Uhg. Push-ups.

I guess you could call me someone who craves a challenge, especially when it comes to exercising. I often like to set goals. Something about checking things off a list makes it much more gratifying, and more likely I'll do it. I'm lucky in that my XX roommate also is up for a challenge and, even better, she's pretty good at finding them on the internet. Recently, she brought to my attention the issue of push-ups. Maybe you remember the presidential test in middle school? Touch your toes, run a mile, watch all but one girl in the class squirm as they hang on the pull-up bar? Apparently the government decided that not only is it a good idea for 12 year olds, but adults should be getting on the stick too. So last month the adult fitness test was announced.

According on the site, they encourage you to do 10-20 push-ups, three times a week. My roommate also read somewhere (I think it was O magazine) that women should be able to do 35 "modified push ups". That's a lot! But then you look at the picture. Boo to weak modified push-ups. Stumptuous.com, a fitness blog makes a great point:
"Way back when ... they had us doing "girl pushups" ... despite the fact that none of us--male or female--had hit puberty yet, so we were all sort of the same size and strength ... The Man pretty much sold us short right off the bat, so we grew up thinking that "girl push-ups" were the only thing we could do. "

I want to be able to do 10-20 "man" push-ups!

Back to the challenge part: my roommate and I have a tendency to go big, and she brought to my attention a website one hundred push-ups. I'm not sure how she found it, but the site boasts that "If you're serious about increasing your strength, follow this six week training program and you'll soon be on your way to completing 100 consecutive push ups!" Wow! Just six weeks? Ok well you can't win if you don't try.... here is some inspiration: