I’m going to be honest with you: I’ve been the guy who buys running shoes in January and finds them still in the box in March. I’ve signed up for gyms I visited exactly four times. I once bought a kettlebell that became a very expensive doorstop.
So when I tell you that I’ve done pushups every single day for the past two years, I need you to understand how weird that is for me.
The Embarrassing Origin of “26 Pushups”
People ask why it’s called 26 Pushups, and I wish I had a cool answer. The truth is dumber: I was 26 when I started, and I could barely do 26 pushups. That’s it. That’s the whole story. My co-founder Maya wanted to call it “Daily Push” which is objectively a better name, but the domain was taken and cost $4,000, so here we are.
The app exists because I needed it to exist. I’d tried every fitness app on the market, and they all wanted me to do too much. Track my macros. Plan my workout splits. Log my rest times. I just wanted something that asked me one question: did you do pushups today, yes or no?
Why This Works When Nothing Else Did
I have a theory about why most fitness resolutions fail, and it’s not motivation. It’s decision fatigue.
When your resolution is “get fit,” you wake up every day and have to decide what that means. Do I go to the gym? Which exercises? How long? What if I’m tired? What if it’s raining? Each decision is a chance to talk yourself out of it.
Pushups remove the decisions. You wake up, you do pushups, you’re done. There’s no commute, no equipment to find, no workout to plan. Just you and the floor.
I’m not saying pushups are the best exercise. They’re probably not. But the best exercise is the one you actually do, and I actually do these.
What Happens When You Actually Stick With It
Here’s what I didn’t expect: the pushups themselves stopped being the point.
Around month three, I noticed I was making my bed every morning. I have no idea why. I’d never been a bed-maker. But something about keeping one small promise to myself made me want to keep others.
By month six, I was waking up earlier. Not on purpose—I just started naturally waking up at 6:30 instead of hitting snooze until 7:15. My body wanted to get up and do the thing.
The pushups got easier, obviously. I started at a shaky 15 and now I can knock out 40 without much trouble. But that’s almost beside the point. The real change was becoming someone who follows through.
The Part Where I Tell You What To Do (But Less Annoying)
Look, you know the basics. Start small. Be consistent. Don’t miss two days in a row. You’ve read this advice a hundred times because it’s true.
But here’s what nobody tells you: the first two weeks are going to feel pointless.
You’ll do your 10 pushups and think, “This can’t possibly be doing anything.” You’ll feel like you’re play-acting at fitness. You’ll wonder if you’re wasting your time.
You’re not. But you won’t believe me until week three or four, when you realize you just did 15 without stopping and you’re not even breathing hard. That’s when it clicks.
So here’s my only real advice: give it 30 days before you decide if it’s working. Not because 30 days is magic, but because that’s about how long it takes for the skeptical voice in your head to shut up.
Some People Who Used the App (With Their Permission and Real Names)
David Okonkwo, Austin, TX: “I started because my doctor told me I needed to exercise or go on blood pressure medication. That was in March 2025. I’ve done pushups every day since, missed my son’s birthday once because I forgot until 11:58 PM and had to do them in the bathroom at his party, and my blood pressure is normal now. My wife thinks I’m insane but she also thinks it’s kind of sweet.”
Rachel Torres, Portland, OR: “I want to be honest—I’ve never hit 26 pushups in one set. I usually do 10-12. But I’ve done them every day for eight months, which is eight months longer than any other exercise habit I’ve tried. I think the app works because it doesn’t make me feel bad for not being good at this yet.”
Marcus Webb, Chicago, IL: “This is going to sound dramatic but I think this app helped my depression. Not cured it, I still take my meds, but having one thing I do every single day no matter what gave me a sense of control when everything else felt chaotic. Some days the pushups were the only thing I accomplished. But I accomplished them.”
What If You Can’t Do a Single Pushup?
Then don’t do a pushup. Do a wall pushup. Or just hold a plank for 10 seconds. Or do one knee pushup.
I’m serious. The app doesn’t care. It asks if you did pushups today, and wall pushups count. The goal isn’t to impress anyone. The goal is to do something small, every day, until it becomes part of who you are.
My mom is 63 and started with wall pushups last February. She just did her first real pushup two weeks ago and called me crying. I’m including this detail because I also cried, and because I want you to know that starting “easy” isn’t cheating. It’s smart.
The Honest Truth About This Year
I don’t know if you’ll still be doing pushups in December. Statistically, most people won’t be. That’s just how it goes.
But some of you will. Some of you will be doing pushups on a random Tuesday in October and realize you didn’t even think about it—you just did them, the same way you brush your teeth, and that’s when you’ll know it worked.
I can’t promise you’ll be one of those people. But I can tell you it’s possible, because I’m one of them, and I was the last person who should have been.
Download the app if you want. Or don’t—honestly, you don’t need an app to do pushups. You need a floor and a reason to show up for yourself.
The floor is easy to find. The reason is up to you.
Happy New Year. Go do a pushup.
— James