Push-ups are a classic bodyweight exercise—but it seems they’re everywhere these days, especially with prominent figures like Mel Robbins and U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., launching push-up challenges.
I consider myself a relatively athletic person—I’m no gym rat, but I enjoy moving my body and have spent the last few months training for my second half-marathon. But that means, besides a once-weekly group strength class at my local gym, arm strength has not exactly been a priority of mine.
However, after all this chatter about push-ups online (and a devastating loss in an arm wrestling competition with my best friend), I decided to commit to improving my push-up prowess. Here’s what happened.
Originally, I’d planned to do 10 push-ups daily for a full month, but a nasty viral infection kept me in bed for a week and upended my plans at consistency. Still, I managed to do 30 days of push-ups over the course of about 5.5 weeks.
There are lots of different kinds of push-ups out there, but I stuck with the standard type to work my chest, shoulders, back, and arm muscles. I focused on maintaining good form—a tight core and straight line from the shoulders to the feet, and elbows extending back at about a 45° angle.
When I got tired and felt my form start to slip, I modified the remaining push-ups and did the exercise from my knees until I got to 10.
I assumed that by the end of this challenge, I’d be a push-up whiz, flying through 10 like it was nothing. While that didn’t really happen, there were some things I learned (and gained) over the 30 days.
1. Push-Ups Didn’t Get Easier, But I Got Speedier and Stronger
It took me a while to build up to doing 10 perfect-form push-ups from my feet. For the first 11 days, I was doing about six to eight push-ups from my feet, and the remaining from my knees.
Progress isn’t linear (I had to sneak in a few knee push-ups here and there), but after about 12 days, I was able to consistently do all 10 from my feet. My body may have simply gotten more accustomed to doing push-ups, but I think it’s fair to assume that I got a bit stronger over the course of the challenge.
I also got faster at doing the push-ups—in the beginning, each rep felt like its own event, with a couple seconds of rest between each one. But after 30 days, I was able to move quickly from one push-up to the next, and I noticed that it didn’t take me very long to complete them.
That said, even though I got stronger and the push-ups became more consistent, I never got to a point where they were easy. Every time I reached rep number seven, I could feel my arm muscles start to shake (and the voice in my head say, “When is this going to be over?”).
2. I Saw More Definition in My Triceps
After about 25 days of doing push-ups, I noticed that my triceps in particular seemed more toned and defined. This makes sense—push-ups work the triceps, and research shows they place a greater load on this muscle, especially in women.
3. Consistency Is Key (And Not Always Easy)
Illness aside, I found it challenging to establish a routine with this push-up challenge.
Research has shown that exercising consistently, especially at the same time each day, helps make a movement more habitual and easier to stick to. But even though I knew that getting on a schedule would make the whole challenge easier, I still found it hard to execute.
Sometimes, I did the push-ups after my morning workout; other times, they happened during a break in my workday. But often, I forgot (or procrastinated) until the end of the day, and I did them before getting in bed (yes, this was as unpleasant as it sounds).
4. Certain Things Didn’t Change
I’ve heard that strengthening your upper body (along with stretching and other exercise) is good for your posture. After 30 days of doing push-ups, though, I didn’t really notice any difference. It’s possible this is something that would only happen after a longer period—or maybe push-ups are no match for my constant hunching over my computer.
I’m also not sure if the push-ups helped with other areas of fitness, particularly running. Some research suggests that strength training and upper-body fitness are positively linked to running performance. I was happy with how my half-marathon went, but I was curious whether doing push-ups consistently would change how I felt while running—on that front, nothing seemed noticeably different.
My month-long experiment with push-ups took longer than expected, and also didn’t completely overhaul my fitness. In many ways, I feel pretty similar to how I did at the start of the challenge.
That being said, I did notice small glimpses of increased upper-body strength, which felt encouraging. I don’t know if it’ll be every day, but I’ll definitely continue incorporating push-ups into my fitness routine in some capacity—possibly after my runs, or as a way to break up the hours spent sitting at my desk.
