Exercises

[This post is part of a series on my daily exercise and starting and keeping challenging habits. If you don't see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you'll get more value than reading just this post.] I hit my 70,000th burpee today. Well, around today. I sometimes do more but never fewer, so I'm not sure the exact number. 70,000 is a lower estimate. Still doing 26 every morning and 26 every evening. Haven't missed any. On the contrary, I also include stretching, ab, and back exercises. They're still never easy. Before every set I have to steel myself to do them and use willpower to start. But after every set I feel great. If you don't…

Damn, it feels good to lift. Since starting this blog, I've run a marathon, done over sixty-thousand burpees, developed well-defined abs, won summer league finals playing Ultimate Frisbee, rowed on the stationary rower the equivalent of the distance to Pittsburgh from New York, and a few other active things. But I haven't lifted weights in that time. Except I have a few times lately, and, man, does it feel good. "Soreness and exhaustion feel great!" Not since graduate school, when I last played Ultimate competitively, have I lifted. I've liked the challenge of finding exercises that need no equipment, like burpees, crunches, and inverted rows I can do under my counter top. I'm testing the waters about making a regular habit of it (not likely…

Yesterday began my fifth year of daily burpees, never missing one! I love the fitness they create. More importantly, the practice of integrity they create leads to me not skimping in other areas. My routine has expanded from ten burpees total to include stretching, back exercises, and ab exercises---one set in the morning, another set in the evening. I've also started other SIDCHAs. I've written before about their benefits, which you can read about in "Burpees — unbeatable for fitness and my best habit — the series" and "The Self-Imposed Daily Challenging Healthy Activity (SIDCHA) series." Come to think of it, my Harvard and MIT SIDCHA talk covered the subject well. I recommend watching it if you haven't. It's changed people's lives. Most of all,…