Completing My Own Challenge #In30
As I’ve grown older, I’ve really come to appreciate having my own personal fitness goals. I used to define my fitness success or failure by way of comparison to other people in my immediate surroundings, in addition to a few friends who post their fitness achievements on Facebook–a horrible practice, but one I actually did for years (and years and years–hey, I’m a competitive person!).
You may not be surprised to hear that doing this actually earned me very little progress with my own personal fitness because there were so many variables out of my control, and some I wasn’t even aware of. The end result was that I was constantly spinning my wheels so hard trying to get better at this and that because ‘Suzie’ and ‘Julie’ were good at them, that I really wasn’t actually getting better at anything. This is what happens when you base your progress off of what others are doing. Ridiculous, right? It seems so obvious now!
I eventually started to make my own personal fitness goals based on what motivated me. I have some super big and hairy ones that I laid out, but created a set of intermediary goals to keep me motivated as I programmed a way to get there. And now, some of those super big and hairy ones aren’t anything but a month or two away with my continued training! Most of my personal fitness goals right now are centered around lifting really heavy weights, which is what I really enjoy doing. So it may sound weird that I am so proud of a recently accomplished goal that included NO weights at all. What it did include was lots and lots of squats.
In May, I started taking part in a #squatchallenge that a few of our @Stonewear Twitter friends took up as well. We checked in on each others’ progress every day we were logging reps, and cheered each other on throughout the month. We started the month doing 50 squats May 1, and ended with a whopping 250 on May 31 (after doing 240 on May 30, 235 on May 29, etc.) so you see, progress was fast! It was an intense month that had me doing squats all over the place–even while brushing my teeth–in order to get my total reps for the day.
As we progressed through the month, more of our friends on Twitter saw what we were doing and joined in the #squatchallenge. It has been a blast to connect to other gals who are psyched to be part of a fitness challenge with other women all across the country. It was fun to celebrate hitting the required squat mark every single day. We experienced a shared sense of accomplishmen–something we could celebrate together.
I succeeded in doing the reps exactly as they were laid out for the entire month, and that made me really proud. I stayed motivated to stick to the challenge because of the encouragement from my fellow squatters and the knowledge that Rochelle (@clymberchick), Kristie (@wigirl4ever),and Gina (@ginabegin), amongst others, were doing their squats after 70+ mile bike races, while hiking and camping in the backcountry and at rest stops on long road trips.
Since we had such a blast in May we decided to work together to create a new challenge for the month of June, one that we are referring to as the #in30 challenge. This month we are focused on targeting the glutes and hamstrings after a very quad-intensive May. The program for June can be found here.
So even if you don’t have your own super big and hairy fitness goals exactly defined quite yet, you can discover how fun it is to set a goal–even a daily goal for each day this month–and achieve it with #in30. The #in30 fitness challenge is supposed to be fun and stimulating, so if you have an injury or some other limitation that prevents you from jumping in on the hip bridges or single leg deadlift reps laid out for this month, just pick something else that works on a fitness goal you want to tackle and join us! And don’t stress about, or throw in the towel if you miss a few days or can’t commit to the suggested number of reps, just look for us to cheer on your every successful step forward no matter what it may be. For us, the purpose is to join the group in doing a challenge that will result in your own, personal fitness success no matter what that may be for your own individual goals.
And, just because it is June 6 doesn’t mean you can’t just join in today, starting on June 1 is not mandatory! Look for us on Twitter @Stonewear and let us know you’re #in30 so we can cheer you on as you tackle one fitness challenge at a time with the support of some of our closest Twitter friends!
Important Notes: Before starting any physical activities, make sure you have been cleared by a doctor. This program was not designed by a certified athletic trainer but in conjunction with a personal trainer.
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