100 Push-Ups a Day: How a Bitcoin Meme Built My Best Habit

Back in April, I was scrolling Nostr when I found a challenge: do 100 bodyweight squats every day until Bitcoin hit 100k. Classic crypto energy — manifest the number by suffering a little. I joined in.

Somewhere in the middle of that, I noticed something else. People doing 100+ push-ups daily. Not as part of the Bitcoin trend. Just because they decided to.

That stuck with me.

I started doing 100 push-ups a day. That was roughly a year ago. Since then, I've hit the mark about 80% of days. Not perfect — but consistent enough to change me.

The rule is simple: 100 push-ups before the day ends. How you get there is up to you.

The Key Insight

The mechanic that made this sustainable is the key insight: you don't have to do them all at once.

I spread them through the day. Four sets of 25. Two sets of 50. Whatever fits. Morning, lunch, evening, before bed. No gym required. No equipment. Just floor space and a decision.

When I started, I couldn't do 10 in a row. Now I can do 60+ in a single set. That's not a typo. The improvement is real and it compounds over months.

Discipline Over Motivation

There are days I don't want to do it. That's normal and it doesn't matter. I do it anyway. And every single time, I feel better after than before. Energy up, mind clearer, a small signal to myself that I kept the standard.

You can also progress the movement itself. Once the standard push-up gets easy, switch to diamond push-ups (triceps and chest, brutal) or T push-ups (adds a rotation, hits the core and shoulders). The basic movement scales up without needing a single piece of equipment.

Extending the Logic

A few weeks ago I extended the same logic to pull-ups.

I can't do 100 pull-ups a day yet — pull-ups are harder and I'm building the base. So I'm doing 5 sets of 5, spread across the day. Same principle: low volume per session, high frequency, no equipment (I have a bar at home), and it compounds.

The goal is back strength and eventually getting to high-rep pull-up capacity the same way I did with push-ups.

Grease the Groove

I recently learned this has a name: Grease the Groove (GTG), or Grooving technique. The idea is that you distribute your training load throughout the day, working well below your max effort each session. This prevents fatigue accumulation while still building neuromuscular efficiency. Over time you get better at the movement — more strength, more endurance, higher peak output — without ever grinding yourself into the floor.

It's used by serious strength athletes and military training programs. Turns out I stumbled onto it through a Bitcoin meme.

Try It Yourself

If you want to try this, start with push-ups. Pick a number — 50, 75, 100, whatever is hard but doable spread across a full day. Set no rules on how you distribute it. Hit the number before midnight. Do it again tomorrow.

That's it. No app needed. No gym membership. No optimal recovery protocol.

One year in, it's one of the best habits I've built. Small daily suffering that compounds into real, visible capability. That's the only kind of self-improvement worth doing.