Can you even believe my wrist doctor said that to me? I mean, if he said, “You probably shouldn’t ever do push-ups again.” I probably would have been like, oh, ok, I probably shouldn’t do push-ups. But no. He told me I couldn’t do something. NOBODY gets to tell me that. You can’t tell me that if there’s a chance in this world that I will be able to do it again.

One time, when I broke my leg my doctor told me I would never be able to run again due to the damage of the break and the rod in my tibia. Yeah whatever. I started off slow. Learning to walk again was a big step. Then I started trying to lose some weight. Eventually I ran 5 miles (ONE TIME) just to prove to myself that I could do it. I ran a couple of 5k’s before I put on some weight and decided running wasn’t the best thing for my knees and scaled back to walking.

I’ve had 6 wrist surgeries at this point and after that last one was when the doc told me I wouldn’t ever be able to do push-ups again. I just wouldn’t be able to put the pressure on the wrist because of the pain and the missing portion of ligament. I just don’t agree. I think pain tolerance is going to be a huge part of it, but I don’t think it will make it impossible. You can train your body to cope with pain. I played college volleyball and even set some records in serving playing with a torn ligament and a dislocated bone in my thumb for 2.5 years. Now, if I thought it would cause long-term damage, at this point in life, I would never even attempt push-ups. I think the damage has been done though. I need to strengthen the muscles around my wrist and not be dumb (literally something I have to tell myself – lol). If it REALLY hurts, stop.

So I have set myself a goal. Is it a mighty goal? Not for most people. My initial goal is 10 push-ups. Oh but Amy, you’re going to knock that out of the park. You better believe I am going to. It’s going to take some time though. I started last week. I wrote 1-10 on my whiteboard and after I complete a certain amount, I circle it. After I do that amount twice I put a line through it. Then after a 3rd time, I put another line through it so it looks like a circle with an X through it. Once that number has been completed 3 times I move on to the next. Right now I’m at 4. I’m still working on 4.

I feel strong. I feel confident that I can do it. I feel pain but it’s not overbearing. Where I set a goal of 10, I never set a goal of when it had to be completed and I’m not going to. If I get to 7 and I feel like going any further would be a problem, I’m going to just continue doing 7 until I don’t feel that way any longer. If I get to 10 in 2 weeks – HELL YEAH ME… but I’m not shooting for that.

After I complete this goal, I think I will set some new goals, like 10 unassisted pull-ups. Then Yoga. Just Yoga. I haven’t been able to do that because of the pain in most positions you have to be in for Yoga, but once I’ve done 10 push-ups… the world is my oyster. 🙂