Over the past week, while fighting off bronchitis and the flu, I found myself falling into a funk. I figured it was a combination of my sickness (right now, I spent five minutes trying to come up with a witty "feeling like... " but no analogy I could come up with short of dog's ass fit adequately and I didn't even think that quite fit) and the stress of my current situation and the feelings that inevitably go along with it.
What I didn't even consider is that my funk could by explained simply by the fact that I couldn't do my pushups at night.
Up until last Monday, when I really started to feel terrible, I would do pushups every night before bed. I have to give credit here, my coworker Hugo Lujan is a competitive bodybuilder and looks amazing. I asked him a way to build up my arms at home and he suggested the nightly pushup routine. I'll never forget when he said, "Within a week or two, if you stick to it you won't be able to go to bed without doing them. They become addictive." I shrugged that off. I love being active and playing sports, but I've never been a workout guy. Don't like running, don't like working out for the most part.
I started about a month ago with two sets - the first set was 20; the second, 15. I didn't feel sore after but my shoulder bothered me a bit while I was doing it and I didn't want to push it. My goal (and Hugo's goal for me) is to get to 100 pushups per night. Each night, regardless if I had been out, been drinking, been doing whatever, I came home, either put on the "workout" channel on DirecTV or queued up some songs on Spotify and did my pushups. After a few days, my shoulder didn't hurt so I moved up to sets of 20 and 20. Approximately each week since then I've moved up five per week and last week before I fell ill, I moved up to 30 and 25.
Then I got sick. My first night, I forced my way through the pushups because I refused to believe I was really sick and just blamed stress. The next six nights, this was not an option. There were times I couldn't make it down the stairs to make tea, let alone do pushups. So over the weekend, I really started to feel down. I was slowly feeling better physically and got out of the house, but I was just sad and upset. I had a hard time feeling good about myself, my situation, even my new apartment. Today, I still have the cough from the bronchitis, but for the most part I feel good yet I felt terrible. There were exceptions, I have some great people in my life who put smiles on my face and I appreciate them immensely, but I was feeling very low.
Tonight, I said, "I'm doing my pushups". I'm not about to let myself go. I've dropped 48 pounds in the last nine months and there's no way I'm ever being lethargic, inactive or unhealthy again (like I've been forced to be the past week). I put on my tunes and planned on taking a couple extra sets because of the time off, but making sure to get in my 55. First set, 20. OK, I told myself, your strength isn't back all the way, don't get frustrated. Second set, 20. The arms were feeling a bit trembly, but 15 more was all I had left. My next set, 10. Oh, no! What did I do? Is my body still weak from being sick? Did I lose that much ground? New song hits (99 Problems, for what it's worth) and I'm determined. I did 12 crunches and found a second wind. 4th set, 15 more. We blew past 55 but it took double the sets and the song just started. I decided I wanted to hit 80. 12 more crunches and I'm feeling great. This is the "high" that I had fallen in love with. One more set of 15 left. I blew through the first 12 and the last three had that sweet burn that I never thought I would enjoy. 80 pushups.
You know what happened next? I felt amazing. I felt clarity. I felt peace. Everything made sense again. Even my chest and sinuses felt better. Whatever amazing endorphins go through your body when you work out each night, when you deprive your brain of that after a few days, I think it rebels. Mine certainly did. So if you're feeling in a funk - break out a few pushups or go for a run. You might be amazed how much better you feel after.
