Skipper's 3/28 Challenge: 30 Minute Push-up Sit-up Challenge

The push up and the sit up. Two fitness staples from time immemorial.

These are two of the most ubiquitous exercises in our modern world. Sure, they're not "ideal." Arguably, there can be problems associated with their overuse (though some would argue that strict form and a little bit of manning up will offset any injury risk). Despite this, there are few exercises, other than running, that are more regularly used to gage overall fitness levels. From law enforcement to the military to your local high school, push ups and sit ups are a common denominator from which to pull an assessment.

Today's challenge is simple: pick a number for each, and try to hit those numbers in 30 minutes. You can, of course, simply do as many as possible in the allotted time; but I personally find that I will push a little harder when I'm hungry for those one or two extra reps to hit a goal number.

The actual amount of push ups/sit ups required for this challenge will vary by individual. I suggest starting with a number that you can perform in a single set that isn't very taxing, and then multiplying that number by 10. For me, I can very easily do 20 push ups at a time and 10 sit ups (can you tell I suck at sit ups?). I can do 50+ push ups in a set and 30+ sit ups, but the numbers of 20 and 10, respectively, are what I can do before I start to feel it.

So for me, multiplying these numbers by 10, I had 100 sit ups and 200 push ups to do in that 30 minute time span. Here's how my sets broke down:
Push Up Sets:
20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 10, 10
Sit Up Sets:
20, 20, 20, 10, 10, 10, 10

Challenge completed with 1:38 to spare. Kind of close, but having those goal numbers really pushed me to finish it up (I almost didn't finish the push ups). In retrospect, I ought to have started out a little stronger; maybe a set of 40 push ups and a set of 30 sit ups and worked down from there. It got done in the end, but barely.

So, what were your numbers? Did you complete the challenge? Remember: your only competition is yourself. If you did 500 push ups and 600 sit ups, but it was very easy, you failed the challenge. Set a higher bar, next time. However, if you did only 15 push ups and 20 sit ups, but you fell flat at the end from muscle exhaustion, you beat the challenge.

Good luck!