This week in our station update, we see the "Mighty Macquarie Island Machines” hit the deck and do lots of push ups to raise awareness and funds for mental health.
The push up challenge involves completing a total of 3139 push ups throughout the month of June to raise much needed awareness and funds for mental health. It's not the first time that the Antarctic stations have set out to push for better, but it might just be the first time that Macca has proven too strong for the continental stations.
The initiative is run by 'Push for Better Foundation', their aim being to bring people together, raise awareness and empower people to create healthy lifelong habits. Each day throughout June, we are allocated an amount of push ups to complete for that day as well as some information and facts in regards to mental health. The amount of push ups per day has varied from 74 on day one, 157 on day three and a much welcomed rest day on day 5. It’s a great starting point to get the much-needed conversations started around mental health.
The Mighty Macca Machines almost didn’t get started, it took some tender words, some poking and prodding and a few white lies to get the 12 members signed up and pushing for better. We are quite a motely crew, young and old, all shapes and sizes from all different backgrounds, but thus far, everyone has had impeccable form and has been 90% honest with the amount of push ups they are doing.
The first few days saw enthusiasm left, right and centre that slowly turned into groans and moans in regards to muscles people didn’t even know they had. The next evolution was to see everyone involved, walking around like they were carrying watermelons under their arms and had been doing 200 push ups an hour for the last 10 years (cough cough, 1 plumber in particular)… but realistically, the challenge has only been going for 6 days. If the Mighty Macquarie Island Machines keep it up, they will not only crush Casey and Mawson, but they’ll have to widen all the doorways on station just to get around (lucky we’ve got some good chippies).
Anyways, I’ve got to run, I’ve got a few more push ups to bank but before I go, below is a link to donate if you can: https://www.thepushupchallenge.com.au/fundraisers/MacquarieIslandMachines/the-push-up-challenge
But most importantly, check in on your mates and your loved ones, mental health can affect anyone at any time.
Thanks for reading, Harley
