I did 71 push-ups a few days before my 56th birthday. Yes, all of them at one time, and no, they weren’t the girl kind. That’s not bad for a man who’s technically beyond midlife (and the obligatory crisis).

If it makes you feel better, I started a push-up challenge with my son five months before, and I could only do 34. I tried to hit 35 and almost busted a blood vessel in my forehead. But the challenge required us to start with the max we could do, do that every day, and add two each week.

This simple push-up challenge taught me valuable lessons about fitness after 50 and surviving midlife well.

Exercise Patience as Well as Your Body

We can achieve so much more when we stick with a plan and give ourselves a chance. I hit my push-up numbers every day without fail, doing 65 on day 97 and taking a break after day 100. Showing up daily, with my nose to the floor, even on days I’d rather eat the carpet than do a push-up, built strength in my mind, body, and spirit. But you have to exercise patience while waiting on the results.

The same is true in life, especially in midlife when you’re burned out, tired, and grumpy.

However, patience is a lost art in our culture, where ChatGPT can write a 5-point blog post faster than your Keurig can make coffee. We want results, and we want them 3.2 seconds ago. I increased from 34 push-ups to 71 in months, not days, and hit 10,000 push-ups in six months. I lost 35 pounds through several seasons, not weeks.

You Can’t Microwave Results

Your wife can forgive you in time, but not today.

You can get out of debt in months or years, not tomorrow.

You can learn a new skill to quit the job you hate, but not before your next paycheck.

Be patient.

But you can’t be patient while staying up late every night binging on Netflix. You have to work with intensity while patiently waiting for the results. You can’t microwave success; it’s a crockpot recipe.

Patience means showing up every day and waging war on the thing you want. You may not be wealthy, tall, strong, beautiful, or academically gifted, but you do have a superpower.

Consistency Is a Superpower

The superpower of consistency is a daily, highly focused, patient effort toward a worthy goal. Although consistency is available to everyone, it’s a superpower because few choose to wield it. People get bored. They want the thing now without the work. They burn with envy seeing you happy, successful, and driving a new Ford F150, but they weren’t with you every morning at 4 am when you busted your butt learning skills for success.

I didn’t discover a shortcut to 71 push-ups. They were a byproduct of the 8100 push-ups done daily over the preceding months. But I didn’t have to wait months on the results. They trickled in as my max number increased slowly, which inspired and motivated me, triggering the magic of momentum.

Momentum Changes Everything

Momentum is your accelerator. You trudge along dutifully, patiently, and consistently long enough to hit the tipping point, and the results will flow in.

As they say, wait for it.

So, for all men over 50, let’s grow stronger down the stretch and be in command of midlife, not in a crisis!

Stronger Down the Stretch

If growing stronger sounds like too much effort and you’d rather roll back over and go to sleep, my new book may help you shift that mindset.

Stronger Down the Stretch: Surviving Midlife Without a Crisis is written for men who feel the weight of midlife creeping in — tired, stuck, distracted, or wondering whether they still have what it takes to grow stronger rather than settle.

It’s not complicated or flashy. It’s built around simple truth, discipline, and the kind of consistency I talked about in this post.

Because midlife doesn’t have to be a slow decline. It can be a turning point.

Ladies — yes, you should absolutely buy it for your husbands. It could save your family.