Yikes!
About a half dozen of my friends are doing 22 push ups a day for 22 days and posting about. It’s an eclectic mix of fitness types and academic philosophers.
I was intrigued.
I posted.
I asked about it.
I said, “Hey, what is this thing? Why are you doing it?”
I asked them to blog about it.
Did they agree?
No. They did not.
Instead, a whole slew of them tagged me in the challenge. As with other challenges the idea is you do it and then challenge others to take part.
I should have just consulted Google!
According to the article 22 Push-Up Challenge Dominates Social Media: What It Is And What You Need To Do the challenge “was started by an organization named 22Kill. The challenge is asking for people to upload videos while they do push-ups, with 22Kill looking to capture at least 22 million push-ups on video. Why the number? It was taken from the shocking statistic that, on average, 22 veterans commit suicide daily in the United States, according to a report published by the Department of Veterans Affairs. As such, the challenge is looking to collect that many push-ups on video to both honor the men and women who have served the country and to raise awareness for the prevention of veteran suicides through empowerment and education.”
And yes, any version of the push ups counts. How many variants are there? Lots. Here’s 82 of them.
And yes, I did my first 22 today.
Day 1, done.
UK version: 22 pushup challenge
US/Facebook: 22 Pushup Challenge
I don’t much like these sorts of initiatives. Push-ups are fine but “raising awareness” just makes me sad. I’m sad because it’s not enough and we sometimes think it is. Until someone shows me some data that these things work, I’ll remain skeptical.
This is not a progressive cause. US troops carry out US imperialism, if you are progressive you side with the victims of US imperialism not those who enforce it.
I think it’s more complicated than that. I think I can hate war and killing and still support veterans. You can even argue that their suffering and trauma, high suicide rates, ptsd are part of the unaccounted cost of war. Soldiers are used and discarded. Anyway, I think there’s a range of views, including ones that are very critical of the military, that speak in favour of paying more attention to suicide in the military
No Western progressive argues that its more complicated when its about the police. We know the police are the ones who enforce racism onto people of colour just like the troops are the global police force that forces US will onto everyone else globally.
I love the 22 initiative and am now in the process of doing my second challenge supporting the awareness for vets and suicide! I think it is a great cause especially having so many friends who are military. My friends and I have come up with new and interesting ways to do the push ups. The cause not only brings about awareness but brings in the fitness piece as well.