"I cant do 2 pushups"

"Last time that killed me when we did em"
"I cant.."
"I gotta learn to do 4 before i can keep up with you guys"
"My shoulder hurts.. I slept on my shoulder wrong last night"

Heard from a guy at work today. All within about 5 minutes. The guy came up with all the excuses in almost rapid fire fashion. Ive said enough excuses myself that I realize working out has to be from a choice to begin (or trickery   ) so I just let it go and didnt pursue any further. I did have him watch the "Excuses" video which is affectionately known as "My Feet Hurt" around here.

Backstory:
At work lately we, we being a couple guys that work here, have been doing pushups on the hour. Nothing huge or sweat breaking but enough. I personally have been doing sets of 30 slow perfect form pushups (just above slow speed 90*+ bend, shoulder width hand placement) for usually a total of near 200-250 pushups a night. I havent ASKED anyone yet to do them with me. The guys just saw me doing them one day and decided to jump in. Till today...

I asked the guy thats worked here for many years with me (hes nearing 15ish years) if he wanted to do them with us for our last set just before he was to go home. I told him dont worry about count.. Just do what you can. Then I told him about how when I first started I struggled with this workout: 5 sets: 4, 4, 6, 4, max. and that my max was pretty much ZERO on the last set for about a week and a half... then I started getting more. Hes done them once before with us and did 5 full pushups and while winded seemed to laugh it off like we all do when it hurts.

Disclaimer:I did NOT aggressively attempt to get him to do them. I did not attempt to push or shit talk him into doing them either.  I know how it is to swallow pride when youre first starting and dealing with embarrassment isnt something guys really endure well. I simply asked "Hey, you gonna do pushups with us?" and got the above list.

Any good excuses heard today? What excuse did you use yourself?

We get a lot of 5/6 year olds that don't have the upper body/core strength to do a regular pushup so we start them on modified push ups.  Once we get their form fixed pretty much all of them are knocking out 20 regular push ups in warm ups with the rest of the class inside of 6 months.  (Judo practice)

I think adults have problems humbling themselves enough to start with the small steps needed to be able to knock out a respectable amount of push ups.

My 4-year-old can do more push-ups than my stepson who just turned 14.  The 14 year-old stepson is tall and thin and weak and slow and lazy (though he plays sports and fancys himself an athlete), and he's always full of excuses and delusional smack talk.  My 4.75-year-old son can do push-ups, a few pull-ups, press-ups into pike on the rings, wall walk hand-stands, and he can ski black diamond runs if they aren't too hairy... ah yes, that's my boy.

I like cheese fries.

Long ago, when I was 39, I set a goal.  I wanted to do 40 straight, military PT-Test pushups in 90 seconds on my 40th birthday.  Since I could already do 30-some-odd, that wasn’t much of a problem and I did it easily.  Every year, I do the same thing, adding one pushup for each year.  It’s a good indicator that I’m staying in reasonable shape and making some progress.  I also do pullups, deadlifts, several core exercises plus the treadmill.  

It may be hard to believe, but it doesn’t get harder from one year to the next.  The incremental gains are pretty small.  

Last February, I turned 65.  
On the morning of my birthday, I went to the gym at Patrick AFB (I’m retired military) and did 67 pushups in 90 seconds.  My goal was 65, so I’m ahead of the game.

Lately, though, I’ve been having some trouble.  I seem to be stuck at 64 in 90 seconds.  I can do 75 in 2 minutes and I’m thinking I may have to adjust my goal.  I hope not.  I was hoping to keep my schedule until I was at least 70.  

Anyhow, people who can’t do even 2 pushups get no sympathy from me.  It’s not that hard.  They’re just lazy.