More Goals

My list of goals is growing:

1. Post to this blog at least once a day.
2. Walk to the mailbox to check my mail (rather than quickly stopping the car there as I drive by).
3. Do at least 50 push-ups every day.

The last two are an attempt to get started into physical fitness again, and all three are designed to develop some good habits. Once I establish a routine of coming home after work, walking to the mailbox, changing clothes, doing push-ups, checking email, doing more push-ups, posting to the blog, fixing dinner, etc., then I won't have to think about these things or motivate myself to do them.

Push-ups are my weak point, so I'm starting with them. Once I meet my goal of 50 push-ups without stopping, I'll add in some burpees, pull-ups, jumping rope, or whatever. I've noticed something interesting: I can always do more push-ups in my second set than in my first. Today I did 18 and then 22, with a 10-15 minute break in between to check email. I think I'll try a warm-up set of about 5 tomorrow, and then see how many I can do.

Another interesting finding is that push-ups, especially "Hindu" push-ups that involve a lot of wrist movement, seem to help prevent carpal tunnel syndrome. Occasionally if I've been putting in a lot of computer time, my wrists will start to get sore, but if I start doing daily Hindu push-ups, the pain will disappear after a couple days. After a while I also notice that I have to loosen my watch band a notch, so they are definitely strengthening my wrists. I was lazy over the summer and my watch is now pretty loose on my wrist, so I'm starting up again. I'm sticking with normal push-ups this time, though.