Hey hypers! Y’all know by now that challenges are within our DNA at hypefive. We get how tough it is to stick to our routines during the holidays, and the much-needed motivation to get back on track at the start of the new year.
Our advice? Pick a fitness challenge, pick a friend, and raise the stakes to make sure you don’t miss a workout! A spa day, a SoulCycle class pack or a nice dinner, be creative!
We know first-hand that it takes a bit of time to get back to our routines in January. Our heads are still on holiday mood, our lives still a bit hectic, and we don’t always have time to go to the gym or to follow complicated workout routines that take up an hour and a half to complete. Trust us, we don’t want to let go of our “social life on” mode either.
That’s why we think that the best way to maximize success in our “fitness comeback” is to start small & easy: short, convenient, low equipment everyday workouts at home. We know everyone can spare 30 minutes a day!
While we wait for our beta to be out (stay tuned its days now!), we wanted to pull together some interesting 30-day fitness challenges to start 2022 year strong. Lose weight, get stronger, tone up, choose you goal and jump right into it!
Simple? Yes. Easy? No. Rewarding? You bet!
Five 30-day fitness challenges to get back on track: short, convenient and equipment free
1. 30-Day Bodyweight Fitness Challenge
Bodyweight exercises are a great alternative to traditional, equipment-heavy exercises, because they’re easy to do anywhere, anytime (no room for excuses!). This challenge focuses on HIIT (“High Intensity Interval Training”), a workout featuring cardio bursts, strength moves and flexibility drills. Tough but effective!
The idea behind this fitness challenge is quite easy: you just need to do a HIIT workout four times a week (example in our next point) and add an endorphin push at the end with a burnout move of your choice.
What’s this burnout move? Alternate 30 seconds of AMRAP & 30 seconds of rest for a total time of 4 minutes.
You can focus this added calorie burn on a particular muscle group – arms, legs, back, abs, or even the whole body. There are many options here, but you can’t go wrong with basic movements like pushups, squats, raises or even the infamous burpees.
2. 30-30 challenge – 30-minute Full Body HIIT Workout for 30 days
Even though you may be busy juggling the holiday’s social life and mentally preparing to come back to real life, there’s always time for a bit of at-home exercise! This one’s not really a «challenge», but rather an intense Full Body High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) routine designed for beginners that can be scaled as you improve your general condition.
Depending on your fitness level, you’ll need to adapt the number of repetitions of the whole circuit. As a beginner you’ll want to complete all exercises twice and try to increase that number up to 5 times, as you get in better shape.
Here are the exercises you have to complete in order (30 seconds per exercise!)
- Squat
- Squat jump
- Two – point plank to crunch
- Mountain climbers
- Burpees
- Dips (use a chair to complete this movement)
- Hip bridges (use only one leg to make it a bit harder!)
The idea behind this fitness challenge is to complete the circuit daily for a month. Are you up to the mission?
3- Ease your way into training from home with this fitness challenge
If you’re feeling sluggish after not working out for a while, then this fitness challenge might be just what you need! You start out slow by assessing where you’re physically at, and gradually increase the challenge level until you get to the juicy stuff.
Each workout includes several exercises aimed at strengthening different parts of the body, so even if you’re not familiar with some moves, the overall workout will be easy enough to follow. The workouts are designed to last for a short amount of time and can be done at home – the only equipment needed is a mat or towel. Again, no room for excuses!
The challenge has been created by the guys at Thrillist, and we think they have outdone themselves! If you feel like you need a new challenge and want to ease your way back into fitness, this program can be exactly what you need. Check it out.
4- Get back in shape with the most effective exercise – the push up!
Excluding more complex movements such as deadlifts or chin ups, push-ups are arguably one of the most effective single exercises out there. They improve your core, shoulders, and arm muscle strength at the same time. As long as you do enough of them, they’ll get your heart rate and your muscle activity up to a point where you’re truly challenging (and thus improving!) your body.
The best way to perform a push up is with your hands on the floor in front of you. Your body should be straight from head to toe. When performing a push up, make sure that your chest touches the floor before your elbows touch the ground. This will help prevent injury.
The push up challenge we propose is pretty straightforward: do 100 push-ups every single day for thirty consecutive days. Do them whenever they feel right. Break them up during the day if necessary. You can even do them on your knees if normal pushups are too difficult for you right now. Whatever works best for you: if you’re able to complete this challenge, you’ll be well on your way to an amazing physique.
5- Back to the basics with this walking fitness challenge
Walking is one of the best forms of exercise because its effective while being easy on our body. A lot of us have the misconception that we must be harsh on our bodies to get results faster but, the best single counterargument to that is the power of walking or power walking to keep healthy and in shape. When done at the right pace, for a relevant amount of time, and frequently, it has incredible positive effects.
Another advantage? It’s super easy – just head out the door and start waking wherever you feel like! Take the opportunity to explore new areas every day.
This fitness challenge is a good way to get started if you want to start building endurance and stamina but can be also suitable for more advanced athletes. Just find the right time and frequency for you, and make sure to keep a good pace throughout the workout – we are not talking about a stroll!
What do you need to do to complete this challenge? Simple: you just need to take 10,000 steps each day for a month. You can take a break once a week but the rest of the days you have to hit that goal if you want to pass this fitness mission.
Create fitness challenges with your friends on Hypefive
As we were saying, we think a good fitness challenge with friends to hold yourself accountable is the best way to get back on track or to jump onto new fitness horizons. Maybe a superman burpee challenge?
At hypefive, you will be able to create all sorts of challenges and meetups to make sure you are at your best active self. The best thing? Your squad will hold you accountable, so it won’t be easy to bail.
Its days now for our beta release. Make sure to sign up on the web!