This post was updated daily for days 1 – 7 of this challenge.
Click here for week two’s updates of this challenge.
Yesss! So it begins… I am really excited to be doing this challenge with a bunch of other people on Discord, but also some of my church friends who have been interested in getting back into exercise. The program was pre-released on Saturday and I’ve been dead excited about it ever since. It’s got some of my favourite videos in and the entire schedule looks very well thought out. (Not to mention, I actually came up with the challenge name hehe.)
This is a 4 week challenge and I don’t really want the post to be too long, so I’ll be tracking my updates on a new post every week. It’s only been a few days since I completed the 2020 2 Week Shred Challenge so I won’t be posting starting physique photos. I look the same so please check out the bottom of that post if you’re curious about pictures.
Originally I had wanted to take the entire weekend off from exercising after my 2 Week Shred completion, but thanks to a song my friend played on in the Discord voice chat I ended up basically doing Day 1 of the 2019 2 Weeks Shred challenge plus most of Chloe’s 6 Pack Abs video with a 5lb dumbbell… for funsies. In jeans, t-shirt and socks on carpet haha.
The impromptu workout was unintentional, but thoroughly enjoyable. I did sweat during the workout, but not nearly as much as I would have done in the past. I was able to go through the entirety of the workout without additional breaks or struggling very hard at all.
Super thrilled at how much stronger I’ve become, and I’m excited to grow even stronger through this program! Chloe has released a new warm up video, and will be releasing a new cool dow video as well, so I’ll be trying both of those out as part of this program. As before, dates will be written in US format since I live here now.
Week One
1/4 – Day 1: Completed 15:49.
Videos completed: New Warm Up, Ep 1. Full Body, Ep 2. Abs & Flat Stomach, 15min Lower Body, MadFit 15min Cool Down.
Day 1 is done!! Wooooohoo! Today I worked out with Jon – Flora was originally going to join too but unfortunately she won’t be joining us until next week. Jacky said he’d join in tomorrow as he wasn’t able to make it today. It’s really fun to exercise with others :D But also, I just generally really enjoyed the workout anyway.
Today was my first time trying out Chloe’s new warm up video – it definitely got my heart rate up and my body warm. My heart rate was about 120bpm by the end of the video, and I could feel my body was warmer though I wasn’t yet sweating. I prefer this aspect to Natacha’s video, since by the time I finish her warm up my heart rate has usually dropped back down to the 80’s.
I liked the stretches that Chloe included, and even the mountain climbers were okay for the most part. The only minor criticism I’d give is that I would personally prefer longer times per move so that I have more time to stretch out my body, however, I appreciated that the video was only 8mins long.
My average heart rate was higher for the HIIT today – it really pushed me and I saw my heart rate hovering around the early 170’s a lot of the time. The new ab workout had my heart rate at 147bpm average with a high of 165, and an average of 152bpm for the lower body workout. Usually I float around an average 130-140bpm for the strength workouts, so I definitely worked harder than before. I used Chloe’s light resistance bands for the lower body workout again and was able to keep the band on for more exercises.
The most exciting part about all that is that it’s clear my fitness level is improving, since I was able to sustain the increased heart rate and continue exercising. I only took a couple of extra breaks and was otherwise able to keep going through the entire workout. It’d been a while since I pushed this hard and sweat this much to be honest! I thought the plank knee tucks were going to be the hardest but nope, I managed to get through those. It was the low plank feet taps that got me dead haha.
Overall, I loved all 3 of Chloe’s new videos and am excited to do them again on Wednesday. And of course I still really like the lower body workout. Ending on MadFit’s longer cool down was certainly a good choice after I didn’t warm up or cool down yesterday. Ahhh, it was a good stretch. Surprisingly, my arms are pretty sore so, um, tomorrow should be fun lol. I’m looking forward to the new arm workout video!
1/5 – Day 2: Completed 16:22.
