The last week of the 10,000 Pushup Challenge is about two things: celebrating what the challenge accomplished for clean water, and turning your new strength and discipline into the next step of your fitness journey. The awareness campaign worked. Forty thousand petition signatures and a flood of calls helped get SB 2508 amended. In this Physical Friday I recap what we did together, why discipline is the real prize, and exactly what to do now so you do not lose momentum.
Watch now: press play on the video above and follow along.
The challenge worked exactly as designed: a conversation starter. People asked why we were doing so many pushups, and that opened the door to talk about Captains For Clean Water and Florida's water issues. When SB 2508 appeared at the eleventh hour, the community was ready. We got 40,000 petition signatures right away, people called their state senators and congressmen, and that pressure was enough to get the bill amended. Small actions by a lot of people made a huge impact.
Use it as a stair step, not a finish line. If you are already training all the time, find another challenge next month. If this was a breakthrough for you, ride the momentum into a CrossFit class, a boot camp, a trainer, or a group you put together. The worst move is to stop. Your body is stronger than it has been in a long time and you just proved you can do things you did not think you could do.
Pick a non-negotiable amount of time instead of agonizing over the perfect program. Decide you will get thirty or forty five minutes of exercise three days a week, no matter what it is: a walk, tennis, swimming, the gym. People who obsess over choosing between CrossFit, a trainer, or a boot camp often end up doing nothing. The people who succeed simply commit to the time and figure out the activity as they go.
Because paying the entry fee and putting it on the calendar makes you committed before you feel ready. Identify a marathon, a 5K, a half marathon, a Spartan race, a CrossFit event, a SEALFIT 20X, or a GoRuck event, sign up today, and pay your money. As the date gets closer you will train for it whether you are dreading it or looking forward to it, and you always have something on the horizon pulling you forward.
You get stronger in ways that surprise you. My pushups got stronger, which I expected, but the volume also somehow improved my pull ups and my handstand pushups. The bigger benefit is mental: doing 300 to 500 pushups every single day, including the days you absolutely do not want to, builds discipline. With discipline you can accomplish just about anything, and that carries into every other part of your training and your life.
Yes. There will be other challenges throughout the year, and the 10,000 Pushup Challenge comes back every year, so you can jump in next time. If you are hearing about it after the fact, do not wait for the official version. Pick your own month, do the math on a daily number, and recruit a friend or two. The format works any time, and the discipline you build is the same.
Here is the playbook I lay out for what to do the week the 10,000 Pushup Challenge ends.
I walk through each of these in the episode. Press play above.
The whole idea was to use the challenge as a conversation starter, and the timing turned out to be perfect. When SB 2508 tried to slide through at the eleventh hour, thousands of people who learned about the issues through the challenge took action. A call to a state senator and a signature on a petition are two incredibly small actions, and multiplied across 40,000 people they bent the outcome. I tell the whole story in the episode, so press play above.
Doing 500 or a thousand pushups in a day is hard. Doing it again the next day, and the next, when you are tired and sore and certain you have had enough pushups for a lifetime, is discipline. That repetitive act of showing up is worth more than the strength you gained, because with discipline you can accomplish just about anything. I get into how that discipline transfers to the rest of your life in the episode, so press play above.
Right now you feel better about your physical body than you have in a long time, and that is precisely the moment to commit to the next thing. For some of you that is a structured class. For others it is a simple non-negotiable: thirty minutes of movement on set days every week. For the ones feeling dangerous, it is an entry fee for an event you have no idea how you will finish. I walk through how to pick your lane in the episode, so press play above.
Congratulations to everyone who took the challenge, whether you did all 10,000 alone or built a team to get there. You got stronger physically, you got stronger mentally, and you helped win a real fight for Florida's water.
Now do not let it end here. Pick your next step this week, put it on the calendar, and keep climbing. Press play above for the full send-off.
10,000 Pushup Challenge · Captains For Clean Water · Senate Bill 2508 · CrossFit · SEALFIT Kokoro · SEALFIT 20X · GoRuck · Spartan Race · marathon training · discipline · Florida water quality
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. Physical Friday is my weekly fitness series for fishing guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen, where I share the training, nutrition, and mindset that keep me ready to fish, hunt, and live hard for the rest of my life.
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