This post was updated daily for days 8 – 14 of this challenge.
Click here for week one’s updates of this challenge.
Alrighty, we are in the second week already! Last week was very enjoyable and honestly flew by, probably because Chloe has released many new videos for this challenge, as well as kept each day’s content fresh. There are far fewer repeated videos (but still enough to notice improvement) and that’s been keeping me excited to workout on a daily basis.
I’ve already watched the new HIIT video that she released today and am looking forward to trying it out. There will be another new video released in a couple of days’ time so I’m excited for that as well. Chloe has been very busy lately it seems, and I am incredibly appreciative of that.
Life is likely to be much busier this week given the things I need to sort out with my green card application plus work, but I still love the look of the workouts this week so I hope I won’t need to skip any days. We shall see though, because shark week is supposed to start this week and the first day’s always a little rough.
Week Two
1/11 – Day 8: Completed 15:56.
Videos completed: 10min Warm Up, Ep 5. 10min HIIT, 2 Weeks Abs, Ep 4. Booty Workout (x2), 15min Cool Down.
Ohhh my goodness. It has been a while since I have worked out so hard, and since a workout has taken so long. It took me 1hr 20min in total because of the sheer quantity and duration of breaks I needed to take today. My joints – shoulders especially – were pretty crunchy today so I went with Natacha’s warm up again so I could get some proper stretches in and ease my way into the workout.
I wasn’t able to do any of the jumps for the HIIT as usual, so I aimed to do higher impact versions of the low impact variations. Still, it was very doable and my average heart rate was only 148bpm, with a max of 167bpm that I barely hit for long. I did not need extra breaks during this video.
The 2 weeks abs – oh, it has been a while and I have regressed. Lol. Oh man, it burned me good today. I needed to take a longer break midway to breathe and wipe down my sweat. My abs felt it for sure. I would have hoped that by now it would have been more doable but nope. Haha. It’s still killer.
Jon joined me for these 3 videos so it was pretty fun to workout together, but I was glad I did the rest of the workout alone because those two booty videos… well, for some reason I felt like pushing myself today so used Chloe’s medium resistance band the entire way through for all of the moves with banded options… for both videos.
I must have been feeling either crazy strong or just purely crazy. Or probably a combination of both. After all, tomorrow’s arm day – no walking required, right? My butt and legs were shaking and I had to take many extra breaks and my sweat towel basically got drenched, but I am so proud of my improvement.
I must have grown stronger since last week as I was able to do all the moves for the entire duration with good form. Plus, I was able to feel my glute and hamstring muscles engaged in ways I hadn’t felt before, especially on my left (weaker) side. I also think I’m finally developing some hamstring muscles and I love that.
I ended up stretching for almost 18min afterwards. I didn’t expect MadFit’s 15min to feel short again but my body really needed the extra stretches today. Though my glutes and legs had been on fire, I felt more sore in my arms afterwards haha.
My arms were so sore and heavy at one time it was almost a little difficult to type, but thankfully the soreness went away after a while. I’m going to attribute it to the cool down hehe. I have been able to walk and stand/sit just fine without shaking so hoping my body will still be okay tomorrow.
1/12 – Day 9: Completed 18:27.
Videos completed: New Warm Up, Ep 3. Arm Workout, 10min Upper Body, 15min Cool Down.
Jacky joined me for the workout today! We both had a fairly busy day so started and completed the workout a little late, but we both managed to get through all the videos just fine. I’m especially proud of Jacky for finishing the entire workout because previously he was only able to finish a little over one video.
We started with Chloe’s new warm up video, which was great. It didn’t get my heart rate up as much as it did before but that’s also because I took it at my own pace and didn’t go too hard. I had stretched well yesterday and did not feel sore at all today, so Chloe’s warm up was the perfect amount of light stretching plus cardio to get my heart rate up.
(To be fair, I also wasn’t able to complete a good few moves because I was laughing too hard. During arm circles, my shoulders were doing their usual crunch crunch crunch so my hubs said, “You know, when your joints sound like the base line of the song you know something’s wrong.” Hahahaha oh my days. They got a bit better after warming up and working out but I need a massage or something.)
It’d been a while since we’d done this arm workout and honestly I’d forgotten how much I loved it. I really, really like this new video. I say this a lot but again I felt like I’d become stronger because I felt muscles working and keeping me stable in a way that I hadn’t felt before.
I didn’t wobble around as much during contralaterals or the left side plank dips. Again I did one full pushup (still need to work on form) before switching to knee pushups. I am making an effort to use my left side more because it’s my weaker side, and I can feel my muscles tensing — I can feel actual muscles tensing on that side now haha.
I’m excited for Saturday where we do this video again, plus the Get Fit upper body video which I love as well. Gosh, Chloe has outdone herself with this challenge, I gotta say.
The 10min upper body video from today was fine too! I didn’t struggle as much as I used to and felt the left side of my body finally pulling its weight more during reverse plank toe taps (and similar) moves. I didn’t use dumbbells but I don’t recall ever using dumbbells for this video because I’ve typically found it too difficult.
I really like that there were only 2 workout videos today so I was mentally able to push harder because I didn’t need to reserve energy. Plus, it was the perfect duration as a break from yesterday’s beast. We still did the 15min cool down rather than a shorter one, which my body apparently appreciated because those 15min flew by and I got a good stretch.
Tomorrow there’s another new video! Expecting my lower abs to die. Fully looking forward to it.
