The Ultimate Fitness Bucket List

Innovation for Endurance recently ran two articles — The Fitness Bucket List for Guys and The Fitness Bucket List for Women — which outlined a series of fitness goals and achievements that we suggested those serious about fitness and exercise try to accomplish within their lifetimes. What we never expected was that both posts would spark up a great debate among many readers.

Some thought certain goals were impossible to pull off. Other readers thought certain goals were too easy. Finally, still others wrote in to defend all of our choices and reminded those "pickier" readers that our bucket lists were meant to be tried over a lifetime (and that for some posters, their current age, bodyweight, past and present injuries or, their body frame, might make achieving certain goals impossible).

Seeing such a heated discussion made us curious: What would the all-time lifetime fitness achievements be? So this time, we left it up to you, the Innovation for Endurance community, to decide what the top shoot-for-the-stars, no-holds barred fitness goals are in your book.

So below is a top-10 list of the most challenging fitness goals a person can strive to achieve, culled from comments posted on our fitness bucket list articles. No one's saying it's possible to do all 10, but here's what readers collectively believe rank as the top 10 most difficult — but doable within a lifetime, so long as you start young and take your exercise seriously — fitness goals.

We've love to hear your thoughts — after all, this list isn't just for you, it's from you. Do you think you have — or had — what it takes to do them? Do you agree that all (or some) of these fitness goals are truly worthy of being on a list called the Ultimate Fitness Bucket List? Which should go? What would you add? Let the great debate begin!

1. See your six-pack

2. Run a marathon

3. Complete a triathlon

4. Swim a long-distance pool event (1650 yards or more)

5. Bike a century (100 miles)

6. Do 50 or more push-ups (25 or more if you're a women)

7. Run the 40-yard dash in five seconds or less

8. Climb to the top of a 20-foot rope

9. Squat twice your bodyweight

10. Deadlift 1.5 times your bodyweight

— Myatt Murphy, Fitness Reporter

Fitness expert Myatt Murphy, CSCS, is the author of the best-selling books Testosterone Transformation (Rodale, 2012), The Body You Want in the Time You Have (Rodale, 2005), The Men's Health Gym Bible (Rodale, 2006) and Men's Health's Ultimate Dumbbell Guide (Rodale, 2007). His work has appeared in innumerable magazines and online.