This post will be updated daily for days 1 – 7 of this challenge.
So it begins… Honestly until today I wasn’t certain I’d be committing to this challenge because I’d previously been interested in trying Chloe’s Get Fit Challenge for quite some time. However, I realise at this point that I don’t really have enough strength to use equipment, neither am I interested in overall muscle growth as a focus. Plus, this Hourglass challenge is only 21 days. That is literally my sweet spot, so I can’t really say no to it right now. I’m committed now.
In terms of what I’m looking for: again, just to keep working out. If there are any physical changes, fantastic. If there aren’t, that’s totally fine too because I’m just enjoying exercising. Supposedly this one isn’t as challenging, which I appreciate as I’m fairly sure I’ve lost a little strength, or haven’t been engaging some of the right muscles in the past.
In case you’re interested in before photos, you can see them in my Flat Stomach Challenge Results post. I took those photos this morning, so they would be the best indication for ‘before’ this challenge.
This challenge is 3 weeks long, so I’ll be creating a new update post each week to avoid a single post getting too long and thus intimidating to read. I did the same with the Flat Stomach Challenge and I liked that format a lot. As before, dates will be written in US format since I live here now.
Week One
2/15 – Day 1: Completed 19:45.
Videos completed: Warm Up, Small Waist & Round Butt, 11 Line Abs, 10min Butt Workout, Cool Down.
Okay so first things first: I really enjoyed the workout today. Jacky exercised with me today and that’s part of what made it extra fun(ny) haha. He was so hilarious. Some hubby highlights:
During the workout: “Come, Lord Jesus.”
After the workout, lying on the floor: “I’ve sweat so much I can’t see.”
Upon hearing workout is done and only cool down left: “REALLY?!?! WAHHHHH!!” *Cue cries of happiness, cough, hack.* “My throat is so dry I can’t even scream with joy.”
Part of the reason for that last one is because, apparently, he was conserving energy for a final video before the cool down. Looks like he’s become so accustomed to 4-video-tortures that it’s what he was anticipating today. Well, it’s our lucky 3 weeks because there are zero days with 4 videos in this challenge!!
For me, I was pleasantly surprised by how doable and yet torturous the videos were. I say this almost every time, but once again I was able to engage muscles and feel them engaged in a way I hadn’t done before. That was partially the reason that, when Chloe announced we were half way through the first video, I wailed, “Only half way through??” My core was already burning. I used a light resistance band for the final exercise but that was it.
In terms of the second video, I’d like to confirm that there is a special place in hell reserved for those low boat side crunches. They were attempted. I mean, the attempts weren’t very successful, but it was funny to watch the attempts. On the bright side, I have never seen my core engaged so freaking well for low plank hip dips! Progress!
For the butt video, remember how I said I really wanted to work on my hamstrings? I did actually feel my hamstrings engaged more today than I’ve ever felt them! Especially during the frog pumps and flutters, which I’d always struggled with in the past. I used a light resistance band for all the banded moves and I do think I was able to do them better than I was able to before as well.
We only took a short extra rest before the butt video but otherwise just continued through them all. We worked out late today since I had a bunch of errands to do during the day and we needed to clean the apt first. I am impressed that I still had the energy to exercise so late. I’m definitely glad that Jacky was doing it with me.
Overall I really enjoyed today’s workout and am loving the look of this challenge. I love that there are no HIIT workouts, that the maximum number of videos on any given day is 3, that there is practically no jumping (apart from my body falling on the ground during those low boat side crunches) and, have I mentioned I love that it’s only 21 days, which is my sweet spot? Lol. Looking forward to tomorrow.
2/16 – Day 2: Completed 20:51.
Videos completed: Quick Warm Up, Round Butt/Side Booty, Booty Workout, Hip Dips, Cool Down.
Oh my goodness. Firstly an entertaining anecdote: last night Jacky fell asleep before me. As I was about to sleep, he turned around on the bed and suddenly yelled, “Ahhh! Owww it hurts!” …in his sleep. Oh my goodness it was actually hilarious because he was half way through a snore and then sleep-cried out in pain hahahaha. Poor guy – even his subconscious can’t escape.
I don’t blame him though. Even I woke up the sorest I’ve been in a long, long time… and we had 3 booty videos to get through today. Needless to say, he hard passed and I didn’t do the workout in the morning. Not gonna lie, my butt can’t decide if it hates me or Chloe more today. It eventually settled on hating us both with equal passionate distain. Yep.
It’s going to hurt me tomorrow, but at least I really enjoyed the workout again today. In fact I was so excited to do the videos that I wouldn’t have skipped today no matter how sore I was. It was great. I felt my glutes activated and my hamstrings working and my side booty hurting and my core engaged as well.
Because I was so sore, I chose not to use any resistance bands today and honestly that was such a good call. I felt the burn without a band and it also allowed me to focus on improving my form and engaging the right muscles without compensating due to extra difficulty.
I’m thrilled with the how much I’ve been able to work my hamstring muscles. Hopefully I’ll be able to start building them up and increasing my leg and glute strength through that. I was able to go through all the videos without taking additional breaks, so despite all my whining, it was actually decently doable.
I started my workout fairly late in the day so I did Chloe’s shorter warm up but I really needed a decent cool down so did that in full. I really liked the shorter warm up so I’ll probably be using that more frequently moving forward.
Chloe clearly has more faith in us than we deserve because we’re not getting a rest day until Sunday and I’m already hurting all over. Not convinced I’ll be able to go though it without an additional rest day but we’ll see. Tomorrow is back and arms, thankfully, so my butt can have a break at least.
2/17 – Day 3: Completed 15:51.
Videos completed: Quick Warm Up, 11 Line Abs, Sexy Back & Arms, 10min Toned Arms, Cool Down.
