I was at a party some years ago, and someone mentioned an article they’d read earlier in the day about how many push-ups the average person ought to be able to do. The article mentions that a 40-year-old woman in good health should be able to do 16 push-ups, a fact at which all of us marveled, it seemed so unreasonably ambitious. Oh, except me. I didn’t marvel. I scoffed. And then in a fit of drunken, misguided, 26-year-old bravado, I proceeded to drop to the floor to do my 16 push-ups.
I think I managed two.
When I decided I should take this goal seriously and get to work after a pretty productive climbing season, I did… four push-ups. But it turns out it’s the kind of strength you can build up pretty quickly, and so after doing push-ups every few days for six weeks or so, I will be ready the next time a bunch of people are discussing a newspaper article from 2008 at a party. I am going to be so much fun at parties.
