Let me get you up to speed. A couple summers ago I enrolled in a bootcamp fitness class. I loved it! It was hard, but it was a great workout and it was nice to have people/friends to exercise with. Well, I now live out of state, so I don't go to that bootcamp anymore. But I still get emails from the leader of that bootcamp. She sends out newsletters -- "exercise of the month," "recipe of the month," "don't forget to sign up for a month of hell, er, best fitness instruction of your life" etc.
Well, about the first week of February, she had a little blurb about the 100 Day Burpee Challenge. "Email me if you want to sign up!" So I emailed. I'm getting married in 5 months, I thought. I need all the motivation to get to the gym that I can get! I was thinking small, people, very small. I was thinking we would have to do a few burpees a day for 100 days. What is a burpee? Well, it is awfulness. A full body workout/movement that makes you dread the next day every day. Try it out: start standing; put your hands on the ground and jump your feet back so you are in push up position; do a pushup (I'm a girl--pushups are hard! and I did NOT know that pushups were part of the burpee. We never did the pushup when we did burpees at bootcamp!); jump back to standing; jump in the air with your hands straight up over your head. Congratulations! You have just done 1 burpee. Wasn't that just the most fun!?!
So maybe it isn't the most fun, but it sure does get your heart rate up. So I thought, a few every day will be good for me and not crazy hard. Word to the wise: don't sign up for a challenge when you don't know what the challenge is. The challenge is: on Day 1, do 1 burpee; on Day 2, do 2 burpees; on Day 3, do 3 burpees. Get the picture? That means that on Day 36, do 36 burpees, and on Day 100, do 100 burpees. 100 BURPEES!!!!!!!! OMG YALL! It's going to kill me!
So here I am on Day 39. I did 39 burpees today (see how that works?). Why didn't I start blogging about this on Day 1? Because even though Day 1 was no fun, and neither was day 25 or day 32, burpees were not yet the bane of my existence until this week. This week, I hate them. HATE them. (My dad always said if something or someone is so bad that you hate it, then it isn't worth your time to hate it/him/her. Sorry Daddy! I really hate them! And I have to do them every day, so I can't help but think about/hate them all the time. Come May 25th, there will be no more hating!)
You know how they say that exercise is a good way to get your stress out? Well, I have always subscribed to that notion. But now the exercise is the source of my stress. When will I get to the gym? Do I have clothes at the gym? Does the gym close early on Sunday?
Why must I go to the gym when I don't need any equipment? Because I live in the top (of 3) floor of a row house, an old row house. My roommate did some (very) soft jump-n-jacks one day and our landlord/below our floor neighbor had a conniption! Can you imagine how he would react to a burpee overhead?! No go! And when this thing started, I could not go outside -- winter is cold! And we were right in the middle of Snowpocolypse -- I don't need snow to make these things any harder. So off to the gym I went. Now that it is warm and Spring-like outside, I can just go out to the park and do them, but that's embarrassing yall! I look so silly and my shirt always flies up and sometimes my pants start to sag and I have to rearrange myself so I'm not exposing anything indecent and the ground is dirty and there are kids pointing and people driving by and it's just bad.
So here I am, Day 39. Stronger, leaner, more toned, and full of hate. and love. I really do have ambivalent feelings towards these things. I mean, if I am going to the gym, I might as well get some cardio in, and maybe some strength-training. So I do like the effect burpees have on my body -- but what about my spirit, yall?! Read on to see how it all turns out...
Well, about the first week of February, she had a little blurb about the 100 Day Burpee Challenge. "Email me if you want to sign up!" So I emailed. I'm getting married in 5 months, I thought. I need all the motivation to get to the gym that I can get! I was thinking small, people, very small. I was thinking we would have to do a few burpees a day for 100 days. What is a burpee? Well, it is awfulness. A full body workout/movement that makes you dread the next day every day. Try it out: start standing; put your hands on the ground and jump your feet back so you are in push up position; do a pushup (I'm a girl--pushups are hard! and I did NOT know that pushups were part of the burpee. We never did the pushup when we did burpees at bootcamp!); jump back to standing; jump in the air with your hands straight up over your head. Congratulations! You have just done 1 burpee. Wasn't that just the most fun!?!
So maybe it isn't the most fun, but it sure does get your heart rate up. So I thought, a few every day will be good for me and not crazy hard. Word to the wise: don't sign up for a challenge when you don't know what the challenge is. The challenge is: on Day 1, do 1 burpee; on Day 2, do 2 burpees; on Day 3, do 3 burpees. Get the picture? That means that on Day 36, do 36 burpees, and on Day 100, do 100 burpees. 100 BURPEES!!!!!!!! OMG YALL! It's going to kill me!
So here I am on Day 39. I did 39 burpees today (see how that works?). Why didn't I start blogging about this on Day 1? Because even though Day 1 was no fun, and neither was day 25 or day 32, burpees were not yet the bane of my existence until this week. This week, I hate them. HATE them. (My dad always said if something or someone is so bad that you hate it, then it isn't worth your time to hate it/him/her. Sorry Daddy! I really hate them! And I have to do them every day, so I can't help but think about/hate them all the time. Come May 25th, there will be no more hating!)
You know how they say that exercise is a good way to get your stress out? Well, I have always subscribed to that notion. But now the exercise is the source of my stress. When will I get to the gym? Do I have clothes at the gym? Does the gym close early on Sunday?
Why must I go to the gym when I don't need any equipment? Because I live in the top (of 3) floor of a row house, an old row house. My roommate did some (very) soft jump-n-jacks one day and our landlord/below our floor neighbor had a conniption! Can you imagine how he would react to a burpee overhead?! No go! And when this thing started, I could not go outside -- winter is cold! And we were right in the middle of Snowpocolypse -- I don't need snow to make these things any harder. So off to the gym I went. Now that it is warm and Spring-like outside, I can just go out to the park and do them, but that's embarrassing yall! I look so silly and my shirt always flies up and sometimes my pants start to sag and I have to rearrange myself so I'm not exposing anything indecent and the ground is dirty and there are kids pointing and people driving by and it's just bad.
So here I am, Day 39. Stronger, leaner, more toned, and full of hate. and love. I really do have ambivalent feelings towards these things. I mean, if I am going to the gym, I might as well get some cardio in, and maybe some strength-training. So I do like the effect burpees have on my body -- but what about my spirit, yall?! Read on to see how it all turns out...
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