll do 400 a day, he'll finish early.
Kevin Burns: So inspirational.
Tom Rowland: Yeah, and for him, one of the things that's the best for him is not actually the push-ups, but getting on the ground and getting back up. As you're 84 years old, they say there's a direct correlation to your ability to get up off the ground and your quality and length of life. And the push-ups are like a byproduct of that. You've gotta get on the ground to do the push-ups, and then you've gotta get back up on your feet to walk around. So he's doing a lot of sets a day, and he's getting down and he's getting up, which I think may even be more beneficial to him than the push-ups are, just getting down on the ground and getting back up. There's a lot of byproducts. So I'm glad you're part of it, and thanks for doing this.
Tom Rowland: I'm sure that you're gonna help a lot of people start that challenge. What would you say to somebody who is on the fence trying this, thinking, I've never done 10,000 push-ups in my life, I don't know if I can do that? What would you say to them?
Kevin Burns: Oh, I think it's sure, there's that little bit of a mental challenge. When people first start to do a push-up or two, it's frightening, because maybe they just get 10, maybe they just get 15. But again, start out a little bit on an incline. It's not cheating if you need to get stronger. And I would even say to those folks, you don't have to try and get 250 all in one session, or as you're starting out. You do 15 at lunch, or 15 in your office, and all of a sudden you're up to 75, a hundred, and you can work your way up. So, I started this at fifty-seven, fifty-eight years old. So I think anyone can do it. It's just a matter of, don't try to boil the ocean. Just have at it during the day, and you'll start to get some confidence, and they'll just start to pile up for you.
Tom Rowland: Nice, I love it. Alright, Kevin, thanks so much. We look forward to seeing you in the challenge, and we'll look forward to seeing everybody else in the challenge too. The 10,000 push-up challenge starts February 1st. You can go to tomrowlandpodcast.com/pushups to sign up for that. And if you do sign up for it, there may be some prizes and things that are coming from some of the sponsors that want to be part of this, so you never know. It's also a great way to keep in touch, and I will be doing push-ups live on Instagram, so I'll tell you when we're gonna be doing that, and you can tune in if you want to and do them with me. Alright, that's Physical Friday for this week. We'll talk to you next week. See you.
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