Fitness Challenges in July

I have restructured my training for July by adding some challenges ON TOP of my normal workouts. I thought I would let you all take a peek and maybe find some inspiration for your own training or spark an idea to challenge yourself in a meaningful way. 

100 Day Burpee Challenge. This actually started on June 25 and concludes on Oct 3. Began on Day 1 by doing the most amount of burpees you could comfortably do without stopping. Normally on this challenge you start at 1 repetition. Then for the next 99 days add one burpee per day. I suppose I was lucky enough to establish my base number at the very end of a three training rotation where I did 15 hours of hard exercise. My body was pretty hammered, ready to collapse and did 18 burpees. The simple way to think of this challenge is that I will do 118 on the last day. In reality the number of reps doesn't matter at the end, its the action of doing 'one more' burpee every day consistently for 100 straight days. There may be some people who do not know what a burpee is or confused on how to do them. Here is a blog I wrote on the burpee and a video I like to use as a visual. 

1,000 Ab Challenge. This is a ten week challenge starting the first Monday of the month. For the first week do 100 total repetitions of abdominal exercises every day. How they are done, in what order and how many reps per exercise is completely up to the individual as long as 100 reps are met every day. Do 100 crunches or 100 flutter kicks, do 10 reps of 10 different ab exercises, its the reps that matter not a prescribed doctrine to follow. On the following Monday and for the next nine weeks add 100 repetitions each week to the routine until the last week you are performing 1,000 abdominal exercises per day.  

10,000 Push Up Challenge. This is a one month challenge to do a total of 10,000 push ups in the calendar month. If spread evenly the number of reps would be 323 per day. If a day is missed it could be spread out over the rest of the month or 323 x 2 push ups the next day. Or do 1,000 a day and get the challenge done in ten days. The calendar is the frame, the effort is the individual.

1 Mile Run Every Day Challenge. This is a one month challenge to run every day a minimum of one mile. While this seems incredibly simple, it is so hard to string together consecutive days of running. All the other challenges can be done almost anywhere over a 24 hour day. Running requires some planning that can easily be derailed. I have gone longer with the challenge in the past but feel this one may be the hardest to complete. 

To keep all these straight I write my daily totals on a wall calendar in the kitchen. Each daily box is divided into quarters, one for each challenge, that are filled in daily with my totals. However you decide to spend your month or your entire summer the most important thing is to challenge yourself with habits that are fun.