Drop and Give me 66,795

Local Boomers bang out progressive pushups every day through 2009

Written by Allison Walsh, Photos by Shane Orr

What would you say if someone invited you to do nearly 70,000 pushups in 365 days? When local CPA and marathoner Kent Satterfield posed that question to friends, colleagues and fellow athletes in late 2008, he got roughly 30 takers. By late 2009, that number had dwindled to a hearty six, and it's worth noting the last men - and women - pushing were all over 50.

The idea was simple: do one push up on January 1, adding one each day to build up to 365 on December 31, for a total of 66,795 for the year. The execution, however, proved to be a bit tricky for most everyone who accepted the challenge, including a certain magazine publisher who shall remain nameless.

Satterfield has a theory as to why the 20 and 30 and 40-somethings who signed on in

January didn't hang on much past March. "All I can figure is it takes a lot of years to get

this stupid."

He may be right about that. Linny Moore, the elder of the group at 63, admits to taking on the challenge even though, "I didn't think it was a good idea from the beginning.  I always hated doing pushups."

Moore made it happen by doing 210 pushups every morning and then hitting his quota

with sets of 30 or 40 throughout the day. There were only two times during the year he

didn't get a full day's pushups in - the days he ran the Boston and Marine Corps marathons.

The rules were, there were no rules - do them all at once, throughout the day, on your knees, whatever gets you through - but the six survivors all seemed to take roughly the same approach and they all started to feel the burn right around the 200-a-day mark. When Go caught up with the "strong of body, weak of mind," as Satterfield refers to himself and the few brave souls who hung with him through this challenge, in mid-December, they were doing more than 340 pushups a day and so close to their goal they could taste it. Amid a lot of good-natured ribbing, it became clear that discipline - and a healthy sense of competition - were the keys to success for the six who stuck with it.

"I just made up my mind I was not going to miss a day," says Cynthia Hardwick, 58, who kept on keeping on through the flu, sore shoulders, and nearly being decapitated by her husband, who didn't realize she was on the floor doing pushups in the dark. "I had gotten out of bed during the night because I forgot to do that last 100."

The only other woman to make it to the end was Satterfield's wife and running partner,

Linda. The duo, both 54, did their daily duty in sets of up to 65 and knocked them all out first thing each morning.

Louis Waters, 53, who teaches P.E. at Mountain View Elementary School, was also pushing up before the sun each morning. He does admit to missing three days in March while nursing a sore elbow, and to getting very little sympathy for said injury from Satterfield, with whom he has been trash talking since their days at Greer High.

"It's been one of the best things I've ever done as far as discipline," Waters says. "I always set goals, but this has been something that had to be done every day."

"You realize by now if you were to get sick and miss a few days, you can't make that up," Satterfield agrees. "If you miss three days you've got to make up 1,000 pushups.  It's day in, day out, whether you feel like it or not."

The thin line between success and disappointment is why Baxter Wynn, 57, has kept his efforts largely under wraps, and his penchant for privacy has led Greenville First Baptist's Pastoral Care Minister to hit the deck in some odd places.

"Some people take the stairs for exercise, I take the elevator," Wynn jokes. "30 quick ones from the first to the third floor, and no one has caught me yet!"

Wynn's pushup peers have given him no small amount of grief over the gloves he carries with him for use in rest areas and truck stops, and for the time he employed two paper towels to eke out a few sanitary sets in the restroom of a Starbucks in Commerce, GA.

As it turns out, though, Wynn was on track to hit 100,000 pushups for the year, thanks to what he calls his "safe and easy" strategy. "I was scared of these big numbers, so I started early in the year doing a lot more," he explains." By the time I was into March I was doing 300 most every day. That was all preparation so I wouldn't be blown away by the big numbers."

As for physical benefits, they've all seen them. Hardwick credits her military style regime with building her unprecedented core strength, and Satterfield quips that his wife now goes sleeveless more than the famously toned First Lady. But no one has been affected quite as profoundly as Moore.

"My shoulders are broader, and I have this strange craving for spinach I can't explain," he says with a laugh.

The physical results may be a little different next time around if Wynn has his way for the 2010 challenge. At press time the group was still mulling over his suggestion to substitute peanut M&Ms for pushups in the New Year.