My pushups routine has been working fantastically for me these few weeks, so I’ve decided to up my game and make more things equally rigid. So far, my routine has been-

20 pushups as soon as I wake up, and 20 pushups before I go to bed.

That’s all. There’s no thinking involved.

I’ve had many different fitness routines over the years. The earliest waskwhen my brother-in-law used to bring me to the gym every Sunday. I didn’t really know how to do anything, so I’d just do whatever he told me to- bench presses, bicep curls and the like. It was a lot of fun, and I slowly began to develop a sense of my body that I never had before. I was never particularly athletic before secondary school- I’d fail miserably on my 1.6km runs, having eaten too much McDonald’s every day. (I was still somewhat skinny, though. Skinny-fat, if you like.)

I got a little fitter in secondary school, when I started playing basketball more often. I got used to the idea of sweating my ass off, and loving it. This was before I started sm/king. I’d go to the gym without my brother-in-law, and kick my own ass a little. I’d spend a little too much time in there, wasting time trying a little bit of everything instead of lifting hard and heavy as I would now if I went. I developed a semi-elaborate improvised routine of going every other day, or on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, things like that. I stopped everything when my O Levels came around, and became a blob-like slob again.

I’d toy around with fitness in and out over the years. I’d stop playing basketball altogether. I picked up smoking. I’d run around the block once in a while. I’d hit the gym once in a while. I tried a bunch of different fitness routines during National Service. One incredibly successful one was when me and a friend would go to the gym every 3rd day, pushing each other to show up. It only lasted as long as our friendship, though, which eventually kind of imploded because of unrelated circumstances. I was dejected and stopped going.

I tried picking up boxing for a while, and it kicked my ass. It whipped me into shape really quick, but I couldn’t handle the trauma, and I stopped that after a month or so.

I tried following the pushups routine on hundredpushups.com- the first time I tried it, I arrogantly started in the middle of the program, and skipped rest days. I was slaughtered within a week. The second time I tried it (a few months later), I stuck to the program- and I did experience remarkable strength and size gains. (Size gains! Who knew you could get those doing pushups?)

I tried hitting the gym once a week, working out really, really heavy. This worked fantastically for blocks of about 6 to 8 weeks, following which the overall fatigue would get to me, and I’d need to take a break. I was doing this before I went into BMT, and got really fit. I had to stop because of BMT- which made me leaner. I fell sick during BMT, which made me skinnier.

I don’t have anything in particular to say right now. It would require too much effort. I’m going to shift gears and study now.