When YouTuber Scott Luu realized he was out of shape and his conditioning had slipped, he decided to test himself with a simple but demanding routine. For 30 straight days, he aimed to hit 50 pull ups and 100 push ups every day, then shared the process with his audience. The challenge sounded straightforward on paper, but it quickly became a lesson in recovery, planning, and mental grit. The experience was also covered by Unilad, which helped spread the story beyond his usual followers.
To make the workload manageable, Luu set one key rule from the start. He did not have to finish everything in one workout, as long as the daily total got done with proper form. As he put it, “As long as I had a total of 50 pull ups and 100 push ups before bed, and everything was done correctly, I counted the day as a success.” That decision mattered because high daily volume can turn into a grind fast, especially when real life interrupts perfect scheduling. It also reflects a common approach in calisthenics, where total volume across the day can be as important as a single heroic set.
Before diving in, he checked where his stamina actually stood. At baseline, he could do at most eight pull ups and 28 push ups in one go, which made the daily totals feel like a mountain. His original plan was to split the work into five mini sessions spread out across the day. In his words, “My plan was to do pull ups and push ups in five rounds during the day, every three to four hours.” That kind of pacing can work well in theory, but it depends on having a predictable schedule and enough time between sets to recover. You can watch video here.
In practice, the five session structure fell apart once daily responsibilities kicked in. Luu shifted to three training windows per day, which sounded more realistic, but his body still was not ready for nonstop repetition. He hit a wall almost immediately and learned that willpower does not override fatigue forever. “After just two days, on the third day I had to add rest because my body couldn’t handle it,” he admitted. Instead of quitting, he changed the plan and built a runway, training for a month at four sessions per week with recovery days so he could gradually tolerate the workload.
Only after that preparation did he start what he considered the real version of the challenge, which was 30 days in a row with no rest days. That is where the physical consequences became much more obvious. Even with better conditioning, the combination of pull ups and push ups every day can hammer the hands, forearms, chest, and upper back. The body can adapt, but tissues like tendons, skin, and smaller stabilizing muscles often lag behind larger muscle groups. Luu’s experience shows how quickly repetitive strain can show up if you push volume without breaks.
About 12 days into the no days off stretch, he said his body started to protest again. The pain was not just general soreness, it was specific and alarming. “It was horribly painful to even hold the pull up bar,” he recalled. He also described how gripping too hard likely contributed to the problem, saying, “In the end I got a blood bruise on my right hand under a callus, probably because I was squeezing the bar too hard, and it was really, really painful.” Alongside the hand issues, he dealt with forearm trouble and a constant tight, aching feeling through his chest and back muscles.
Even so, he kept finding ways to finish the work, including training at odd hours when his day got away from him. At one point he was doing sessions as early as 3:30 a.m. just to meet the daily goal. That kind of behavior highlights a real risk of viral fitness challenges, which is that consistency can slide into obsession if you stop listening to warning signs. Still, the story did not stay in the pain zone forever. After pushing through the rough stretch, he noticed a shift that many trainees recognize once the body finally catches up to a repeated demand.
Luu described a sudden adaptation where recovery improved and the constant pain eased. “All of a sudden my body started adapting and it hurt less, I recovered faster,” he said. Strength followed, and by the end he had surpassed his previous best, managing 17 pull ups in a single set. That jump is a good reminder that high frequency practice can improve skill and efficiency, not just muscle size. Pull ups especially reward technique, which includes scapular control, bracing, and using a consistent bar path.
When the month ended, he emphasized that the biggest takeaway was not just physical. The process changed how he saw his own limits and what he could push through when the goal mattered. “Sometimes you have to push yourself a little beyond what you think you can do, and only then you see what you’re actually capable of,” he explained. He also reflected on the gap between physical readiness and confidence, saying he put in the effort so his body could handle it, “but my mind still wasn’t keeping up with what my body could do.” For him, the challenge reinforced belief in himself even when the experience felt brutal.
For readers who want context beyond one person’s month of effort, pull ups and push ups are classic bodyweight exercises that train multiple muscle groups at once. A standard pull up mainly targets the lat muscles of the back, along with the biceps, forearms, and upper back stabilizers, while push ups emphasize the chest, triceps, and shoulders while demanding core stiffness. This style of training is often called calisthenics, which uses bodyweight resistance rather than machines. Progress usually comes from progressive overload, which can mean more reps, more total sets, harder variations, or cleaner technique. Recovery also matters because tendons and connective tissue often need more time than muscles, and persistent pain, grip issues, or sharp joint discomfort can be signs to back off and adjust volume, rest, or form.
If you have ever tried a daily fitness challenge like Luu’s, share what you learned from it and whether it helped or hurt your training in the comments.
