You are doing more push ups than you were when you started out. When I was researching about exercise for my physiotherapy, I read that the act of exercise itself doesn’t build muscles. Exercise breaks muscles down, and rest allows them to recover and grow stronger than they were before.

It makes sense to me that you will have a “dip” every now and then while your muscles build up – it is a balance between stress and recovery, or breaking down and building up again. Your body will be fatigued between challenges, but you’ve definitely moved forward overall.