Why I Did 56 Push-Ups at My Age

A few weeks ago I did 40 push-ups in a row for the first time. Then I saw a study that spurred me on.

This is not me. It’s U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. George Camden doing push-ups during training. No doubt he can do a lot more push-ups than I can. But he’s a lot younger. And a Marine. Photo: U.S. Marines

I’m 56. Today, I did 56 push-ups, all in one go. It wasn’t just a stunt. Here’s why I did it;

Sometime in my early 50s, I started trying to get back in shape after another in a series of sedentary spurts. Yes, I’m bad that way. To my great disappointment, it quickly became clear I would never run another sub-5-minute mile (4:54 to be precise) or slog through another 3:59:59 marathon (those last 59 seconds, finish line in sight, were the easiest, but the previous 14,340 were really, really hard).

Forget even attempting another triathlon. My back and knees just don’t want to.

What I could do was hit the gym and engage in more controlled, lower-impact workouts. I’d lifted before, usually just as part of a broader fitness scheme (I’m not a gym rat), and after a couple of years on this latest go-round, I realized I was on the verge of doing more push-ups than I’d ever done before. Not Jack LaLanne numbers, but still.

So I got all methodical, intending to do 100 push-ups over the course of a workout session. First, I broke it down into five sets with a nice rest in…