Bodyweight fitness challenge while working from home.

I won’t talk too much about what is going on around us at the minute, it is far too depressing to go on about and I am sure that you have read thousands of words on the topic, so here… The C-word is banned. But, I wanted to talk about something I am doing during my stint of working at home, a fitness challenge!

This is a very simple thing to do and I know hundreds of people going on about it. I will not waste your time by giving you a long list of things you should do. I am just going to mention why I am doing it, what exercises I will be doing and what progress do I want to see by April 30th.

Due to what I have access to in my house I will be mostly just going for the bodyweight workouts which is great as I do really find those the more enjoyable exercises. I want to go further than this but I don’t want to go mental so obviously, I will readjust as the month goes on if I am doing “too well” at one workout. I hope to do all of these throughout the day, not in one go, but preferably in as few day sessions as possible. Let’s have a break down of what I am going to do and what I want to have achieved by the end of the month:

Bodyweight squats

I really think for bodyweight exercises that squats are my favourite to do as I can just keep going with them. Being a large guy means that generally, your legs have to be pretty strong to carry all the weight around. So with it being my strongest aspect of this challenge, I thought I would push for a crazy goal. I will try and complete 200 squats (on average) a day to a monthly goal of 6,000 squats.  I feel this is quite achievable, but you never know!

Pushups

I am piss poor at push-ups if we are going, to be honest, so I know for a while there will be adjusted pushups until my upper body strength can deal with it. With that said I do hope to get around 100 done a day totalling 3,000 for the month. But, I would like by the last day to be able to do these without one being adjusted. On those toes team.

Sit-ups

I love a good sit-up and so I will be making this one a good ole challenge. I want to do 333 sit-ups on average a day and that would make it 9,990 for the month, so obviously the last day will be 343, as who the hell would not try and round that one up!?

Bridge

I am cautious to make sure I am keeping all areas of my body strong and other than back extensions my next favourite back and glute workout is the bridge. Even though I am a large guy, I can be pretty good on the bridge and I want to help my bad posture with this one. There is no rep challenge on this one, but I would like to get around 10 minutes each day of being in the movement as I can get really comfortable in it.

Outside of the challenge

A step away from this challenge I will, of course, be keeping up with my running and with a bit of structure, I hope to get in a few runs a week. Though with Easter coming I hope to change that to an almost daily occurrence as I will want to get away from the computer and I will just replace my one outdoor activity a day with a run.

Walking wise I have been getting in some good numbers, far better than last year at the least, so I hope to keep that up and then some. Victoria has been aiming for an average of 10,000 steps per day, but if I could I would like to get closer to 15,000 as my daily average. That task is, of course, a lot harder under current restrictions and I am not blessed with a large garden to run around while staying “inside”. I will work it out as I have enjoyed getting outside after being cooped up indoors at the computer working!

Classes

Victoria has just started a program by Chloe Madeley and she would like me to join along in it. I am not as sure about it, though I will not necessarily ignore the suggestion as Victoria was working up a good sweat during the workout. Depending on how tired I am from my challenge, I may not be able to do it as well and I do not want to run the risk of getting injured! But we will see, it seemed fun enough!

So to recap I will be doing all of the above in April to help my mind and body stay sane during this period. With a bit of luck, I will be alright and I will be able to update you all every few days on what I am doing and if I am adding anything else into the fitness side of the month! Until next time!