Fitness Friday: Of Push-ups and Pull-ups

It is one of the blessings of old friends
that you can afford to be stupid with them.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

As I’ve mentioned before, one of the ways I’m fitting in fitness and making sure I get off my laptop-working-bum is by playing little games with myself. Jumping rope while waiting for the microwave or the toaster or the skillet to heat as I make my breakfast or lunch. Bicycle crunches when the dog scratches at the door to be let out (after I let her out. Otherwise, she licks my face while I’m on the floor). The game varies depends on what part of me needs a rest that day.

I’m also still doing push-ups and pull-ups when I get random texts. 5 pull-ups or 10 push-ups. Usually if someone asks for something specific I’ll do that.

It’s funny though, once I let people know that I was doing this, I thought I would get slammed with texts. To the contrary, those who had been regular texters before eased off. Coincidence? I don’t know.

My friend Mike, who lives in England, just got hold of this info a few days ago (that text at top is from him) and while I was at an event in NYC these came in:

I love this. Thanks Scott and Sophie, for playing along with my reindeer games.

I couldn’t do the pull-ups there, but I was raised with proper Catholic guilt so I did them very first thing the next morning.

I also got this one from Danielle.

Sorry Danielle, I seriously can’t do push-ups in a car with 5 other people. Every available space was filled up with swag, anyway. I did them once I got home (hard ones, too, to pay karmic interest: diamond push-ups to fight my “batwing” arms).

I’m not going to go so far as publish my phone number on the internet.

But if you’ve got my digits, swing me a text.

Thanks for making me stronger.

Now…

What other games should I build into my day?

P.S. I also ran today, and was browbeaten (literally) by a Mother Goose protecting her goslings. Fitness is exciting!

In case you were wondering, I’m doing my pullups using this over-the-door model Jeff got from Amazon (and which he almost never uses). He put up extra brackets for added stability because I’m paranoid like that, but it’s super easy to pop up and down as needed. Highly recommend.