Videos completed: New Warm Up, Ep 3. Arm Workout, Arms & Upper Body, MadFit 5min Cool Down.
Today was a very exciting day for me where I realised I’d become even stronger than I thought. Jacky wasn’t able to join me in the end but I was motivated to do the workout regardless.
Again the warm up was fun and got my heart rate up. I wouldn’t have minded more upper body stretches but it still served its purpose well. It looks like I’m already getting more accustomed to the warm up as my average heart rate dropped 2bpm and my max heart rate for it also dropped very marginally. It still got my body nicely warm for the arm videos.
I’d been looking forward to trying the new arm workout video since I watched it in the morning; the new moves looked so fun and I was looking forward to the challenge.Whilst I was doing the videos, I honestly hadn’t found them too difficult. In fact, I didn’t even take a slightly longer break until 88% through the second video. But later on, however… lol.
I did not use equipment for the new arm video and was initially thinking I should add some light weights, but my left arm is still quite a bit weaker than my right, so I focused on my mind-muscle connection with my left arm instead. I really enjoyed the exercises in this video and will probably start trying it with proper pushups if I wanted to really challenge myself moving forward.
For the second upper body workout I used two 5lb dumbbells throughout (apart from the move where we were targeting one arm at a time), which it’s been a while since I’ve been able to do. Again this felt surprisingly doable but I didn’t want to go heavier because I want to give my left arm an opportunity to catch up strength-wise.
That said, I did sweat a lot during this workout haha. I finished off the workout MadFit’s quick stretch video whilst adding some of my own stretches on top but I probably could have stretched more.
By far the most exciting thing that happened today, though, was my attempting a proper pushup after my workout and actually being able to do one!!! To be fair, my elbows were pointed out and I hadn’t had the strength to get my chest as close to the ground as I would have liked, but it’s still major progress and I am so proud.
The workouts felt fine while I was doing them (my left arm hurt for sure) but I’m writing this update a couple of hours later and my left arm is sore. My right arm is absolutely fine though, but dang my left arm is hurting. We need do a Costco run and I’m not entirely convinced I’ll be able to lift anything afterwards to be honest.
My butt is a bit sore from yesterday’s workout and now that my arms are sore too, I’m so glad Chloe decided to only do a HIIT and ab video tomorrow. That’s actually perfect. What a brilliant program so far. Looking forward to continuing.
1/6 – Day 3: Completed 16:47.
Videos completed: Natacha Océane 10min Warm Up, Ep 1. Full Body, Ep 2. Abs & Flat Stomach, MadFit 15min Cool Down.
Okay, somehow, over the past 2 days, the full body video got harder. I felt exhausted and yet my heart rate didn’t even hit 170bpm. I guess I was just overall tired today. I felt quite sore in general so had to go back to Natacha’s video for a longer warm up, and I ended my workout on MadFit’s longer cool down so that I could start and finish with more stretches.
I’m really proud that I pushed myself harder today, though. I really felt my ab muscles being engaged in the HIIT where normally they wouldn’t be. Same for my left leg that was aching by the end of the workout. My left glute hadn’t even fully recovered soreness before being worked harder today heh.
I also tried to jump/shuffle very lightly wherever I could. In addition, I did one full push-up before moving back to my knees. To be fair, my form wasn’t fantastic and I wasn’t able to get my chest fully to the ground, but it’s still improvement while I continue to build my strength.
For the abs video, I was able to go the entire way with only 1 additional break for water and to catch my breath. Again the plank & leg over tap almost killlled me. Cries of pain and anguish were released. I didn’t pause until after the side planks though.
I’m very glad today was only 2 videos long – Chloe knew what she was doing here; any longer and I probably would have given up anyway. My arms are still sore and I’m honestly not sure my body will be able to take tomorrow’s workout, but we shall see.
