Push-Up Challenge

If you walk around the School, you’ll see many students spontaneously doing push-ups. They’re not punishments from getting a wrong answer or breaking community standards–instead, these are participants of the Push-Up Challenge, founded by Brooks Neufeld '26.

It's a test of determination. The goal is to complete 1,000 push-ups before the end of the month. To achieve this, participants must consistently do push-ups, wherever and whenever possible.

The concept for the challenge originated in November. Neufeld, a devotee of running and biking, has been consistently documenting his passion on his Instagram account.

Eventually, he decided to set a personal objective for 2025: to complete 25,000 push-ups throughout the year. To achieve this, he needs to meticulously plan and record the number of push-ups daily. Skipping even one day could jeopardize his ability to keep pace with his goal.

“It started off with me and my family in November,” Neufeld said. “It was a really small goal of 100 push-ups, and we all did it and realized that we were capable of more. And so, in December, we decided to jump to 1,000 and see how it goes.”

After the first stage of the challenge, Neufeld decided to bring it to the School. This friendly competition drives more enthusiasm for Neufeld and participants as they vie for first place.

“It’s fun to have someone else that you can almost compare yourself to to see where you want to get to”, Neufeld said. “By opening it up to some friends and having them invite more people, you get more people to motivate you”.

Brooks Neufeld ’26 runs for the Varsity Boys Cross Country Team. Photo by David Barron.

Brooks Neufeld '26 runs in the MBIL tournament. Photo by David Barron.

Students and teachings participating in the challenge. Video by Mary Wang.

The number of participants has grown to 28, and it includes educators like World History and Economics teacher Ted Barker-Hook, United States History teacher David Cutler, and Upper School Math and Engineering teacher Len Wholey.

As more students and faculty members are adding push-ups into their daily routines, Neufeld’s challenge is promoting a healthy tradition as people are prompted to exercise more.

“I believe in people exercising,” Neufeld said. “And so, when people want to join, I'm perfectly happy to invite them.”

Collectively, the participants reached a total of 16,111 push-ups in the month of December 2024. Neufeld is also planning something different for the new year.

“For January, I hope to set a group goal for the whole community, which will hopefully motivate new people who don't think that they can make it to a thousand but who still want to help contribute," Neufeld said.

Moving forward, Neufeld plans to incorporate more elements into the challenge.

“I'm currently working on my Problem Solving Through Design class to make it more accessible to people by creating websites,” Neufeld said.

This will allow participants interested in the challenge to view more transparent data as the activity progresses in real-time.

Andrew Flint '26 doing push-ups in the STEAM Lab. (Mary Wang)

Brooks Neufeld '26 exercising in the weight room.

Brooks Neufeld '26 running with his teammates, Sam Gavin '25 and Huck Jennings '25.

Noah Panto '25 is currently placed amongst the top five of the push-ups challenge leaderboard.

“I've enjoyed every minute of the challenge,” Panto said. “I think it's been a great experience because it's just been keeping me active throughout the day and reminding me to get started.”

Panto loves every aspect of the challenge and enjoys the progress of becoming stronger. He also looks forward to further expansion and growth.

“I am excited for a more well-polished push-up counting system, and I just love to see more people do it and get some push-ups in,” Panto said.

Cooper Horn '27 dominated the leaderboard by completing 2,000 pushups in December.

“It's not really about competing against other people and trying to get the most,” Horn said. “But it's mostly about competing for yourself.”

Horn is excited for the challenge as it keeps going, and calls for more people to join in on this healthy and engaging habit of doing push-ups.

Horn has also been keeping up with his teacher, Ted Barker-Hook, who closely follows him with a monthly total of 1,960 push-ups.

"I enjoyed being a part of Brooks's pushup challenge, and I'm looking forward to him announcing more," Barker-Hook said.

Barker-Hook also agrees that the challenge isn't just about competing for the most number of push-ups.

"I tried—and I think I succeeded—to keep in mind that the pushup challenge was never meant to be a competition, so I went into it with a goal of just consistently getting my own pushups in and putting in the daily work."

Barker-Hook also mentions that Neufeld's challenge brought him back to regular exercise after the cross country season ended.

"I haven't been good about [exercising] since the cross country season began—and the Pushup Challenge was helpful in shoving me back in that direction," Barker-Hook said.

Noah Panto '25, who has done 1176 push-ups.

Cooper Horn '27, who is currently first place with 2000 push-ups.

Upper School Humanities Teacher Ted Barker-Hook, with a monthly push-up count of 1960.

As the challenge progresses, Barker-Hook shares similar wishes that it will reach more members of the community.

"I was excited to see that many of the cross country runners I coach chose to be a part of the pushup challenge, and I hope that continues," Barker-Hook said.

In addition, Barker-Hook also calls for more participation.

"I also hope that more girls—whether they're runners or not—will choose to take part in future challenges."

This sentiment aligns with the momentum Neufeld's challenge has created at the School, igniting a push-up craze that promotes physical fitness while uniting community members.

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