Week Six Challenge - Switch It Up
I remember a time when I thought I was in pretty good shape. I was fairly thin and had some decent muscle mass too. At the time, I spent most of my workouts on the elliptical machine at the gym. That was my go-to workout spot, along with some weight training. For me, it was all about the calorie burn and I felt like I couldn't do better than consistent elliptical training.
One day, I decided to try out a class at the gym. I was pretty scared but I knew I was getting stronger so I would be fine. You know where this is going, don't you? Well, let me tell you, I struggled my way through that class! Of course I was benefiting from my workouts on the elliptical, but this was a whole other ball game, working my body in new ways.
I was a little bummed to find out that I wasn't as "in shape" as I thought I was. But I also found this experience really enlightening. It's not just about how many calories you burn or how thin you are. If you're looking to get in shape, your best bet is to challenge your body in new ways by switching up your workouts.
There are MANY benefits to changing your workouts. If you hit a plateau in your weight loss, switching up your workout routine might be the ticket. Your body gets better and better at doing the same workouts, so you end up burning fewer calories and facing less of a challenge each time. Remember, if you're comfortable, not much is changing. Be comfortable with uncomfortable.
You can also burn out muscle groups by doing the same thing all the time. Riding your bike or running is obviously much more demanding on the legs than the arms so your legs can get burnt out while your arms go unchallenged. Go for a swim, try the row machine, or venture into a total body conditioning class to give those arms a workout too.
For me personally, I like to feel like I'm truly in-shape, conditioning my body to be able to handle whatever challenge comes my way. I might be able to do the elliptical, but jumping rope for a good long while is a different story. When you're in tip top shape, your body is ready for anything and it's really empowering.
And honestly, we all know doing the same thing all the time gets boring. Mixing things up can lead you to new challenges, maybe meeting new people, and even finding new passions.
Our challenge for Week Six is to do a different workout each day. You get one point each day you do a workout, for a total of six points for the week. Here are the rules:
(1) The actual exercise routine itself must be different each time. For example, if you count walking on the treadmill one day, you can't count walking in the neighborhood another day It's still walking both times, even if the setting is different.
(2) You can have the same instructor twice, but only if it's a different class entirely. This rule applies to video routines as well. You could do Jillian Michaels every day, as long as she's having you do different workouts.
(3) You CAN do a variety of the same TYPE of workout. You might enjoy doing cardio, and there are a whole bunch of different cardio routines out there. Feel free to try different routines and count those routines as a different workout each time. You might also enjoy running. Perhaps one time you can run up and down stairs the whole time, while another run might be long distance endurance, and another run could be sprint sets. That's still challenging your body in different ways and doing a different kind of workout.
(3) It is not required that you do a workout you've never done before. The point is variety, not necessarily novelty.
My sample workout week might look like this:
Day 1 - swimming
Day 2 - cycling
Day 3 - walk
Day 4 - boot camp class
Day 5 - running
Day 6 - YouTube fitness routine
For our Week Six bonus, you can get an additional point each day for doing an extra 15 minutes of exercise! If you go above and beyond your 45 minutes and do a full hour, you get to mark down 4 points for exercise that day as opposed to our usual 3 points. That's a total of six possible bonus points this week (you still take a day off from exercise).
You will notice on our Google Sheet that I've changed our totals for this last week to include the bonus. You can now get a total of 24 points for your exercise this week. In addition, the bonus box has been marked with an X because your bonus points are included with your exercise points this week. There should be no bonus points in the bonus box this week.
Good luck in changing things up!
One day, I decided to try out a class at the gym. I was pretty scared but I knew I was getting stronger so I would be fine. You know where this is going, don't you? Well, let me tell you, I struggled my way through that class! Of course I was benefiting from my workouts on the elliptical, but this was a whole other ball game, working my body in new ways.
I was a little bummed to find out that I wasn't as "in shape" as I thought I was. But I also found this experience really enlightening. It's not just about how many calories you burn or how thin you are. If you're looking to get in shape, your best bet is to challenge your body in new ways by switching up your workouts.
There are MANY benefits to changing your workouts. If you hit a plateau in your weight loss, switching up your workout routine might be the ticket. Your body gets better and better at doing the same workouts, so you end up burning fewer calories and facing less of a challenge each time. Remember, if you're comfortable, not much is changing. Be comfortable with uncomfortable.
You can also burn out muscle groups by doing the same thing all the time. Riding your bike or running is obviously much more demanding on the legs than the arms so your legs can get burnt out while your arms go unchallenged. Go for a swim, try the row machine, or venture into a total body conditioning class to give those arms a workout too.
For me personally, I like to feel like I'm truly in-shape, conditioning my body to be able to handle whatever challenge comes my way. I might be able to do the elliptical, but jumping rope for a good long while is a different story. When you're in tip top shape, your body is ready for anything and it's really empowering.
And honestly, we all know doing the same thing all the time gets boring. Mixing things up can lead you to new challenges, maybe meeting new people, and even finding new passions.
Our challenge for Week Six is to do a different workout each day. You get one point each day you do a workout, for a total of six points for the week. Here are the rules:
(1) The actual exercise routine itself must be different each time. For example, if you count walking on the treadmill one day, you can't count walking in the neighborhood another day It's still walking both times, even if the setting is different.
(2) You can have the same instructor twice, but only if it's a different class entirely. This rule applies to video routines as well. You could do Jillian Michaels every day, as long as she's having you do different workouts.
(3) You CAN do a variety of the same TYPE of workout. You might enjoy doing cardio, and there are a whole bunch of different cardio routines out there. Feel free to try different routines and count those routines as a different workout each time. You might also enjoy running. Perhaps one time you can run up and down stairs the whole time, while another run might be long distance endurance, and another run could be sprint sets. That's still challenging your body in different ways and doing a different kind of workout.
(3) It is not required that you do a workout you've never done before. The point is variety, not necessarily novelty.
My sample workout week might look like this:
Day 1 - swimming
Day 2 - cycling
Day 3 - walk
Day 4 - boot camp class
Day 5 - running
Day 6 - YouTube fitness routine
For our Week Six bonus, you can get an additional point each day for doing an extra 15 minutes of exercise! If you go above and beyond your 45 minutes and do a full hour, you get to mark down 4 points for exercise that day as opposed to our usual 3 points. That's a total of six possible bonus points this week (you still take a day off from exercise).
You will notice on our Google Sheet that I've changed our totals for this last week to include the bonus. You can now get a total of 24 points for your exercise this week. In addition, the bonus box has been marked with an X because your bonus points are included with your exercise points this week. There should be no bonus points in the bonus box this week.
Good luck in changing things up!
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