I am definitely still enjoying this challenge though, but maaaaybe working out 6 days in a row was a little optimistic. I probably shouldn’t have done a workout on Sunday, sigh. If I’m too tired tomorrow, I’ll move day 5’s rest day to tomorrow instead.
1/7 – Day 5: Rest.
Yep, I’m having the rest day today instead. If I can make up for the day’s workout tomorrow, I’ll do that. If not, I’ll rest another day. I’m exhausted today, but it’s been fairly productive, yay!
1/8 – Day 4: Completed 18:50.
Videos completed: MadFit 5min Warm Up, Ep 4. Booty Workout, 15min Booty Burn, MadFit 5min Cool Down.
Videos incomplete: 6 Pack Abs.
Wow what a workout. I was surprised I was able to get through it given how tired I was and that it was already pretty late in the day, but, oh my goodness, getting out the medium resistance band and increasing to an 8lb weight for the first time as well was killer.
I really enjoyed the new video but with that new resistance band, my booty was on fire. I wasn’t able to use the band for the entire workout but I did use it for a good number of moves. For my weight, I decided to add a 3lb ankle weight to my 5lb dumbbell and ohmygosh did that hurt.
I really felt my glutes burning badly throughout, but given that I was already fairly tired I decided to skip the 6 pack abs video, even though it’s one of my favourites. It was getting late and I didn’t really have any energy left. Also, to avoid my workout dragging too long I only did a quick warm up with a faster cool down too.
It was one of those days where I was feeling weaker in general so I’m glad I stopped when I did. Looking forward to doing the new booty workout again tomorrow! It was fun.
1/9 – Day 6: Completed 18:47.
Videos completed: Natacha Océane 10min Warm Up, Ep 2. Abs & Flat Stomach, Ep 4. Booty Workout, 6 Pack Abs, MadFit 15min Cool Down.
Today I decided to switch out the full body video with the 6 pack abs video that I wasn’t able to do yesterday. I was feeling really tired again and knew I wouldn’t be able to handle a HIIT. In fact, half way through the first video I questioned if I’d even be able to handle the 6 pack abs today given how tired I was feeling.
However, somehow I seem to have miraculously gained strength during the booty workout because I felt amazing doing the first two exercises with a medium resistance band again. I switched to a light band after that though and my glutes were still on fire. I was really happy with how I actually felt my glutes being engaged today, rather than relying so much on other muscles to pick up the slack.
I still wasn’t sure if I’d still have energy to do the 6 pack abs when it just started playing and… well, I guess my body heard the music and decided to move on its own haha. I did the low impact/non-weighted moves, but I am so pleased because I still did the workout, and through it I could feel my form had improved further for some moves, and I felt stronger for others.
Today I felt like my body really needed a good stretch so I went back to Natacha’s warm up and ended on MadFit’s longer cool down. However, my body needed more of a stretch than I even initially thought because, for the first time ever, I felt like Maddie’s stretch durations weren’t long enough. Usually I’m ahead of her a little and even add in some of my own extra stretches while I wait for her to finish, but today I was behind her on almost every single move, to the extent I questioned if I accidentally put the video on 1.25x speed. I was pretty sure I hadn’t since I knew the tempo of the regular speed, but I still had to double check at the end, and… yep, regular speed.
I really enjoyed the workout and the stretches and am proud for completing the workout today! Tomorrow is a rest day, which is much appreciated and works out perfectly because we need to clean the apt haha.
On another note, I was wondering why I had been feeling so tired lately… and realised I had been eating chocolate recently… and then I checked my calendar. Yep, it’s coming folks. Hopefully it starts on the rest day haha.
1/10 – Day 7: Rest.
Hooray for another rest day! I certainly needed it, but it was a fairly active one as we spent a good few hours cleaning the apt :) Now the apt is super clean again and I am one happy Bob yay! Next week is looking like it’ll be ridiculously busy so let’s see how I get on. Loved the first week though, and am dead excited for the new video releasing tomorrow.
Muchos love,