I get the draw of these challenges.
They are simple and hard and often not too time consuming.
And something is always better than nothing to get us moving and motivated.
BUT…
Honestly, these challenges are also what sabotage our long-term success and adherence to a workout routine.
They can even make us feel like we’re working super hard, staying super consistent, making ourselves super sore and not seeing results build as quickly as we would like.
They can lead to us feeling like we are finally getting back into a groove but them BAM! Always hit with an injury.
That’s why in this video I want to go over what results you can truly expect from these 30 day challenges – the good, the bad and the simply ugly…
So let’s break down these 30 day challenges and the results you’ll get over the weeks…
Starting with that first week…
In that first week, if you haven’t been doing anything in terms of training, and this is your motivation to get moving…
Be prepared to be VERY VERY SORE.
Did I say you’ll feel SORE?
Because you’re going to feel sore those first few days.
If you break up those first 100 reps over the day, you may deceive yourself into thinking it “wasn’t that bad,” but that volume will sneak up on you.
You’re going from 0 to 100 reps and doing a repetitive movement for a high volume of work.
You’re also doing this movement daily so not giving yourself fully enough time to recover from the previous session.
So those first 4 days, you’re going to feel sore and even a bit beat down.
If you haven’t checked your squat form or are feeling a bit stiff and immobile from a lack of activity, you may also find your knees and hips and even lower back are extra achy.
This may pass with movement or it may be the start of the end.
Too often we sabotage ourselves from getting in a routine by simply pushing too hard in that first week.
We need to rebuild slowly to make sure we’re doing moves correctly and using the correct muscles.
Not to mention just because you can “do” a move and for that volume, like your muscles are strong enough, doesn’t mean your connective tissues, such as your ligaments, are truly ready for it.
It’s why doing too much too quickly leads to injury.
Also if our form is off we overload joints and muscles also putting us at risk.
And squats, like a fundamental movement pattern are often blamed for knee pain because we don’t use them correctly!
However, if we can stick it out for those first 4ish days, often we feel like we get stronger overnight.
While our muscles haven’t grown, our body starts to become familiar with the movement and we become more efficient at repeating it.
It’s why toward the end of that first week we may feel like things got almost easier overnight.
While you are getting stronger by creating a challenge for your body, you haven’t really built muscle this quickly.
It is simply that mind-body connection first improving.
We may also see some weight loss initially with the challenge.
You are moving more which can mean you’re now burning additional calories during the day.
But just like our body adapts to make the reps feel easier in that first week, our body adapts to be more efficient which means this deficit through added movement will be short lived.
If we don’t add on to our training, move more or change our nutrition, we won’t keep losing weight.
In that second and third week, the weight loss benefits will stop as your body adapts.
And you’re going to start feeling more burned out from the daily repetitive movement and see yourself hit a point of diminishing returns.
You may feel more worn down. Weird places may hurt again. Despite you feeling just a little bit before like you are getting stronger, you may feel like you go backward.
You’re not giving yourself enough time to rest and recover from a high volume of the same move, over and over and over again.
And as things hurt or feel sore, you’re going to start compensating.
Your form may break down more from fatigue and even from you starting to rush through just to get things done.
Doing the same thing every day gets tedious and boring!
We start to just want to be done with it.
It isn’t the same fun mental challenge it once was.
So often this is where we stop. We go back to our previous workout practices and we end up feeling like nothing will ever be sustainable.
Or we keep pushing through. Maybe finally at the end of week 3 our body starts to adapt and we do see those muscle gains if we’re fueling well.
But often we just start to see knee and hip aches and pains add up more and more.
We also haven’t built up any other muscle groups. We haven’t worked our core or our upper body.
And we have no plan in place to guide us.
We have no “exit strategy” from this challenge except to do another challenge.
And at some point this pattern leads to burnout.
We never really create clear progression, a clear BUILD for ourselves with a road map to take us to the goals we want.
So what may have seemed like an “easy way” to get started ultimately is also what keeps us stuck!
Now maybe you’ve powered through to week 4. And honestly, that is freaking awesome. Most don’t make it past that 3 week hump.
Injury. Boredom. Fatigue. Time. Some excuse gets most of us as we lose that initial motivation.
We’ve been doing the same thing day after day after day.
And not only does that get tedious so we become less careful and conscious of our movements, not to mention we aren’t as intentional to maximize each rep, but often the challenge really isn’t there for our body any longer.
We won’t keep seeing muscle gains as we’ve adapted to the volume and load of squatting our own bodyweight.
So ultimately we NEED to do more or at least create progression through the same but different.
And many of us reach the end of the 4 weeks with no plan.
The same challenge of creating a program we faced at the start, we are now faced with.
The good part about having committed to the 30 days though is we’ve created a workout habit and gotten in a routine, prioritizing some time each day for us and taking care of our body with movement.
We’ve also hopefully built some muscle and even lost a bit of weight from the added activity.
Because something is better than nothing when starting out.
But nothing keeps progressing if we don’t adapt as we grow stronger and fitter.
And if we are unlucky, this repetitive movement could have led to injury and overload.
We went all in from the start over giving ourselves time to build that solid foundation and slowly build up.
We may see more aches and pains even adding up over the following weeks if we aren’t careful.
It also hasn’t prepped our body necessarily for other movements.
We may still be starting out at ground zero when it comes to our upper body or even core training.
We can’t skip building that foundation and these challenges don’t help us become well rounded.
They so often lead to us just doing too much too quickly over easing in.
Not to mention we may feel like the daily movement is unsustainable long-term but not be sure now how to design a schedule that actually fits our busy lifestyle.
And as simple as these challenges seem, they are deceptively inefficient at getting results.
You could see better results from LESS volume and even less frequent sessions designed with the appropriate intensity and recovery.
You could have found something more sustainable!
And you could have even found something more FUN to do weekly that would have led to better results faster.
Including a diversity of movements for your legs over the week would have targeted every aspect of your lower body and hit the muscles to different extents while moving you in every direction.
This could have created faster muscle gains, better recovery and all while avoiding injury and being fun.
By repeating that weekly routine for 3-4 weeks with a clear build to movements, you may have seen your results snowball faster while avoiding boredom that lead to you just rushing through the squats to get them done!
If you’re considering a challenge like the 100 squats a day for 30 days challenge, I urge you to seek out a clear plan that includes diversity and focuses on your entire body instead.
This will truly help you build that strong foundation.
The more you rebuild safely, slowly and while addressing any mobility restrictions, the faster you will actually progress with less risk for injury.
So while something is better than nothing, and these simple challenges are tempting, find a plan laid out for you even if it is just 5 minute workouts to start back!
Ready to have a plan in place to reach your goals? Check out my Dynamic Strength program!
