In July this year, while the UK was still locked down, I was challenged by a friend on Facebook to do the 25 Day Pushup Challenge and, because I can’t resist challenges, I did it.

The idea was to do 25 pushups every day for 25 days, to film the process and to post it on Facebook in a campaign to help raise awareness about the growing cases of people, often young, and mostly male, who are suffering from depression, anxiety and PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). A condition which contributes to, again, mostly young male, suicides in this country.

I am no athlete but after leaving the hell that was my compulsory school sports experiences behind me, I have always tried to stay fit and, yes, to challenge myself by doing what has never come naturally to me. Like going to the gym or even roller-blading along the promenade at Brighton or in Hyde Park, London, where people, wisely, dodged out of my way.

I thought if I took part in the pushup challenge, I could be more encouraging as an example to others than elite sportsmen and women who can inspire by their skills but also, maybe, put the rest of us off with their unachievable brilliance and those rows of medals, silver cups and champagne showers that we will never win. Very nice to watch, of course, and great for them, but they can leave the rest of us feeling like, well, also-rans.

Talking about these issues is good, of course, but also, there is just a chance that regular exercise, no matter how athletic or not you are, can raise your endorphin levels and significantly effect, to use a modern catch-phrase, your mental well-being.

There have been difficult times in my life (as with many people) and I can talk first-hand about the effects of fitness-training when life gets tough.

I was lucky with some of my physical challenges when I was definitely old enough to know better. I found Kungfu, and an excellent instructor, the world-class martial artist, Neil Johnson. http://www.whitecranefightingarts.com/

Neil is also a brilliant and patient teacher who challenged my lack of co-ordination and lack of natural talent, into doing things that I would never have believed possible. Like training with kungfu masters in China, for example. Amazing!

I got fitter than I had ever been and even learnt how to win, at least a few times, in combat. The feeling was unbelievably exhilarating.

I trained hard and saw and felt the results of working the body to its limits. It was really good fun. I did kungfu weapons-training too….the seven and a half foot staff…

and the straight sword. Martial patterns I could practice wherever I was on holiday, like this rooftop in Santorini, Greece where an old broom handle made a good weapon.

Even the smallest spaces – like home – have space for martial arts training and, of course, for push-ups. So no excuse not to practise.

In the last ten years I had two life-threatening illnesses which challenged not just my life and my fitness but also, yes, that phrase again, my mental well-being. Doctors told me that I probably survived from the brain haemorrhage because I was very fit.

So I have continued in my efforts to stay that way, with a lot of help from my kungfu instructor, Neil, even though I was told I would have to give up full-contact kungfu sparring.

I also owe my gradual return to fitness to two personal trainers too. First, Ritxar Magee Atxukarro, whom I trained with on my doctor’s referral – UK prime minister Gordon Brown’s initiative which died with the change of government. Ritxar got me back into the gym here in Lewes and gave me the confidence to push back against illness and to get me going again.

For the last two years I have had a new trainer, Gyles Abbott, at Soulfit, http://wearesoulfit who has taken me back to fitness a second time after my recovery from a second illness, pulmonary embolism, when even walking up a hill was a struggle…now I can run up that hill.

My fitness has returned, or is returning, thanks to these three gentlemen and, yes, by a lot of personal effort. I have often felt down about health problems but I found that pushing back really helps. Exercise really does make you feel good about yourself.

Most of us usually discover pushups as a kind of school punishment, but, hey, they are a great form of exercise. You don’t need any equipment, just your body and a bit of will-power. I can vouch for the fact that doing them on a regular basis, why not every day, will really make you feel better. Honestly, if I can do them, so can you. Good luck!

Here’s the short movie I edited to show you how I did it.

I didn’t stop at 25 days – this morning, day 41, I am still going strong and hope to keep it going with new variations.

One last thing, if you don’t believe I did all 25 pushups on those 25 days, the full film is available on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-hFwwf5QDc

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I’ve been trying to get back to full fitness now for twenty months, nearly two years, after a difficult eight or so years of ill-health. A brain haemorrhage in 2008, and a pulmonary embolism a few years later, in 2013/14, left me pretty winded and it’s was often effort enough to walk, let alone run, but I was determined to fight back even though the going has often been tough.

There were three or so years when I struggled but managed to keep going with my Tai-chi form even though I didn’t go back to my Kungfu Club on a regular basis until last year. The doctor said I shouldn’t return to Kungfu because of the post brain haemorrhage risk, this was a blow, as I owed a lot of my pre-haemorrhage fitness to my martial arts training. But, I still practice my Kungfu patterns and Tai-chi has been always been there, like a helping hand leading me onwards. For over a year now, I have been going back to Neil Johnson’s White Cane Fighting Arts Club, http://www.whitecranefightingarts.com/ in Lewes, for Tai-chi classes. OI have been a member here, with a few dramatic interruptions, for over fifteen years. It was quite a struggle at first, but recently, I have started to get back to somewhere like ‘not bad’.

Tai-chi has become one of my three weekly fitness sessions, the second class is a vigorous hour with a personal trainer at Soul Fit, https://www.wearesoulfit.com/the-studio also in Lewes.

I started to get back to aerobic fitness by taking on a personal trainer, Gyles Abbott, in January 2018, who has been putting me through my paces once a week for an hour a session. I am amazed, even if no one else is, by the results I (or rather Gyles and I) have achieved in that time in his well-equipped torture-chamber.

The third of my weekly sessions is more recent – for five weeks now, I’ve returned to running, an old enthusiasm that I feared will now be beyond me. Well, ‘not bad’ is probably how I’d describe my progress so far. Actually, I’m doing much better than I dared predict.

My last run, on Sunday, had me running 3.487 kilometres in 30 minutes without stopping. It might not be Olympic standard, but, for me, this is mercurial. See my mobile phone’ app record below. It was all going swingingly until the last minute just as I was going for my finishing point. Then my legs started to complain and I should’ve stopped. Only a few steps to go, I heard myself say, and then my legs ran out of control and I went crashing onto concrete. Look away, if you don’t like the sight of blood – the result wasn’t a pretty sight.

It was truly surprising how much you can hurt yourself by falling while running – I have a grand collection of cuts and bruises as well as an unpleasant sensation in my head. I’m feeling better today but the doctor says I’ve have a mild concussion.

I hope, I’ve learnt an important lesson about knowing when to stop when you’re pushing yourself towards a goal.

I shall be back. Don’t laugh, but under these minor injuries, I’m feeling great! I haven’t felt as fit for over ten years.

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