Now...back to the Burpee Challenge. For those that do not know what a burpee is...... A Burpee is an exercise that will work your legs, arms, chest and core all at the same time. It truly is a full body exercise that you can do anywhere. Start out standing straight up. Then squat down & place your hands on the ground . Kick your feet back so that you are in a plank position keeping as straight as possible. Next, perform a standard push-up, or you can do the push up on your knees (girl pushup). Return to the plank position and jump your feet back so that you are in the squat position again. Lastly, jump into the air.
The rules to the challenge as follows......On day 1, you would perform 1 burpee. On day 2, you would do 2 burpees and so on and so on until day 100 when you will do all 100 hundred burpees. (simple huh?) You don't have to do all of the burpees at the same time. You can break up them up and do them throughout the day or in different sets. If you miss a day, you have to make them up the next day. Lets say you miss day 60, then on day 61 you would do 60 plus 61 burpees.....ouch! That's 121 in total so I don't recommend missing days later on in the challenge. In the end, you will have performed 5,050 burpees in total.
I really am intrigued by this challenge, but then when I read that the half way mark for the 5,050 is at day 72......oh boy. It's just better not to think too much about what will happen after that!
Now I have to take you back to May of this year. I had decided it was time to try boot camp with Elena at NU U with hopes to lose those extra inches that seemed to be gathering fast around my mid section and maybe to get a bit more fit and stronger. I don't remember which day it was, but I do remember the first time I had to do a burpee. First of all, I didn't even know what a burpee was let alone be expected to perform 10 of these! Are you kidding me? So I tried it.....OUCH!!!! Each time I tried this, it would tweak my ankle and boy did it hurt. I had a very severe sprained ankle a couple of years ago and didn't realize just how weak it still was. I didn't have much upper body strength and that didn't help much either. Sooooo......I avoided the dreaded burpee as much as I could for fear I would hurt my ankle. It actually took me until around July to start feeling comfortable with it. Over the last few months I have really developed a love/hate relationship with burpees...... Oh and by the way.....I have lost most of those extra inches and got much stronger and I feel great!
I have decided not to continue on with bootcamp from January til the end of March. I had stumbled upon this challenge a few weeks ago and thought this might be something to keep me active. Mind you....I know that right now I say that I won't go to boot camp but really? Just how long can one stay away from Elena?? I will go to Zumba when I can.....but it's still not that same workout that I have been used to.
I knew that I had to post the challenge publicly to make it official that I would start this challenge.....and I pretty good when it comes to self discipline, but really I have to admit I have been a bit concerned about being able to finish this one. I NEED support......we all do at times, right? So I posted on facebook and had Elena forward out and email from me. In 24 hours we have 10 at this point which I think is pretty good.
I am thrilled to find that Elena is one of 10 and to have her support! and I do hope more will decide to give it a try also. As I sit here and write this tonight....I have now come to the realization that I AM really going to do this.....I know it's not going to be easy once we get to the bigger numbers and I hope no one hurts themselves in the process.We will start the Challenge on December 23rd and our 100th day will be March 31/12.
24 days to go until Day 1 of the 100 Day Burpee Challenge!!!!