1/13 – Day 11: Rest.
The intention was to do a workout but for some reason (cough PMS cough) my body didn’t want to cooperate. I was exhausted all day and developed a headache in the evening, whereby I ended up falling asleep on the sofa for 2-3hrs at 8pm and sort of messing up my sleep schedule for the night.
Hopefully I will be able to workout tomorrow if my period doesn’t start, otherwise I may have to skip the day, which should be fine as the day after is similar.
1/14 – Day 10: Completed 13:21.
Videos completed: New Warm Up, Ep 1. Full Body, Ep 2. Abs & Flat Stomach, Ep 6. Lower Abs, 5min Cool Down.
Hooray! I managed to complete the workout. Actually today has been surprisingly productive, given my awful sleeping schedule last night. I think it’s because I prepared breakfast in advance (I made Chloe Ting’s overnight oats! I added half a scoop of protein powder in the morning and ate it with blueberries. It tasted so good) and was able to eat early and exercise early, then shower early.
I had a lot of energy from my slow-release breakfast and was able to HIIT a new record high heart rate + average heart rate without feeling faint. My new record is 177bpm and my average HR for the session was 162bpm. I was also able to do one full push up before switching to knee pushups.
My full pushup form was marginally better, though I still need to keep my body in a straighter line. My arms still don’t have enough strength to lower my chest down to the ground yet but I got it lower than last time and my body was straighter than last time. There’s been improvement, so that’s a success!
Then it started going a little downhill because I had some technical issues with my phone, which was distracting while I was trying to record (eventually I gave up). I still enjoyed the ab workout and felt my abs working hard during the lower ab workout, but I think it felt like a bit much…
18min of abs in a row was not making me a happy bobbie today heh. I kind of lost patience and motivation, plus I was feeling weaker today to begin with. I do really like the new lower ab video though – some of the new moves are killer. I wish I had the energy for it. I think I would have been able to do better if I’d slept better the night before to be honest haha. I ended on a quick cool down, which was enough for me today.
Overall, I loved the order of the videos – abs at the end after cardio. Tomorrow is cardio then strength then abs, which works fine for me. However I mayyy do the lower abs instead of the main abs video, or at least take a longer break between the videos.
1/15 – Day 14: Rest & 8min Stretch.
Alrighty I am really switching the days up this week haha. Last night I thought my period started in the middle of the night so I got up multiple times didn’t sleep well. Unsurprisingly, I woke up exhausted and today was busy anyway. If I’m able to make up today’s workout tomorrow instead, I shall, but if not that’s fine too.
1/16 – Day 12: Completed 18:18.
Videos completed: Ep 5. 10min HIIT, Ep 4. Booty Workout, Ep 2. Abs & Flat Stomach, Ep 6. Lower Abs, 15min Cool Down.
Wow. I actually did it. That was unexpected and I’m impressed with myself and pleased with my discipline. It may seem trivial but it looks like I’m growing in that area. Doing a workout today may not seem like a big deal, but I started my period today and had my usual cramps. I fell asleep for 2hrs to recover and woke up at 17:15.
I did consider skipping today, especially since I didn’t have anyone to workout with today, but decided I’d just go for it and do the low impact moves. I didn’t even do a warm up because I planned to do low impact moves slowly to warm up. It worked out well so I didn’t find the HIIT challenging at all, and my average heart rate was only 127bpm :)
I also went easier on the booty workout and only used a light resistance band. It was very doable. I took the ab workouts slowly at my own pace too, doing low impact for a couple of moves. I took a much-needed a longer rest between the two ab videos.
I really felt my abs working hard today due to doing the moves more slowly, and I’m really impressed by how straight my legs were for the straight leg taps. My form overall looks to be better actually, and I could even see my ab muscles working on some of the exercises, so I’m thrilled with that. I ended on a longer stretch in preparation for tomorrow’s workout.
I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s arm day!! I love those videos and am typically stronger after my first day of period so I’m excited to see if there’s any improvement. I will take longer breaks between each video moving forward because I can clearly see a difference in form and how well I do with a longer rest.
1/17 – Day 13: Completed 18:19.
Videos completed: 10min Warm Up, Get Fit – Arms & Upper Body, Ep 3. Arm Workout (x2), 15min Cool Down.
When I took my rest day on Friday I really wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do the rest of the workouts this week. I knew my period would be starting and that I’d be feeling weaker this week in general. I also didn’t like working out on Sundays because they were my sabbath.
However, I had time today and I’m really glad I am still on schedule with this program. I took it easier and enjoyed the workout a lot. I loosely followed Natacha’s warm up this time. Since it’s arm day, I skipped some of the leg stretches and did more upper body stretches instead.
I really like the Get Fit Challenge videos so it was fun to do the arms & upper body video again. I used 5lb dumbbells the whole way through and felt my back/lats working more than before on the lateral raise moves. The new arm video was repeated today, which I also liked because I’m a big fan of the new video.
I went more or less all the way through the first two videos with my only break being the outro/intro, then needed a longer break before the video repeat. I wasn’t able to do a full push up this time because I didn’t have enough arm strength after the first arm video, but overall I still feel myself getting stronger. I’m also just really pleased I didn’t give up on the challenge when I wasn’t feeling great this week.
Next week is looking tougher but I’m still quite excited haha. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I really love the way this program has been put together. I really like the variety of videos and next week there is no shortage of variety either. It just makes every day feel like an exciting new challenge.
See you next week!
Muchos love,