When no one in the room of young martial artists could get to 50 and I finished 100 in one minute, the laughter turned to an embarrassing, stunned silence. So let me ask YOU my friend:

Will you join me in building a happier, healthier, more rewarding and more energized life by doing JUST TEN pushups in the next 5 minutes… but read this first… it may really SAVE YOUR LIFE.

Dear Friend

I am not joking. That actually has happened. Frequently. Please let me introduce myself. My name is Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee, and I have been teaching taekwondo and the “Joy of Discipline” to children of all ages, including over 100 Senators and Congressmen, for over 50 years.

I am writing this now to ask you to take a simple “PUSHUP pledge in the next 5 minutes, to do at least 10 pushups, as a starting point that can change the rest of your life. Please let me tell you why this is so very important to you.

I am very motivated to help you because, you see, I am an American by choice not by accident of birth, and I am very grateful for the success I have enjoyed in America. It is time to return something back. Please read this carefully because it may really change your life for the better in the next 5 minutes.

Obesity and lack of flexibility are killing more Americans every year. If we eat better, and exercise more, you don’t have to become a statistic. I’m going to tell you how to do this simply and easily.

Young people are getting fat and unhealthy and unable to get through the day without a “lift” from artificial stimulants like the so-called “energy drinks” that leave you more tired and on the road to being overweight, or worse, drugs and of course, the ever-present “fast food” that so many like to “supersize.” Use of sodas and candy and other unhealthy snacks, together with an absence of any regular exercise program, causes our young people to become more unproductive, to feel tired earlier in the day, to perform worse with each passing year.

My purpose with this new Pushup Pledge program is not to help you get rich or financially secure, although I will tell you that a good mental attitude will certainly enhance your enjoyment of life, and good health and good attitude go together in improving your finances – along with the simple notion of spending less than whatever you earn, and increase your earnings and savings before you spend more.

I want to ask you to take a few minutes a day, to improve your life by fighting obesity. And that will also improve your self-confidence and your attitude as well. Wait till you see how easy this is going to be.

I don’t aim to be negative in telling you about obesity, because I really want you to focus on what is good as a goal, not just avoid what is bad. But I think it would benefit you to consider what may be ahead for you if you don’t turn your back on obesity, and make a choice and follow up on achieving the better health and attitude that is yours in exchange for just a few minutes a day.

Obesity is not just something that happens to older people. The diseases associated with being overweight, aren’t just “old people’s” problems – the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDS) says that obesity and lack of physical activity may be the major contributors to the recent increase in type 2 diabetes among CHILDREN and adolescents.

Obesity – caused by the combination of bad eating habits and lack of exercise – can increase your blood pressure and your LDL or “bad” cholesterol.

Obesity and physical inactivity may account for 25 to 30 percent of several major cancers, such as colon, breast (post menopausal), endometrial, kidney and esophageal.

Before I tell you about my minutes-a-day program to improve your health, let me take a moment to speak to you about eating habits.

For many years, Americans have heard that we should eat less fat every day, and more healthy foods. The problem is, that is only a PART of what makes you fat.

If you eat too much sugar or useless carbs (the carbohydrates without any healthy benefit – such as potato chips or supersized French fries at your fast food place), your body will use THAT as the energy source instead of burning the fat in your body. As a result, the fat is added to your body’s “long term storage” and the carbs give you a FAST BOOST. That is why you feel more energetic after eating a sugar filled candy bar or one of those energy drinks. But while your body is ADDING more fat, which is your FIRST penalty, you are also going to pay a SECOND penalty for overdoing the carbs – which is you will end up feeling much more TIRED and even EXHAUSTED later.

So, too much BAD carbs and sugar, means LESS energy & MORE of a fat YOU.

A more balanced meal, means MORE energy ALL through the day, NO tired out feeling and best of all, long term good health.

In order to eat LESS of what is bad, there are two simple things to remember. First, DON’T keep eating until you are feeling STUFFED. Just STOP when you are full. Never mind the old fashioned idea of eating everything on your plate all the time, and avoid the supersizing of your meals. The second secret of healthy eating, is don’t starve yourself. Yes, I know that sounds like the opposite of the first idea but let me explain. If you skip snacks and find yourself VERY HUNGRY it is a lot harder to resist the temptation to eat UNHEALTHY SUGAR and CARBS to fill you up. But if you snack on HEALTHY foods all day – such as protein snack bars, carrots, celery, nuts or anything else you can find that is LESS carbs and sugar, easy to get to, and leaves you full…. Then you have half the battle won already because you no LONGER HAVE ROOM for the bad foods you were eating before.

Of course, this also means to put MORE vegetables and fruits in your diet, and cut back on the sugar, bread, potatoes and white rice “empty carbohydrates”:in your meals. Cut back what is bad, increase what is good.

There are many different books that give advise on how to improve your eating habits but I want to move on to what I really think is the most important part of my message about how to improve your life.

The word “exercise” is like the words “budget” and “discipline” – a negative word to many people.

The Joy of Discipline

I started a program with Master Ken Carlson for public school kids many years ago called “The Joy of Discipline.” It was commended by Secretary of Education William Bennett because I had some success in showing young people that there is JOY in knowing that the “work” you are doing can be fun and most important, can help you accomplish your goals in life.

OK, here it is:

Can you do 10 pushups in the next 5 minutes?

Go ahead, think about it for the next minute or 2.

Because I have a hard time imagining why it would take you more than 3 minutes to do 10 pushups.

I am well past my 70th birthday for my body (although my MIND gets YOUNGER every year because of my THOUGHT PROCESS), and while you are thinking about it for the next 2 minutes, I can actually do 200 pushups.

