I Accept the Challenge

Over the weekend my sister posted on her page a fitness challenge from the beautiful Gwen Ro!

I brought it to some of my friends and Shavel and I accepted the challenge. And I tihnk Malikah may have as well I'm not sure. But I know that I AM COMMITTED!

Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. PSALMS 37:5

The challenge is 5 exercises, 5 days a week, for 5 weeks. Each week the number of daily reps changes. week one 20 reps, week 2 40 reps and week 3 60reps then 80reps and the last week will be 100reps!! I started on Tuesday with Shavel and we pumped out the work out in her dorm room and took my "Before" picture lol. I really like this fitness challenge because it requires no gym, weights or equipment and I'm very dedicated to getting my behind back into shape before I go to florida that way when I start up Pole Fitness again I don't waste half my summer getting caught up cause I'm out of shape I just want to hop back into Kangoo Jumps and Pole and get even stronger!


So the 5 exercises:
I stretch very lightly before and then blast some crazy rap or dancehall reggae music.
The 20 jumping jacks are a nice way to warm up my entire body. I take my time with each jump making sure my form is on point.
The 20 Burpees.......sigh..... These are tough. The hardest part of the challenge but the most important because it uses my body weight and moumentum and that makes my arms sad and sore. But it really is a whole body workout. I googled how to do them properly before I started the challenge. And I do the traditional push-up not that modified girl one. Its day 2 of my Week one and I still start struggling around the 6 out of 20 rep.... I'm optimistic that this will get easier over time but uhhh yeah idk about reaching 100 reps on the burpees lol.

The 20 squats after the burpees are a nice cooling point and relazation of my arms for a little while. I take my time with the squats and always try to maintain proper upright posture.
Then 20 push-ups after the squats reel in the arms again and engage them while they are still fairly hot from the burpees. I can push out 20 good push ups but after those other exercises I'm grunting and struggling  lol BUT I get it done!
Lastly are 20 situps. My abs are a prized posssesion of mine which are not to par with where I know they can be. So after 20 situps I do 40 more going in different directions then I do some ab workouts I learned from Pilates until I really start to burn n feel them contracting intensely.

I'm very excited about the results of this challenge I'm all about it now! I know once Week one is done I'll be even more involved in the entire process. Today I did something new and I stretched for even longer after the workout. I want to utilize the discipline in this challenge and start strecthing more to better my extension and flexibility.

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I learned that I am truly a relationship type of person. And I keep finding postive things to commit myself too. First it was God and now that I feel that area of my life is in the proper direction I am using this challenge as something other then school to commit myself too. I'm dedicated to getting stronger, more confident and getting my athletic build back to where I know it can be. Yes I'm thin I know but no matter your weight or body type everyone should strive to work out as much as they can FOR THEMSELVES not for anyone else.
I'm going to take a picture at the start of each week and then at the end of the 5 week challenge i'll post them all next to eachother. The key thing is that I'm not flexing in the pictures. I want to see the muscle defined and pronounced without me sucking in or flexing.

I got this!! :)

The Morning After...

Last night I spent my time back in the Cheeky Fitness Studio for Pole Conditioning, the new Kangoo Jumps, and then Pole Dance.
Back to Back from 7PM to 9:30PM.

Conditioning was fun and tough. I always enjoy myself and we did a lot of arms and abs yesterday. We did alligator races and crunches. We tossed weights with a partner. We need crunches on the pole, pull ups. and  then we switched over to Kangoo Jumps. Guess I didn't quite eat enough cause the jumping on the Kangoo jumps got to me for a bit toward the end but I pulled through.

Sweating like pigs, conditioning class ended and I got to take a breather! Excited for pole reality soon hit me after we stretched and began working on the pole. I had to go back to basics in order to progress, so much time has gone by I even forgot my favorite spin :(
But I got my climbing technique down...even though I only got 1/2way up the pole. My hands feel sweaty but its all in my mind and I don't want to depend on grip. My arms are just not used to holding my weight up and thats what I gotta do.... My arms pull me up the pole and my knees crunching inward lock me into the new position up the pole. I've gotten up there once before so I know I can do it again. My goal for the summer was to be able to do a basic inversion but.... I think I'll save that for an end of the year goal so that I don't disappoint myself. Either way I'm going to fight to get there. Before I can do inversions (which is being upside down on the pole) I gotta master my climb and sitting. And I got my sitting down last night so I was very excited about that and BOY am I feeling it this morning!
Everytime I sit, walk I feel the skin at the top of my inner thighs aching, but it'll get better. Last time I did pole it hurt when I was finally sitting properly lol. And after that it never hurt anymore. My thighs just gotta toughen up to make it happen.
Another thing is my darn split! That is NON-existent! My sister used to give me hope since she was so tall and built legs and she could split but not I. That's something I put in the long term goal pile lol. One day.... I need to constantly stretch that everyday in order to see a difference. The closest I got to a split was in 9th grade when I took Ballet class and we did split stretches everyday. sigh.... Split we shall see, it'll be a While till we meet again!

As for the rest of my body my abs feel tight, which helps me not over eat. People see my body and think I'm super fit and skinny, but I'm just blessed that my metabolism is so fast and that it takes a lot for my tummy to look flabby. Trust me I've had something to pinch before and unfortunately it has been discovered before lol. But I'm coming back to SCAD ripped! And I'm going to the new pole studio in Savannah with experience! For now its the morning and after... and I'm feeling super sleepy as ever, got class in 3hrs, and a math test tomorrow -___- PRAYER!



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