30 Day Squat & Plank Challenge

I'm not sure what prompted it, but I decided to start a squat and plank challenge recently. 

It's embarrassing to admit it, but It has probably been roughly 8 years since I've consciously, intentionally exercised. Since I played volleyball in high school. Working out has never been my thing. 

I started out with a 30 day challenge for each. Sometimes at work I have periods of 5-10 minutes or so where I'm just waiting for someone to return a call. I can get lethargic and feel lazy sitting in my chair waiting for that to happen. Occasionally, I'll shut my door and do some stretches or something. My manager even joked one time that I needed to get a yoga mat or something to put in the big open spot in my office. The hiccup I'm coming across as I get further into the challenges is that they're not always easy to do in work clothes. Skinny jeans and squats do not go well together! Maybe I should start bringing my runners, lulu lemon pants and deodorant, and work out during my coffee break. 

Why? I'm not trying to lose weight. I'm not training for anything in particular. I think I am more enthusiastic about doing these challenges because it was MY decision. Nobody suggested it to me. Nobody said I needed to work out. (Can you see the stubborn, independent side of me coming out? Haha). I just figured it would be a better way to spend my down time. I even went for a jog the other day with the dog, because why not?!

Plank Challenge. I went on Pinterest and picked two random challenges. I'm currently on day 16 for both of them. That means I just did a 2 minute plank (Go me!). The hardest part for me about the planks (other than actually doing them) is keeping distracted for that amount of time. I typically just pull up an interesting article on my phone and put that in front of me to read with my timer set in the background. One piece of advice is do NOT watch the clock or count seconds while you're doing planks. Time seems to go three times slower when you do that. 

I'm pretty proud of myself for doing the 2 minute plank today! I started out at just 20 seconds. I may not be noticing outward physical improvements, but I just have to remind myself that 15 days ago I never would have been able to plank for 2 minutes. 

I do not know that I will continue with this particular plank challenge for the full 30 days. I do not think that 5 minutes is a realistic goal for me. Maybe I will start increasing by just 15 seconds instead of 30 seconds or something. Or maybe I will look for a new challenge. Or maybe by day 30 I'll be able to do 5 minutes! Who knows!

Squat Challenge. I don't know if you can read this squat challenge at all, but if so, you'll see that today (day 16) is Rest day for me! Yay! Although, typically on my rest days I do some lunges or something else if I'm not too sore. The first three days of starting the squat challenge I was so sore I feared I would fall down the stairs. I hadn't felt like that in years. Now I'm at the point where I can do 125 squats and hardly feel it the next day! 

Again, I don't personally notice any physical changes, but at least I'm not falling down the stairs after doing 60 squats anymore!

Why do I continue? I am enjoying these 30 day challenges because they literally only take 5-10 minutes all in. It seems foolish NOT to do them. Every day I cannot think of a single good excuse not to do my planks or squats. Not having time is definitely not an excuse for me. Also, it is very easy to mark my progress. I can look back at the click of a button to see where I was 1, 5, 10 days ago. 

Have you ever done an exercise challenge like this?