Every day, I do 1,000 total pushups.

Now, I have the body of an 18 year old in a body that is marked as over age 70. I am more flexible and have more core strength, and am energetic feeling every day. And I very rarely meet any 18 year old that can keep up with me on pushups.

You don’t need to do 1,000 pushups in a day, or 100 pushups in one minute, in order to turn your life around.

You can start with our program by making a commitment to simply start NOW before you go off to do something else, with 10. Yes, a simple TEN.

You don’t need equipment, you don’t need to figure out which Gym you should join, you don’t need to buy any books. But you can make a commitment right now, a promise to yourself, that you will put yourself on the road to better and longer and a more vigorous life, by eating better (less of what is bad, and more of what is good) and TEN PUSHUPS every day.

Here is my promise to you.

If you find that you can do 10 pushups – and I am saddened to tell you that many people cannot yet do that – then you should go to the next goal, of doing 20 every day. It might happen for you in as little as one week. From there, I would like you to improve yourself to reach for a goal of 30 pushups every day.

Why stop?

Is there a LIMIT to how long you want to live? Is there a LIMIT to how HEALTHY and ENERGETIC you want to feel every day?

WHY PUSHUPS

My view is that the pushup affects more muscle groups in your body than any single other exercise you can do. The pushup does not require a large amount of space, no equipment, and can be done anytime, anyplace, even while you are traveling away from home. If you cannot do 10 pushups it is simply because your arms need to be STRONGER and your lifting weight needs to be SMALLER. As you eat better every day, and as you do SOME pushups every day, this will change, and it will become EASIER to do MORE pushups.

So, the number of pushups you can do right now, is your starting point to better health and feeling better every day. If you can do a larger number of pushups you are well on the way to improving your health and energy level.

MUSCLES

Why is it important to have muscles?

If you are older – over age 30 or 40 – you should be aware that as we age, we automatically LOSE muscle mass every year. More than two pounds a year, by most estimates. That means, if you eat THE SAME type of diet you ate three years ago, with LESS muscles in your body to BURN the fat, you simpler get FATTER every year.

Remember, FATTER means, less energy, and higher probability of a variety of diseases that can put you into the hospital, make you stay home sick, and even KILL you many years EARLIER if you would simply eat better and exercise more.

If you are a younger person, more muscles means that two things very important for your age group. First, your body is a MACHINE given to you by your Creator, a gift. But there are no replacement parts, and no trade ins. So if you mistreat your body you are STUCK with the result – lousy performance, feelings of being tired and LACK of energy, lack of focus.

If you EXERCISE on the other hand, the amount of OXYGEN going into your body (and your BRAIN) increases, making your body perform better and your MIND will perform better. You will develop LARGER muscles which will burn fat continuously all day long, even when you are sound asleep or sitting reading a book. And the second benefit to a young person – you will LOOK a lot better and you will soon notice that people are asking you, WHAT is your secret?

So whether you are younger or older, MORE MUSCLES burns fat for you even when you are RESTING or sleeping. That means eat more protein, less fat and MOST ESPECIALLY less sugar and carbs, eat more often so your BODY becomes a FAT BURNING MACHINE with the “engine” never going into idle, and REV UP your machine by doing 10 pushups.

Then rev up your engine by going to 20 pushups a day. Every increase represents a major improvement in your life. Never retreat, never go back.

My body has actually IMPROVED as I have aged, because I have simply focused on eating better and doing my pushups every day. Your life can improve too.

Now, to help you improve your life, I’d like to ask you to make a commitment right now.

I’d like to ask you to do your pushups, right now, and keep count. Keep going until you can no longer do a perfect pushup.

Please. It must be a perfect pushup. Practice makes perfect is JUST NOT TRUE, it is a half truth. It is PERFECT practice that makes perfect. If you do pushups WRONG it will simply be a bad habit, and at extreme may even be unhealthy for you. Your POSTURE is very important – a straight back, and a full pushup up, and then down, brief pause and then up. Repeat counting, until you have “muscle failure” and then stop. Your set is done.

I’d like you to record the number of pushups you can do this first time, right now here on this website. And then, I want you to give me a commitment as to how many pushups you AIM to be able to do in the next 30 days for me, doing this EVERY day.

You can do as many sets as you want every day, just make sure that you set a goal of doing the SAME NUMBER of pushups in each set, and then STOP and rest in between sets, or else, go back to pushups the next day.

So if you can do TEN pushups today in one set, in the next 30 days, you can pledge to me that you will do 300 pushups. If you can do two sets a day, then you can do 600 pushups a month.

And, I would like for you to tell me your GOAL at the end of the month, such as, increasing your pushups from the starting set of 10 pushups, to perhaps, a new set of 20 pushups each time, for example. Tell me your MONTHLY GOAL for the SECOND month you start this life-changing commitment.

Also, can you be sure to tell me your name and email address so that I can send you an acknowledgement message and my thanks.

But either way, please take the pushup pledge, make this commitment right now, in the next few moments, to improve your health, your daily performance, your attitude, your life.

If you take this first step, if you make this important commitment to your own future and your own life, and to being there with more vigor and energy both for yourself and for your loved ones, I promise, every week and every month for the rest of your life, you will feel better, and you will know that the gift you were given by our maker, is being handled with gratitude and with respect.

Now, I hope you will immediately stop what you are doing and give me 10 or 20 pushups, and then fill out the PUSHUP PLEDGE, in the next 5 minutes, so I can add your name to the honor role of those who have taken the PUSHUP PLEDGE.