This Tabata Push-Up Challenge Will Get You Seriously Fit In 30 Days

When it comes to personal fitness, sometimes you need a push, a challenge, something to kick your butt and get you back on track. This is why we sign up for 5Ks, things like the Murph Challenge, and other events that we need to prepare for over the long haul. But sometimes we fail to ready our body for these due to injury, discipline, or simply following the wrong plan. This can be demoralizing and lead to a slump.

So what about a fitness challenge that gets you in shape just by completing it? There might be less competitive satisfaction in such a challenge, but when you're looking good and feeling fit — who cares? Sometimes completing a task is a reward to itself. Isn’t that advice you tell the kids? Now, take it, with one of the more intensive month-long challenged there is. Here we go.

The Tabata Pushup Challenge

A Tabata is a class of workouts that involves going hard, resting, and repeating, with a 2 to 1 ration of tough to easy. It’s a classic HIIT method that works to get fit fast. Also, as you would imagine, it’s very hard.

For the Tabata Pushup Challenge, you are going to take on 8 rounds of pushups with 20 seconds on, 10 seconds rest, and repeat daily — for 31 days. The goal is to raise your average number of pushups you can do in 4 minutes. Sound easy? It’s not. Far, far from it.

One piece of guidance: This workout will not do a thing if you don’t do a proper pushup. For this, make sure to position elbows at 45 degrees, with your arms making an arrow shape of your body, not a ‘T.’ Keep your core tight and move your entire body as one unit in a straight line from your shoulders to hip and ankles. Your back should be straight and not sag, and your chest should touch the floor at the bottom of the movement and your elbows should be locked out at the top. If you’re humping the floor, put your knees down and do this pushup variation — it’s far better for your gains.

With that, get going! Ask your friends to join, go hard on the first few days and try to keep it up, or look ahead and set a goal for growth. You have a month and grow you will — we promise.