40 Press Ups

14th June 2025

I was 39, I was goal setting with my personal trainer and said I would like to be able to do 40 press ups by my 40th birthday. He said “sure, we can work towards that” which I now know is code for “good idea, but your time scales are optimistic”.

I’m a big guy, well over 100kg, and had nowhere near enough strength to do even a single press up. I'll be honest, I was scared to try. In my imagination, attempting a press up would quickly result in me face planting. It was a valid concern, even if the result would not be as comical as I imagined, it most certainly would be a failed attempt. Work needed to be done.

My PT wrote a plan, integrated it with my other goals and training began. We started with barbell inclined press ups. This is where you stick a barbell on a rack and do a press up at an inclined angle. It changes the difficulty of the press up and helps you build up strength or change the focus of the exercise or something. I'm a computer scientist not a sports scientist, but I do know I could just about complete a set of ten.

At first the bar was very high up the rack, I was practically standing, still the last couple of reps especially of the last set were always tough. Over time, my PT would lower the bar one notch and the difficulty would go up a level. Those were the weeks where my PT would have to say “range” more often than normal, reminding me to do a full rep, and in weeks where he started saying “good range” I knew the bar would move down a notch next week.

We did other exercises too, some I'm sure part of a plan to get me ready to do press ups, some for my other goals. All the time the barbell slowly moving down the rack. It got lower and lower until one day, no bar, just a mat on the floor and a grinning PT telling me “you've got this bro”. I wanted to believe him but I wasn't convinced.

We started with knee press ups, these are easier than normal press ups (got to love physics), but still more challenging than the barbell ones.

The biggest thing preventing me from doing a normal press up at this point was in my head, I now had the strength but lacked confidence, I was still convinced an attempt would result in me face planting into the ground. There was lots of time where I would stare at the mat. From my PT’s point of view, I imagine it looked like I needed a reboot.

My PT broke it down. We practiced lowering to the ground, the down part of a press up. We practiced lifting off the ground, the up part. Eventually after many false starts and much encouragement, I did attempt a normal press up. I did not face plant. I surprised myself, so I did another one, and it was better. Then fatigue genuinely kicked in and I completed the set with knee press ups. The next week it was five normal and five from the knee. That kept improving until one day I did a set of ten normal press ups. It wasn't long until I did four sets of ten press ups. Some of them were scrappy but my PT said they counted, so four tens are 40, goal achieved?

It didn't feel right. I never intended to do the 40 reps in one set, so four sets of ten is fine. But it felt hollow because I was still not confident. The first rep of every set always felt like half a rep as I tentatively tested I could lower down and come back up without falling. The last few reps were such a struggle they didn't feel…clean. I did 40 press ups that day, but it didn't feel good. I wasn't ready to declare victory just yet.

Training continued and I got stronger and more comfortable. A fifth set was added and I continued to improve. The sets were extended to 12 reps, and my confidence started to grow. Still that first rep was always a mess and I wasn't ready to declare victory just yet.

Today was different though. Today I started the first set and didn't think about it, I just got on with it. The first rep was great, full range, strong, and I kept going. I was supposed to stop at 12 reps but found myself saying 15 shocked that I’d just done 15 press ups with no issues. I had found my groove. I could have done more.

“Now you've done it” said my PT. The next set I tried to stop after 12 but “nope, three more please”, so I did. The third set was great, for the first time ever I felt like there was a bit of spring in the movement, I wasn't constantly at the edge of my ability, there was some room for acceleration. The fourth set was more of the same, meaning I’d completed the 60 best press ups I’d ever done and I was ready to declare victory.

I think my PT was more excited than me and he had an idea. After a full recovery the fifth set was to be an AMRAP set, i.e as many reps as possible, how many reps could I do? 15 was fine, 20 a breeze, after 25 I'm still strong and aiming for 40, at rep 28 all my strength seems to run away, 30 was a real struggle but I'll be damned if I'm stopping on 30, so I got one last rep. 31 full range, clean, awesome press ups in a single set. It might not be 40 but I don't care, they felt great and for the first time I’m willing to say I can do a press up. The count for the day is 91. Fantastic. Victory is mine!

I am 43 btw, so yer, timelines were a bit optimistic.