I announced my goals for my 60th birthday a year ago. The motto for the past year was “160 and 60 by 60.”

I wanted to get my weight down to 160 lbs and perform 60 push-ups by my 60th birthday. I managed to get my weight from 192 lbs to 171 lbs. In that regard, I failed in my weight goal. More on that later.

As for the push-ups, I fell short, as seen in the two videos below. However, 57 is my personal best. So, on the one hand, I am somewhat disappointed that I did not crack 60 on my birthday. On the other hand, I did beat my previous personal best of 54.

Part 1:

Part 2:

So, I want to de-brief on what I did well and where I went wrong during my year-long journey.

First, let’s look at the spreadsheet below. You will notice two things.

First, you will notice that my progress from September 30th through June 3rd was glacial. During those months, I was engaged in the push-and-pull routine at the local gym, which I enjoyed. However, after the June 3rd push-up test, I realized I had to make a mid-course correction.

What was my mid-course correction?

To reach my push-up goal, I decided to ditch the aforementioned push-and-pull routine in favour of a bodyweight routine consisting of pull-ups, push-ups, bodyweight leg exercises, and a few martial exercises I picked up over the years. This resulted in immediate improvement up to my birthday. I made the change for three reasons: (1) I needed to do more push-ups to reach my push-up goal. DUH. (2) I do not have a lifting buddy at the gym. That alone is a huge factor and inhibited my progress, and (3) bodyweight exercises have grown on me. I love the challenge of moving my body through difficult exercises.

I used the video below to guide my push-up routine, and I loved it!

If you’re not able to view the video, go here.

What if I had made the change a month or two earlier?

I would have cracked 60 push-ups on my birthday. No doubt in my mind. Bolstering this belief is an impromptu test I did a week before my 60th birthday. I cranked out 53 despite having worked out hard for several days. I put in a killer workout the day before the impromptu test. Consequently, I felt confident I would hit 60 with a few days’ rest. No problem.

Wrong.

I knew I was in trouble when I hit 45. The lactic acid build-up was hitting me hard at that point. Holy crap, I needed to gut my way through it. While I fell short of my goal, I set a personal best of 57. So I will have to settle for that.

As of now, I’m somewhat burned out from the year-long build-up to my birthday. I put a lot of work and energy into the push-up challenge. Lordy, I was pretty focused, particularly in the last few months. Thinking about the push-up challenge, I barely slept the night before my birthday.

So what now?

I know I can’t afford to lose or forfeit my gains over the past year. I have decided on a year-end goal and a goal for my 61st birthday.

I have decided to modify my goal to “160 and 60 and 10 by 60” and see if I can meet them by the end of the year, preferably before the Christmas season.

Wait a minute, what’s the 10 about? Read on.

First, I want to see how I feel at 160 lbs. To reach this goal, I need to lose 11 more pounds. I have a sneaking suspicion that I might not be comfortable at 160. On the other hand, how would I know unless I get down to that weight? So, let’s go for it.

And I’m going to keep going until I get to 60 push-ups. I set that as a goal for my 60th birthday. Why stop? I might as well keep going.

The 10 refers to the number of pull-ups I want to achieve before Christmas. Quick background: I had never done regular pull-ups in my entire life until June of this year. My record high as of now is 6 on August 6th. I haven’t gotten to 6 since then, which is frustrating.

My goals for my 61st birthday? It’s a moonshot goal. Stay tuned! 🙂

Read Other Stuff I’ve Written