I am all for fitness challenges to get you in shape, motivate you, start your fitness journey, etc, etc. However, if you take a look at some of these challenges they might make you want to quit one week in.
No, I am not going to specifically point out any of these challenges, but chances are you have already come across them yourself.
It gets to the point my muscles ache just looking at the routine.
We all have heard how great the benefits of exercise can be. But, exercise also comes with some risks, like injuries and heart problems if the exercise is not done correctly or as a result of your medical history or other underlying factor.
And if the exercise is extreme then the dangers multiply even more.
Good news though! There are certain guidelines that you should look for when trying to decide which challenge is good, and safe, for you.
Take a look at these 5 questions to ask yourself when deciding whether or not you should do a challenge:
1) How many days a week am I working out?
If you are just now starting, or starting back to fitness after a long break, you may want to only work out 2-3 times a week. Why? Depending on how long you have been sedentary, rushing into any type of physical activity may increase your risk of injury.
However, even if you have been exercising for some time, constantly maintaining a workout schedule of 5-6 days a week may not be for you.
2) How many days in a row am I exercising the same muscle group?
Working out big muscle groups vs. isolated exercises are going to be the key. For instance, your core is pretty much involved in every exercise you do. But, crunches and sit ups are going to isolate it. So, if you do 100 sit ups every day for 3 days straight, guess what? You might end up sorer than usual than if you just stuck a rest day in between, which leads me to my next point.
3) How many rest days have been included?
Rest is a very important thing when it comes to working out. We need to allow sufficient time for our bodies to rest so that our muscles can recover. If we don’t allow enough time for our muscles to recover, we run the risk of injury, soreness, and pain.
This is what will cause you to quit one week in.
4) Is this realistic?
When there are 200, 500, 1000 + exercise repetitions involved in the challenge, you really need to seriously ask yourself is this realistic? Can this routine/circuit/workout/challenge be executed efficiently enough for X many times for the amount of days instructed?
You may start off strong, but will you be able to keep up the same pace for the entire challenge time?
5) Who is the creator of the challenge?
Just because an individual has a degree/certification that doesn’t mean to automatically follow their advice. I’ve seen some challenges/workouts that are created by fitness enthusiasts that had no specialized fitness degree/certification and they gave sound, reasonable fitness advice.
Then, on the other hand I’ve seen those with a degree/certification of some type advising you to do rather extreme workouts.
You have to weigh their credentials in with all the other questions and make a sound decision from that.
Have you participated in any fitness challenges? What did you like or not like about it?
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