This post contains updates for days 22 – 28 of this challenge.
Despite my lack of updates, I have been working out! I just haven’t had the time or energy (mostly energy) to post thereafter. It’s been a week, guys. It’s tax season, which means I’m absolutely not having a good time these days. Thank God I’m no longer as bad as I usually get. I haven’t experienced a quarter-long paralysis this time, but I’m still mentally drained and in need of a time to just not do anything.
So, for the most part, I’ve been mentally resting. I did go back and update my previous post so now all the entries for Week 3 are complete. I’ve just needed some time to ensure I didn’t go crazy. It’s mid-week already, but the days seem to be lining up well for me to finish just after Easter.
We plan to go down to visit LA for the weekend so I’ll have to find time to do my workouts while I’m down there as well, and realistically I probably won’t have time to update this post daily, but we shall see!
Week Four
4/13 – Day 22: Completed 11:27.
Videos completed: 5min Warm Up, Full Body Tone, 15min Full Body w/ Dumbbells, 5min Upper Body Cooldown.
Bleh haha. I still am not a huge fan of the full body tone workout but I enjoyed it anyway after making some of my own modifications to some of the exercises. For example, plank tricep kickbacks – I just know I don’t have the energy to hold a plank and do tricep kickbacks without somewhat compensating or potentially hurting my back again, so I just did tricep kickbacks standing up.
I used my 5lb dumbbells and ditched the weights when it came to lunges. Now that I’m focusing on fixing my form, I’m definitely feeling some of the exercises plenty without dumbbells, so I’m going to stick to no/low equipment for now.
Resting yesterday definitely helped my energy levels today. I can see a significant improvement in my form and my core engagement. I was also able to do incline pushups on my coffee table!! I tried some on my dining table instead of doing push up rows and was able to do the incline pushups just fine, so later I figured why not just try some on my coffee table… imagine my surprise when I was able to do 6 before deciding to just stop. I’m so excited!
Technically the cooldown is a full body stretch, but I feel like it was more upper body focused, so I am calling it an upper body cooldown. MadFit just uploaded it yesterday and I figured why not give it a try since I typically enjoy her warm ups and cooldowns. I felt like she rushed her movements a little at the start so I just did the stretches at my own pace and it was great.
By the end of the cooldown, my heart rate had dropped down to 110bpm, which is great for a cooldown. Sometimes her stretches take more energy and my HR ends up going back up to 120-130bpm haha. I’ll be using it again after my upper body days for sure… which means tomorrow I guess!
Also, if I look tired, it’s because I absolutely am.
4/14 – Day 23: Completed 12:13.
Videos completed: 5min Warm Up, 15min Arms Workout, Upper Body, 6 Pack Abs, 5min Upper Body Cooldown.
This entry was written on 4/16. This. Workout. Took. Forever. That reps-based upper body workout… took forever. I definitely need longer than Chloe did to complete all the reps and get sufficient rest. It was actually a bit frustrating that a supposed 40min workout took me over an hour, excluding the warm up and cooldown. Because it took so much longer than anticipated, it delayed part of my schedule for the rest of the day.
I did appreciate the upper body workout though since I typically try to count reps in my head anyway. 15 reps per exercise started to get a bit much for me so for some of the exercises I only did 12 reps. I think if I were to re-do this challenge, I’d absolutely forgo the first video and just do the upper body and the abs video.
Not much else to say apart from… exhausted. Lol.
4/15 – Day 24: Completed 12:39.
Videos completed: 5min Warm Up, Toned Legs, Glutes Workout, 5min Cooldown.
This entry was written on 4/16. I used a single 8lb dumbbell for half of the toned legs video, and then switched to my 5lb dumbbells from the Good Mornings. I did some of my usual exercise substitutions (staggered deadlifts instead of side lunges etc) and overall enjoyed the first video a lot more.
The glutes workout… ohhh boy. I loved all the exercises but man, RDL after hip thrusts? I swear Chloe was conspiring to break my legs. It also took a lot longer for me to finish all the reps than it did for Chloe, so I had to constantly pause and rewind so that I could do each rep properly.
I loved that this video included a hamstring focused exercise. I actually went back and did that one twice. Same for the RDLs – they are killer, but I was so pleased that I was able to do 8 reps per leg with a 5lb dumbbell – for two sets! I didn’t get enough the first time haha.
Overall, I really enjoyed this workout, especially the glutes video. Bret definitely knows what he’s doing. I remember I was barely able to do the move with no dumbbells when I did the Get Peachy Challenge, and now I’m doing extra reps. I felt like it was a very effective workout and felt my glutes in a lot of pain in the best way.
I’m glad Chloe included workouts from Get Peachy into this challenge. I almost feel like I want to go back and finish the Get Peachy challenge because I like doing something reps based, but I think I’ll need a team to keep me accountable if I were to re-attempt it.
Anyways, that’s beside the point. Gotta finish this one first!
4/16 – Day 25: Completed 11:45.
Videos completed: 5min Warm Up, Full Body, 15min Arm Workout, Toned Abs, 12min Daily Stretch.
I switched out the 20min Get Fit full body for the 20min Get Toned full body video today. I previewed the Get Fit video and didn’t really like the look of the exercises, but I knew I loved the first Get Toned full body video so decided to do that instead, especially since the video doesn’t reappear for the rest of this challenge.
