The 100 Day Burpee Challenge

If you don't know what a burpee is look here and try not to be distracted by the very fit lady's fake boobs.

No, its not a soda drinking contest, no, they don't make me burp (but sometimes they make me do something else...), and yes, I know that a burpee doesn't technically include a push-up but for the sake of the challenge I'm doing the push-up.

At the beginning of the year I had a desire to get fit. This desire was shared by a friend of mine in OH. My friend was invited by his friend to do the challenge. My friend invited me.

The challenge is this: Starting February 8th with one burpee you add a burpee everyday for 100 days. Today, if you're curious is day 77. If you miss a day they have to be made up.

At first I had zero interest in doing this. I'm not competitive. For me fitness is more about your lifestyle and less about how many reps of an exercise you do. I'm not one of those slightly nutty people that need to run marathons just to see what there bodies can do. And I didn't want to commit to something I didn't really want to do.

And then I told a couple friends and roommates about it. They got excited. In theory its not that tough. If you can do one, you can do two. If you can do fifty-three, you can do fifty-four. I figured if I didn't have to do it alone and had friends to celebrate the mile markers (days 25, 50, 75) with it would be doable. Maybe even fun!

In practice though it gets a little tougher. Especially if you miss a day and have to double up on them. I'll save you the suspense and tell you that nobody made it with me past day 25.

I've kept at it for a couple reasons: 1. Because I committed to it. I wasn't excited about it but I promised myself I'd do it, I know I can do, so I'm just doing it. 2. I'm hoping for a good payoff as far as fitness is concerned and 3. I promised myself my first ever full body massage if I made it to day 100.

Going solo in the burpee challenge is like being a Mormon with a whole bunch of non-member friends who know your standards. Everyone polices you. Even if you wanted to you're not getting away with an R rated film, a curse word or a drink or a smoke. Nobody's letting me give up. Its kind of nice to have the encouragement. Until they start getting critical about my form. Telling me I'm not jumping high enough or pressing hard enough in my push-up. To them I say: Are YOU doing the burpee challenge? No? Then leave me be.

So is it paying off? Yeah it is. I noticed a difference in my arms almost immediately. They started getting tighter and even a little cut. When I measured a month ago I had gained an inch in my arms since I started. Which made me mad. That's not exactly what I wanted. I mean a girl that looks like she can lift a car over her head isn't exactly the look I'm going for but I'm in too deep now to quit. I next noticed my thighs getting tighter. Followed by my butt. And last but not least my middle is following suit. In fact I moved from the second to the third notch in my belt yesterday. Its not so much that I've gotten slimmer as I've gotten tighter which again isn't exactly what I wanted but its better than fat and soft yeah?

Anyway, I'm in the home stretch. 23 days. Except it'll be the hardest 23 days so far. Sigh. I've got that massage on the horizon though. Wish me luck. But don't bug me about how deep my push-up is please.