A hundred days might not seem like enough time to change your life or your physique, but 20-year-old Estella Gong proves it's possible just by doing push-ups.

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The computer engineering student at University of Central Florida was known among her friends for being scrawny, so when she happened up the website GiveIt100.com, which challenges users to accomplish a goal in 100 days, she decided it was time to test her strength.

"When I first started, I was really interested in getting personal strength, and working on my upper body strength in general," Gong tells the Good News Blog. "For some reason, I guess because I'm really tiny, people don't expect a lot of strength from me."

Determined to change that opinion, Gong challenged herself to master push-ups, an exercise she'd always despised and had little success doing.

"The first time I tried doing push-ups, it was pitiful, it was almost like gravity was laughing at me because I couldn't get off the ground," she recalls.

Beginning last fall, Gong dedicated between 10 seconds to a minute out of every day to working on the exercise. She found that form was better than amount. Thus, doing 10 solid push-ups slowly or trying out more challenging versions was more effective than doing many repetitions.

The support of others on the site helped push her along.

"It's a community," Gong comments. "People on the site comment on videos, giving you advice and encouragement… I was really self-conscious about my videos at first. I would keep them private, but then I decided I would just go for it. I got some really good advice, and people wrote and told me about push-ups I'd never heard about."

The results were dramatic. Not only did Gong successfully master the basic move, she picked up on a few others. She also toned her arms, worked her core and got into a consistent exercise routine. She's also started rock-climbing and can do pull-ups now, something definitely not possible before this challenge.

"For the first time this semester, I'm going to the gym regularly," Gong notes. "I definitely learned that sharing your personal story goes a long way. Once people see me being able to do these push-ups I couldn't do before, it inspires others. That was the hugest thing this did for me."