Well, what can I say? I woke up and the only parts of my body that weren’t sore were my arms and upper back but Chloe quickly decided to remedy that. Oh man, those low boat side planks hurt differently today when my glutes and obliques were already super sore. My bones and joints went snap, crackle and pop today, and don’t you worry, my entire body is now sore. I think it’s probably only my hands, feet and hair that aren’t sore. Even my face is sore from being contorted in pain.
My right wrist is still recovering so I didn’t want to put too much pressure on it today. I did my best and still did low impact for a few moves when necessary. My arms were already shaking at the start of the new arms & back video so I’m proud of myself for pushing through and completing it all.
I stuck to knee pushups today and I think my form improved further on those. Overall I don’t think it was too difficult, it was just harder because of how sore I was. I still enjoyed it for sure. However, ending on arm pulses only to start the next video on arm pulses was just mean.
I will either need a rest day tomorrow, or I’ll just push through the videos but with a longer warm up and different cool down. Tomorrow’s workout is only 25min, I can do that, right? I’m glad to see Friday’s workout is only one arm video (plus today’s new video is optional). If I really need a rest day, I’ll just skip it and take Friday as an extra rest day.
2/18 – Day 5: Rest.
Yep, that’s right, I decided to not do day 5’s workouts, switch it to today and take an extra rest day instead. I’m really not feeling well today; I’m feeling exhausted, I’m sore, my joints keep popping and, to top it all off, I have a headache as well.
Day 5 is just one arm video (plus an optional arm video) so it’s basically like a rest day. I don’t really have the strength to be doing it anyway, so it’s perfect to skip, and I’ll do day 4’s exercises tomorrow then continue on with day 6.
2/19 – Day 4: Competed 18:49.
Videos completed: Natacha Océane Warm Up, Small Waist & Round Butt, 11 Line Abs, MadFit Cool Down (partial).
Wow, good thing I skipped yesterday’s workout because my headache developed fast and strong and by 7pm I was asleep. Jacky woke me up for dinner and then I promptly went straight back to bed with my head still hurting and feeling mildly sick.
My eyes hurt too, so I’m guessing it was a matter of too much time staring at screens and my body needed to shut down and restart again. I ended up sleeping like 13hrs so I woke up feeling much better this morning. I still wasn’t sure about actually doing a workout though so I put it off until the evening.
I was still a little sore so I still did a longer warm up to stretch my body out more before I started. The workout was more doable because it was only 25mins, but it still startles me each time Chloe announces we’re half way through after it feels like I’ve been exercising for ages and I’m expecting the workout to be almost over already.
I did some low impact moves today and did not use a band again. It was enough for me haha. I didn’t take any extra breaks though, plus I was able to finish it so I’m feeling pretty pleased about. I ended up only being able to do half of the cool down video before I needed to prepare for dinner, but it was a pretty good stretch already. I will just make sure I do a longer warm up and full cool down tomorrow.
2/20 – Day 7: Rest.
Alrighty, exercise is not happening today either unfortunately. It’s the weekend, but it’s been busy. And tiring. And yet not busy, but still tiring. We had some urgent issues with our car that needed taking care of, which caused us quite a bit of stress and required us to get up early after sleeping late.
We didn’t get a good night’s sleep and I just wasn’t in the mood to exercise. To be fair, it wasn’t bad, things are resolved, I probably could have worked out if I wanted to, but it just wasn’t a priority and I didn’t want to. So I’m resting today. Plus I’m sore from yesterday, so an extra rest day it is.
I’ll probably need to take an extra rest day next week too because 8 days in a row is not going to happen. I’ve been a bit sluggish because we haven’t gone grocery shopping in a while so we haven’t really had fresh fruit or veggies. Definitely not ideal for a healthy lifestyle, but I also haven’t wanted to cook properly in some time. I dunno, it’s a phase and will pass, but that’s where I’m at.
If I can do day 6’s workouts tomorrow, I shall! If not, 4 days’ exercise is not bad at all this week.
2/21 – Day 6: Completed 20:52.
Videos completed: 11 Line Abs, Round Butt/Side Booty, MadFit Cool Down.
Videos incomplete: 15min Booty Burn.
To my absolute surprise, I actually went ahead and did the day’s workout. It’s been a really busy weekend with all the errands I had to run and other stuff I had to get done so I was fully expecting to just skip the workout, but after dinner I just felt like, “Why not?”
I decided I’d just do the two hourglass videos and skip the final booty video, which worked out well since I definitely didn’t have the mental capacity to do an extra 15min video and the cool down. I didn’t bother to warm up today because I really just wanted something short plus a substantial stretch afterwards.
I was actually able to do more of the low boat side crunches today – 5 on each side, which I’m very proud of. I also used a light band for the majority of the banded options of the booty video (even the single leg glute bridge abductions!) Oh man, it hurt so much but I wanted to challenge myself. My legs were shaking after my workout.
MadFit’s cool down was what my body needed today, since she has more stretches in her video, so I’m glad I was able to take time to do her cool down in full. Tomorrow’s expected to be a crazy busy day so there’s a chance I won’t be able to do the workout and will need to just take an extra rest.
Chloe’s final Hourglass video is releasing tomorrow and it’s looking like a 15min video, so I’m not looking forward to a 40min killer workout tomorrow haha. If I do it, I will probably need to skip the final ab video but we shall see.
Yay! First week is officially complete! Wow, I just realised that’s like 1/3 of the way through the challenge already. I am definitely stronger because I was like a hyperventilating fish the first time I tried to do the low boat side crunches but now I can push through a good number of them on each side. Don’t get me wrong, they still hurt like crazy, but it’s more doable now. Hopefully I’ll be able to continue getting stronger because it’s certainly challenging me.
Muchos love,