I made a fair few substitutions for this video – for the plank related exercises, I chose to do them on an incline using my coffee table because I’m finding my form is very poor for regular planks because of how weak my left side is. It worked so well – I could feel it so much in my core and arms while my form was much better. I also chose to do tricep dips on my coffee table instead of tricep kickbacks to better work my triceps. I did not use any weights for these, but otherwise used my 5lb dumbbells.
I stuck to my 5lb dumbbells for the arm workout as well, and ditched the weights for the ab workout. I did have to pause and rewind the videos a few times to get enough rest but also to get enough reps in. For the most part, I tried to make sure I got at least 8 reps in, so continued the exercise even after Chloe had finished.
My greatest achievement today was probably the number of incline pushups I was able to do against my coffee table – I think I did about 15 in total across the first two videos, which, honestly – wow. I never would have thought this possible. My form was on point for most of the reps as well.
Jacky exercised with me today! He did so well and even finished all the videos with me. I told him he could stop whenever he wanted since today was going to be long and intense but he was a trooper. I’m going to guess he’ll be in a lot of pain tomorrow haha :p We finished up the workout with a good stretch and I am very much ready for my rest day tomorrow.
I’ll be fairly busy on Monday so I will probably take an extra rest day and finish up the challenge on Tuesday and Wednesday. I am amazed that I’ve been so consistent with this workout, seriously. I’m so impressed at how motivating the team feature has been! So freaking proud of us.
4/19 – Day 27: Completed 12:35.
Videos completed: 5min Warm Up, Legs Workout, Round Booty.
On Sunday we attended our godson’s 1st birthday party and I ended up running around and playing with kids for most of the afternoon. It was exhausting yet rewarding… and also meant that my ‘rest day’ turned into ~8,500 steps, with my Apple Watch registering 27mins of ‘exercise’ despite me never turning it on for a workout ha. It worked out well that I ended up taking yesterday as a rest day!
I was thrilled to hear friends who I hadn’t met in a while tell me that my body was looking great haha. I thought I looked slimmer and definitely felt like it too when a pair of jeans pulled right over my legs and left room at the waist when it was previously a little tight, but having it confirmed by friends as well was so lovely.
Looking back on the photos from the party, unless all the cameras naturally have some sort of slimming filter on the lens, I actually look visibly slimmer from the photos. I have put on weight but have slimmed down (my waist is now <66cm!) which is exactly what I had been hoping for. More muscle? Yes, please!
I guess I was back on my post-2-rest-day slump today though. Ugh. I just wasn’t feeling it this morning. Also, I shouldn’t have used my dumbbells for the single leg squats during the legs workout video – I ended up hurting my left knee and had to be really careful for the rest of the workout, which really affected me mentally.
I started with my 5lb dumbbells and then ditched them after those squats. I was very careful for the rest of the workout but it affected my mind-muscle connection and I tried to speed through a lot of the movements. Still, I finished strong with my medium resistance band, and decided to forgo the final set of side lunges in favour of staggered deadlifts.
I’m glad I still pushed through and finished the workout, even if it wasn’t my best. Tomorrow is the final day of the challenge!!! Ahhh! I am so proud of our team and impressed with our consistency. We’re planning to do another challenge together but haven’t figured out which one to do yet.
Personally I’m debating between the 2021 Weight Loss Challenge or Caroline Girvan’s new Iron Series. I kind of want to continue muscle building and I love that the Iron Series videos are only 30min each day. Chloe’s next challenge is launching on 16th May so we have 4 weeks in between.
One of our team members will be out of town that week so we may end up starting the challenge on the 23rd… we will see! For now, I’m just looking forward to completing the challenge.
4/20 – Day 28: Completed 13:24.
Videos completed: 5min Warm Up, 15min Morning Workout, 15min Full Body HIIT, Abs in 2 Weeks.
Oh. My. Goodness. It’s complete!!! I’ve just completed another #ChloeTingChallenge! I haven’t been this consistent since the 2020 Summer Shred, which I completed almost two years ago. Definitely attributing this to the team challenge feature because I know for sure I’d have given up a few times by now had that feature not existed.
There were multiple days when I just didn’t want to do the workout but because I didn’t want to let my team down or fall behind I still did it anyway. I think doing the workout with a team you care about, thus having that accountability, makes all the difference.
In terms of today’s workout, I really could have done without the plank with hip dips 3x, but I’m just so very glad they’re over haha. I didn’t love the workout but I guess I am quite happy to end with HIIT and abs – it’s been a while since I’ve done one of those!
I felt like the HIIT workout didn’t allow nearly enough rest time for the intense exercises, especially if I was going at my max. The 45sec on, some exercises back to back followed by only 15sec rest was way too much. My body needed longer recovery times so I added a lot of extra breaks.
I also engaged my core more in general for the whole workout, which I was very pleased about. My abs are still very weak but I can see that my form has improved significantly for exercises like plank with leg raises. I’d even go as far to say that my first couple even have perfect form haha.
Overall, I have really enjoyed this challenge and can absolutely see physical changes in my body. I can try to take some updated photos but otherwise you’ll just have to take my word for it :p At the very minimum, I’ve had multiple (Asian!) people remark on how much slimmer and healthier I look these days.
I still have a ways to go and would like to continue building some more muscle, so I think I’ll try some Caroline Girvan starting tomorrow after all. Then once the new program launches, I’ll probably do that with my team. Oh, we got A+ by the way. So proud of us!
Muchos love,
