Friday 19 July 2013

Strength Challenges

Recently I was encouraged to take part in three challenges which work towards improving strength. Strength training is something that is often overlooked by runners yet an area that is pretty important if you want to improve and reduce the chances of getting injured.


The three challenges I took part in were 100 Push Ups, 30 Day Squat Challenge and the 30 Day Crunch Challenge.The beauty of these challenges are that they only take a few minutes out of the day a few times a week, you can do them whilst watching TV, you can adjust them to suit you ability level (by picking the most appropriate banding for the press ups or adding weights to squats and crunches) and you really do see progress.

I joined a group on Facebook, in which we logged our progress and successes, to give myself some accountability. It's also been a great way of getting a bit of a boost when I've felt like giving up, particularly with the press ups. I've I've finished the squat and crunch challenges but I'm still finishing off the press ups challenge which is 6 weeks rather than 30 days. I've definitely found this the hardest and although I'm wondering if I'll actually manage the full 100 press ups by the end of week 6 I know I'll be able to do significantly more than when I started and that in itself is a real achievement.

The developers of the 100 Push Ups program also offer 200 Sit Ups200 Squats and 150 Dips with a 25 Pull Ups program coming soon. All of these last 6 weeks and are based on completing a number of sets three times a week.

Have you ever tried one of these challenges? How did you get on? Would you consider adding one (or more) of these to your schedule?

1 comment:

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    ReplyDelete