One thing that I tend to notice when it comes to wedding coverage is that the groom gets shafted when it comes to the “exercise” part of wedding planning. When I got to Barnes and Nobles, I do not see a book telling a groom to get fit on their wedding day. I do not see spreadsheets or website categories on wedding boards telling grooms to get in shape. The groom, it seems, is perfect the way he is. There’s never a groom who seems to think to himself that he should tone up, exercise, get in shape before his wedding day. And if there are, they’re pretty quiet about it. I don’t see blog posts about how much weight they’ve lost, which detox diet they’re trying, or how many miles they’ve run. And there’s no community rooting him on. He’s almost a silent, solitary individual, striving towards a goal of his own design. It’s very stoic.
And I find it to be a little ridiculous.
With less than 80 days left, I feel it’s probably time I announce my fitness goal to the world (the fact that I’ve become bad at this whole “blogging” thing is besides the point). The number 100 is in my mind. No, I’m not going to lose 100 pounds (if I did, I’d be near my birth weight). I’m not going to run 100 laps or run 100 miles since I find running to be very boring. No, my fitness goal is that I want to be able to do 100 pushups before my big day.
That picture above is me at a PP party late last year. A PP party is a Pushup and Poker party where people compete in pushups and poker. I won the pushup part (but lost a side bet later in the evening). I got my butt kicked in the poker part. I pulled off 53 pushups back then which was good considering that, when I got engaged, I could only do around 30. Last week, before a week of illness, I pushed that total to 73 which means I have around 70 days to increase that total by 27. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do that. My pushup routine involves maxing out 3 days a week, followed by 2 – 4 other sets of 20-30 pushups each. It’s not the greatest system I’m sure but it seems to work. When my health is good, I seem to be able to push my total up 5-10 pushups every 2 weeks. So, as long as all the winter colds pass me by, I should be ok. However, the last two weeks have been rather brutal. I’ve been reduced to sitting on my couch and watching Doctor Who episodes. I’ve enjoyed it but it’s done nothing to further my goal.
I hope there are other grooms out there who don’t let only the ladies have all the fun when it comes to exercising or reaching fitness goals before the big day. And if you’re going to find yourself honeymooning in a place where you’re gonna have to take your shirt off, why wouldn’t you have one of these goals?