---
title: One extra push-up every day
date: 2026-05-29T09:57:03+08:00
categories:
    - how-i-do-things
---

![](https://files.s-anand.net/images/2026-05-29-one-extra-push-up-every-day.avif)

I'm doing one extra push-up every day.

One of my [2026 goals](https://www.s-anand.net/blog/my-year-in-2025/) is to build muscles. I haven't done anything about it until May.

This month, I figured I would do the absolute minimum, at least to get started, because I seem to have starting trouble more than anything else. [I asked ChatGPT](https://chatgpt.com/share/6a18f311-dcf0-83ec-aa24-9ecc82053f37):

> I want to build muscles. What's the most effective thing that I can do that would take no more than one minute that I can practice every day without any equipment and I can do this anywhere and will have the most impact on building muscles? Research, give me the top five options and recommend one for me.

It suggested push-ups. [So did Claude](https://claude.ai/share/d6138707-2e80-48b7-9c9f-8ff07d424d9f).

Since I do yoga every day, I decided to do push-ups after that. I kept forgetting, so I decided to do push-ups _before_ that. (This worked.)

**Lesson**: [Habit stacking](https://jamesclear.com/habit-stacking) works. Habit pre-stacking works better.

I remember that story about a boy carrying a young bull as a child, and as they both grew up, he grew into a man strong enough to carry an adult bull. I am applying a similar practice.

I started with 10 push-ups a day. Every day, I'm adding one push-up to it. I just finished 23. That is, I have spent the last ~16 days (with 3 misses in between) adding one push-up each day to my routine.

This seems to be just the right level of incremental difficulty. Every day feels as miserable as the previous one. I began with absolutely not being able to do a single push-up more than 10 push-ups. I just finished my 23 push-up routine, absolutely not able to even one more. And it's felt exactly the same way as every day.

Maybe it's because I _know_ the quota and the brain decides that's _exactly_ the limit of what's possible. But still, it feels like one extra push-up a day is reasonable progression.

**Lesson**: [Compounding habits](https://jamesclear.com/quotes/habits-are-the-compound-interest-of-self-improvement) seems to work. I'll keep you posted.