What can I say? A year later, I’m back to this tried and true gem. It was one of my favourite challenges back in the day, and while I am fully aware I have not finished her 2021 Get Fit Challenge, at this point I’m probably just going to say I’ve completed it to the best of my ability and call it a day. I wasn’t able to finish the final 3 days of workouts last week and I’d quite like to shed some fat rather than build more muscle now, so this is going to be it for me.
I know there’s a new 2021 Summer Shred Challenge but I really don’t think I’ll be able to handle it at my current fitness level. I’ve heard the new 2021 Weight Loss Challenge is pretty good and slightly more suited to lower levels of fitness and it’s only 21 days long, 30mins of workouts per day, but unfortunately I’m just not a fan of the music right now.
I love the music for the 2020 Summer Shred, it just gets me so pumped to workout and keep going, and I’m familiar with this challenge (somewhat), so I’ll go for this one for now. Plus it’s just nice to revisit old gems like the 2019 2 Week Shred Ab Workout video that still haunts my nightmares.
Finally, now that we have our own place and I can jump to my heart’s content, I can finally do the full challenge rather than constantly replacing videos and doing low impact to avoid jumping. I’ll also try to do the optional videos if possible, which is something I did not have the energy for last time around.
This is exciting! I wonder how I’ll get on… probably not very well, let’s be honest :p
Week One
8/2 – Day 1: Completed 17:56.
Videos completed: Warm Up, Ep 1. 12min Full Body, Ep 2. 500 Reps Abs, 5min Cool Down.
I had such an amazing time working out today. Armed with some new workout clothes from Alo Yoga, I felt incredibly cute and almost invincible. Of course, I was in a great deal of pain and absolutely exhausted and needed many, many extra breaks… But hey, I’m finally able to do allll the jumping moves, so that’s a whole new level of intensity and I’m very proud I was able to get it done.
That said, I did need to go lower impact when I was basically breathless and couldn’t move anymore, but I’m pleased that it wasn’t for the entire two videos haha. I’m pretty certain I’m still fitter than I was last year; I was able to do far more of the ab workout than I recall myself being able to the first time around, and if the no jumping HIIT video already kicked my butt last year, I definitely wouldn’t have been able to do this one to the degree I was able to today.
It’s been a hot minute since I’ve completed my Apple Watch exercise rings so fast, so that was kinda cool haha. I really want to build up my stamina, and now I can work towards it.
8/3 – Day 2: Completed 18:45.
Videos completed: Warm Up, Ep 2. 500 Reps Abs, Flat Belly Round Butt, 15min Cool Down.
I’m starting to get back some of my previous strength; today’s ab workout was already slightly better than yesterday’s in that I was actually able to do the majority of moves for the full duration. I was nowhere near close to Chloe’s speed, but at least the giving-up-after-20sec was kept to a minimum.
The booty workout hurt despite using zero equipment, and I was very thankful that today’s workout was only 25min. I don’t think I would have been able to do more, especially with Chloe’s “no rest here”s. The ab exercises in both videos were similar so my abs were not best pleased about doing double time, but hey, no progressive overload, no gain.
I desperately needed a longer cool down today because my bones were cracking and my muscles were sore. Daily duration increases from tomorrow… I’m looking forward to my rest day already haha.
Body-wise, I have noticed a large difference between now and when I was doing this last year… Despite my recent poor diet doing a little number on my waistline, my arms, hips and legs have slimmed down. My arms especially have gained more visible muscle. I may take some screenshots from my video footage to post here in the coming days.
8/4 – Day 3: Completed 19:16.
Videos completed: Warm Up, Ep 1. 12min Full Body, Ep 3. Upper Body & Arms, 10min Toned Arms.
I wasn’t sure if I’d even do the workout because I originally just wasn’t feeling motivated, but I’m glad I did it all. I enjoyed all of the videos greatly, even though they made me suffer haha. I still paused the HIIT video a couple of times because Chloe really didn’t put enough ads in the video :p But I was still able to get through most of it with good form, which I know would not have been possible when I first did this challenge last year.
I didn’t use weights for the arm workouts either but I still felt them working, probably because I was already so tired from the HIIT haha. I ended the set with my own stretches that focused on arms and waist and that was it!
8/5 – Day 4: Rest!
8/6 – Day 5: Completed 18:16.
Videos completed: Warm Up, Ep 1. 12min Full Body, Ep 2. 500 Reps Abs, Ep 3. Upper Body & Arms, Sexy Back & Abs.
I must admit I am incredibly proud of myself for finishing all the videos listed for today, including the optional one. I think my fitness level must have increased a little since my maximum heart rate seems to have increased to 177bpm. In the past, I’d be panting and out of breath, unable to move by the time my heart rate hit 173bpm but I noticed that I was still able to keep going at 174bpm.