My wife has an annoying habit of poking the ‘batwings’ where my triceps used to be, and saying ‘how come you don’t ‘work out’ anymore?’ I generally hit back with a witty rejoinder about her anatomy. Such is our 20+ year married, middle-aged relationship.
But I’m pleased to say that I’m intending to ‘shred those bat wings’ during the month of June because I’m signing up for The Push-Up Challenge. And I’m planning on recruiting as many of my colleagues at the South Australian Business Chamber to join our the South Australian Business Chamber Push-Up Team (although I haven’t told them yet).
Why not consider it for your business, too? You can create a team at The Push-Up Challenge.
The annual Push-Up Challenge is run over 24 days in June and the target is to complete 3,139 push-ups over that time — sadly, that’s the number of Australians who died by suicide in 2020.
The Push-Up Challenge aims to raise societal awareness for suicide prevention and fundraise for prominent mental health charities, but the principal aim is maximum participation — it’s not all about drumming up funds.
If 3,139 push-ups sounds like a lot (on average, it’s 130+ push-ups every day), participants can also opt for 25%, 50% or 75% of the push-up target. You don’t have to do them in one hit and you can spread them out across the day. There are also alternatives such as sit-ups, squats or tailored exercises. It’s all about participation — there’s an achievable challenge there for everybody.
You can sign up individually or as a team, and all participants have access to a great smartphone app that enables you to track your push-ups, gives you a ‘gee up’ when you need some friendly motivation, and allows you to stimulate some healthy competition with your fellow team ‘pushers’.
I did the Push-Up Challenge last year (I haven’t performed a single push-up in the intervening period, hence the ‘batwings’) and I’ll give you the tip…it’s quite physically demanding. You will REALLY feel it in the first week after you’ve awakened those pecs, biceps, triceps and abs from their hibernation. So sore! But it gets better as you progress through the challenge. You’ll feel stronger and stronger as you go along, and the push-ups will become easier and easier (trust me).
Apart from the individual fitness improvements, there are great benefits to be had by tackling the Push-Up Challenge as a team at work. My team really bonded over the challenge last year and we came away a stronger and closer group, which has longer-term benefits for the team and the wider organisation. There’s shared adversity, a shared goal, some good-natured banter and competition (maybe even a little ‘trash talk’ to spur each other on), and recognition that the group is doing something beneficial for the wider community. It has a remarkably positive effect on team and organisational culture.
Indeed, there’s no greater show of organisational solidarity than having a bunch of staff hit the deck simultaneously at work, at a designated time, to pump out 50 push-ups to the beat of ‘Pump it up’ by Endor, while the rest of the workplace claps along in unison.
You got to pump it up…Don’t you know? Pump it up…You got to pump it up…Don’t you know? Pump it up…
And at the end of The Push-Up Challenge you’ll all feel a great sense of satisfaction, your general fitness will be better, and you’ll have helped raise awareness (and some donations, too) for suicide prevention.
Everybody wins — you, your teammates, your team, your organisation and the community.
And then you can rest those muscles for another year, whilst you prepare for your next team challenge, whether it be the World’s Greatest Shave (best for the follicle-challenged people amongst us), Movember (for the follicle-unchallenged) or Dry July.
Happy ‘pushing’.
Clayton Wehner, Digital Transformation Lead, South Australian Business Chamber
