A personal favourite of mine, and one that’s going to introduce you to some of the toughest three and a half minutes of your life!
Table of Contents
What is the “Bring Sally Up” challenge?
The premise to the Bring Sally Up challenge is quite simple: you want to pick an exercise and execute the up and down movements alongside the song Flower by Moby.
For example, if push-ups are your exercise of choice you would start in the press up position with arms straight, and when you the hear the lyrics “Bring Sally Down” you perform the down part of the movement, and when you hear “Bring Sally Up” you perform the up part of the movement.
You must stay in each position till the lyrics ‘instruct’ you to change, so the harder part here is the numerous breaks in the song where you will stay in the down position for longer durations. (FYI: The breaks refer to the lyrics “Old miss Lucy’s dead and gone, left me here to weep and moan”).
Because the song is only 3.5 minutes long, the challenge is a fun addition to the end of a workout, rather than as a workout by itself. All in all you will perform 8 reps, hold, 5 reps, hold, 5 reps, hold, 12 reps, then finish on a final hold.
Here’s a great example of the challenge with push-ups (credit to the video for the image used on this post):
Frequently Asked Questions
Because everyone loves to skim read articles!
How long is the song used in the Bring Sally Up Challenge?
How many reps will I complete during the Bring Sally Up challenge?
If you finish the challenge you will complete a total of 30 reps. The song is structured so this is completed in ‘blocks’ of 8, 5, 5 and 12 reps.
What exercises does the Bring Sally Up challenge use?
How hard is the Bring Sally Up challenge?
The difficulty of the challenge completely depends on the exercise chosen, and if you can keep up the movements for 3 minutes and 30 seconds.
Most people with a reasonable level of fitness should be able to complete the full challenge with Squats.
One of the hardest parts of the challenge is holding the down movement during the songs’ ‘Bridge’ part, which is where the lactic acid really starts to burn! For this reason, Burpees should be tiring but achievable by those with a good fitness level.
Push ups are the hardest exercise to complete the challenge with. If you can complete over 2 minutes with strict push-up form then you’re doing fantastic, and if you can complete the full challenge then you’ve done exceptionally well!
Who sings the ‘Bring Sally Up Bring Sally Down’ song used in the challenge?
You can watch the YouTube music video below and see the full lyrics to Flower further down.
What are the lyrics to the ‘Bring Sally Up Bring Sally Down’ song (Flower)?
Full lyrics for the song ‘Flower’ are as follows:
[Hook] [x8]
Bring sally up
And bring sally down
Lift and squat
Gotta tear the ground
[Bridge]
Old Miss Lucy’s dead and gone
Left me here to weep and moan
[Hook] [x5]
Bring sally up
And bring sally down
Lift and squat
Gotta tear the ground
[Bridge]
Old Miss Lucy’s dead and gone
Left me here to weep and moan
[Hook] [x5]
Bring sally up
And bring sally down
Lift and squat
Gotta tear the ground
[Bridge]
Old Miss Lucy’s dead and gone
Left me here to weep and moan
[Hook] [x12]
Bring sally up
And bring sally down
Lift and squat
Gotta tear the ground
[Bridge]
Old Miss Lucy’s dead and gone
Left me here to weep and moan
Founder of www.calisthenics-101.co.uk. Training calisthenics since 2012.
Currently working on: 30 second one-arm handstand, muscle-up 360, straddle planche.