Tracking the 10,000 Pushup Challenge means recording every set you do, on a phone notepad, a journal, a whiteboard, or the free spreadsheet on the podcast website, so you can prove your 10,000 at the end of February. This year the challenge is an awareness campaign for Captains For Clean Water and the fight for Florida's water quality, with teams of any size welcome. This Physical Friday answers the registration and tracking questions you have been sending me.
Listen now: press play in the player above and follow along.
Any way you want, as long as you actually track it. People use the notepad app on their phone, written journals, and office whiteboards, and the best option in my opinion is the simple spreadsheet my friend Steen Watson made, available free at tomrowlandpodcast.com/pushups. Log each set as you do it, take a picture of your record at the end of the month, and send it to me, that is all the proof I need.
It is a very simple spreadsheet with the days of the month and the number you should do each day. As you enter your pushups, it calculates how many you have left and how many per day you need to finish by the end of the month. Get ahead and you can watch your finish date move up, which is great motivation to do a few extra.
Yes, please register yourself, every member of your team, and anyone who contributes pushups to your total at tomrowlandpodcast.com/pushups. Registration matters because it adds you to the Captains For Clean Water newsletter, which keeps you informed on Florida water issues and tells you when small actions like sending a letter to your representatives are needed most.
Florida's water problems, the discharges from Lake Okeechobee hitting both coasts and the water being held back from flowing south into the Everglades, look impossible to fix alone, just like 10,000 pushups looks impossible alone. Both get solved by a lot of people taking small actions together. The challenge is an awareness campaign, every teammate you recruit is a conversation about clean water.
Absolutely. Knee pushups count, every pushup counts, and I am not judging form, this year is about participation. You can do a huge number one day and rest the next, do ten days of a thousand, or hold a steady 333 a day, any path to 10,000 in the month is fine. Strive for good form, but do not let form anxiety stop you from starting.
There is a certificate you can print at home and frame for your office. It shows you did the 10,000 pushups and that you care about water quality in the state of Florida enough to do something about it. If you do not need accolades, that is fine too, the finish is its own reward.
We have run the pushup challenge for years, but this year it grew into something much larger than this little podcast. We partnered with Captains For Clean Water, and on Wednesday's full-length episode with Alicia we covered the whole story of the partnership. Since then my inbox has filled with the same questions about registration and tracking, so this episode answers them all in one place. Press play in the player above.
Here is the system, from registration to the finish-line photo.
I walk through each of these in the episode. Press play in the player above.
Honestly, not much, until you look at the shape of the problem. Ten thousand pushups seems impossible alone, and so does fixing Lake Okeechobee's discharges and restoring flow to the Everglades. Form a team, communicate, educate, and suddenly small actions by a lot of people move mountains. That parallel is the whole reason this year's challenge exists, and I lay it out fully in the episode. Press play in the player above.
Registration is not about collecting names, it is about the Captains For Clean Water newsletter, which is the action machine. When 50,000 letters need to land on a representative's desk, the newsletter is how you find out, and a pre-written letter takes one click to send. That is how fishermen show lawmakers that clean water has votes behind it. I explain how well this has worked in the episode, so press play in the player above.
I find it genuinely interesting how people split their daily number, 100 at breakfast, lunch, and dinner with 33 scattered in the middle, or sets of 50 and 20 all day long the way I do it on my phone notepad. There is no wrong answer, and seeing everyone's patterns at the end of the month is one of my favorite parts. Share yours with me, and press play in the player above for my approach.
Do not let your first pushup of the year happen on day one of the challenge. Your count starts February 1st, but your training should start now, gradually working up so 333 a day is a continuation rather than a shock. Throughout the month we will also cover soreness, supplements, and the tricks that get teams through. Press play in the player above to get ready right.
Want the full breakdown? Press play in the player above and listen to the whole episode.
Welcome to this year's 10,000 Pushup Challenge. It starts February 1st, but the process starts now, register your team at tomrowlandpodcast.com/pushups, grab the spreadsheet, start ramping up, and pick the tracking habit you will actually keep.
If you hit trouble or just want to share how it is going, text me at (305) 930-7346 or email podcast@saltwaterexperience.com. It is me who answers, and I cannot wait to see your numbers at the end of the month.
10,000 Pushup Challenge · Captains For Clean Water · Alicia of Captains For Clean Water · Lake Okeechobee · Everglades · Florida water quality · Steen Watson · tracking spreadsheet · tomrowlandpodcast.com/pushups · Black Rifle Coffee · Physical Friday
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 workouts, nutrition, and mindset that keep guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen strong on the water and in the field, in short, focused episodes you can put to use right away.
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