I took on the challenge to do 20,000 push-ups and pull-ups combined in 30 days. I did it for eight days, got hurt, now I'm back. I'm going to finish the job that I started. That means every day doing 34 rounds of 15 push-ups, 5 pull-ups, and 10 squats. I'm using this clicker thing to keep track of the rounds.

First day, 34 done. Last time around is one of the toughest things for me mentally and physically. I build up my base. I've lost weight. I'm continuing to lose weight. I'm ready for this to hit hard and to get the job finished. It's going to take a lot to stop me this time.

A lot of people told me that when you do numbers like these, especially for 30 days, you're going to get hurt. I don't care. I've been doing sports my whole life. I've wrestled in combat sports my whole life. I weightlifted my whole life. I've done crazy things athletically my whole life.

I know what I'm doing. That said, I know how risky, how crazy, how tough this is on the body. And yes, injury is a real possibility. In fact, on day three is when my right shoulder started to develop pain, an old familiar overused pain that I know well. And I kept pushing.

I kept pushing and pushing because pain is one thing, injury is another. So I kept really sensing of is it getting closer and closer to injury? This was the hardest mental challenge for me. There's times where I had to lay face down on the carpet, just doubting everything about my life.

What am I doing with my life? Just all the flood of excuses coming into my head. It was all coming from the shoulder. The shoulder was running the body. The brain couldn't do anything with it. And I think I'm really proud of pushing as far as eight days through that.

But then I started to feel that injury is going to become a real possibility. So that's when I took a break on all the upper body exercises and started to do the recovery. Ice and bend exercises that I can talk about another time. Every single day. And I still ran six miles every single day until today.

Today I'm restarting that challenge. I finished the six miles again and the 34 rounds of 15 pushups, five pull-ups and 10 squats. Now this is just some silly exercises, but a lot of people have told me that I'm going to get injured. A lot of people in my other aspects of my work have told me that I'm going to burn out.

I'm going to work too hard. Those people need to unfollow me. That advice is obvious. Millions of people will tell you to do this. It's obvious. You should get enough sleep. You should get a healthy, moderate dose of exercise. You should have a diet. You should have a balanced life.

The thing that I need, and I believe the thing that a lot of people need, is not that kind of advice. They need a small number of people around them to support them, to push harder, to work harder, to take the risks. The quote unquote dumb thing to take the risk of injury, to take the risk of burnout in the name of passion, in the name of discovering something about yourself.

That's why I took on this challenge. That's why I'm talking to the crazy David Goggins, not because I'm trying to establish a healthy lifestyle, but because I'm trying to discover something about myself on the way of establishing a healthy lifestyle. I believe it's non-zero probability of me taking and finishing this challenge.

That's why I took it on. That's why I kept pushing through the pain to discover something about myself, the kind of things I need to fix up about the way I do the exercises, but also mentally. The most important things are the mentally. Now, that said, I didn't even hit, you know, David Goggins talks about the 40% rule.

I don't think I even got into like the 5% for me. I know how to suffer. There are things in this life I'm willing to suffer for. They have to do much more with the things, my main passions in life and work and artificial intelligence. There's things I'm really willing to put in the work.

Push-ups and pull-ups is not one of them. At the end of the day, I want to establish a healthy habit where every single day I'm doing some running and some bodyweight exercises that takes under an hour. That just keeps me healthy, keeps me feeling good, keeps me moving, keeps my immune system strong, just keeps me feeling great.

I think there's a magic to exercise for clearing the mind, for just giving you this vibrant energy to hit whatever the heck you're working on in the rest of the day. I really think that people in academic circles and research circles, just engineers in general, need to get their butts out there and do some exercise.

I think there's a huge amount of value to that, even if it's just walking. Get 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 steps a day. I think there's a huge value to that. I think a long time ago, I decided that I'm going to have to suffer to reach my goals. One of the things I learned about myself, at least, maybe this applies to others, that the ability to withstand suffering, to really withstand the grind, is a kind of muscle that needs to be trained.

You really do need to do something difficult every day. This push-up, pull-up thing is a representation of that, but I do something difficult every day. If you're following along, make sure you do something that's just a little bit crazy, that you push the limits. Do not injure yourself permanently, but do push yourself to a point where you learn something about yourself.

Ignore all the excuses that your head comes up with for not doing it. Get your butt out there every single day. Try to get some miles in if you run or walk or bike or whatever, and try to do some things for the upper body, some bodyweight exercises. There's zero excuses not to do this in this pandemic.

One of the biggest things you can do for yourself is to get the diet right, to get the exercise right. So get out there. Good luck. Stay healthy. Stay hard. I'll see you at the end of this 20,000 crazy push-up and pull-up thing that I promise I'll do, and I'll get the job done no matter what.

Oh, one more thing. I know you're probably, somebody out there is probably typing how they didn't sign up to be listening to some Russian dude talk about some exercises. They want some artificial intelligence, lectures, content, whatever the heck. That's what I do. That's my main passion, but I also exercise.

I also play music. I also love poetry and literature. That's what you get. If you don't like it, unsubscribe. It doesn't matter. This is me. I'm hoping to share and be open and real with people in my journey through this whole thing. I really have enjoyed the community that has sprung up around conversations I've had.

There's so much love in this world that just energizes me and inspires me. That's why I do this thing. The exercise is just who I am. It's all part of my life. If you don't like it, sorry. If you like it, come along. Subscribe or don't. Doesn't matter. I love you all.

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