Does everybody still remember the Running Man Challenge? Bursting into the internet scene just a couple of months ago, it was started by Jaylen Brantley and Jared Nickens, players for the University of Maryland's men's basketball team.
There is now a new challenge making its rounds across social media, and this one has a more serious undertone to it.
Named the 22 Push-Up Challenge, it was started by an organization named 22Kill. The challenge is asking for people to upload videos while they do push-ups, with 22Kill looking to capture at least 22 million push-ups on video.
Why the number? It was taken from the shocking statistic that, on average, 22 veterans commit suicide daily in the United States, according to a report published by the Department of Veterans Affairs. As such, the challenge is looking to collect that many push-ups on video to both honor the men and women who have served the country and to raise awareness for the prevention of veteran suicides through empowerment and education.
The challenge does not require people to do a certain number of push-ups in videos that they upload. Those who are looking to participate can do only a handful or do hundreds, all of which will be accepted by 22Kill as contribution to the goal of 22 million push-ups.
There is also no single way on how to do the push-ups, as they can be done the regular way, assisted with people on their knees, inclined against a wall or on a desk, or even air push-ups for those physically incapable of doing the activity.
The only requirement for the push-ups on video to be counted toward 22Kill's goal is to begin the recording by stating the person's name and an organization that he or she may be representing, followed by the answer to the question "Why are you pushing or who are you pushing for?"
The video should then be uploaded on 22Kill's Facebook, YouTube, Instagram or Twitter accounts, with the hashtags "#Xpushups for #22KILL," with X being the number of push-ups done in the video.
Upon posting with the proper hashtags, 22Kill's system will pick up the number of push-ups done and add the number to its counter. Currently, the counter is under maintenance so it is not showing the accurate number, though the last count was already at nearly 4.8 million push-ups.
The good cause behind the 22 Push-Up Challenge brings to mind the Ice Bucket Challenge popularized by the ALS Association a couple of years ago, which aimed to raise awareness for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig's disease.
