No Excuses 30 Day Burpee Challenge

Thursday I posted about how I was feeling like a broken record with regards to my “healthy lifestyle”.  On Twitter, the blog and on Facebook I’ve been saying the same thing over and over again; “This is going to be the week I get back on track”.  Honestly, I wish I had a count total on this because I think I’ve said it once a week for the last 8 months.  I haven’t been sticking to my nutrition and fitness plan or living my ideal lifestyle and it seems like every few weeks I have been starting over again and saying “this is the week”.

Realizing all of this sparked me to start using the hashtag #NoExcuses on Twitter when I was talking about my training, my diet, my sports and my excuses on a daily bases.  “No Excuses” has become my personal mantra and I’ve also now put it on my new business cards, it’s on my Twitter profile, it’s on the new website design and it’s anywhere and everywhere I can put it and I’m implementing it in to my life wherever I can, whenever I can.

On Twitter #NoExcuses has now evolved in to #NoExcusesYIS to be more specific to health, fitness, diet and training instead of a generic hashtag that is being used by lots of people and this is the hashtag we’re going to use for the No Excuses Burpee Challenge.

Now on to the challenge itself…

You may be sitting there saying “what the hell is a burpee?” so here’s my best explanation:

The burpee is a full body exercise used in strength training and as aerobic exercise. It is performed in five steps:

1. Begin in a standing position.
2. Drop into a squat position with your hands on the ground.
3. Kick your feet back to put yourself in to a pushup position
4. Now reverse the movement by returning your feet back towards your hands to the squat position while
5. Stand back up. That’s 1 burpee.

There are many variations and I’ll talk about them in the video, so check them out.

THE CHALLENGE

Depneding on your fitness level, start with the determined amount of burpees for your level and increase that amount by one burpee each day for 30 days.  There are three levels of difficulty and a few different variations of the burpee you can try so find which one works for you.

Beginner:
If you are a beginner to fitness or exercise, this may be a good place for you to start.  Your goal is to do 1 burpee on your first day.  You can do a standard burpee as described above if you’d like or any variation that you need to, but do 1 burpee today.  Tomorrow you’re going to do 2 burpees and on day three you’re going to do 3 burpees.  Increase the amount of burpees you do by 1 each day so by day 30 you should be doing 30 burpees a day.

Intermediate:
The intermediate challenge is for someone who’s fitness levels are pretty good.  You may not have done a burpee before but you could pull off 3-5 without stopping.  Your challenge is to start at 8 burpees and you’re doing at least a standard burpee or one of the harder variations.  Again, you’re to add 1 burpee a day for 30 days.

Advanced:
You may be at the same fitness levels as the intermediate (or more advanced) but you’re like me and always want to push yourself harder and further.  Your challenge is to do 15 burpees today.  Yup, 15! And if you’re up for it, you’re going for 15 burpees in a row.  OH, and did I mention you’re doing the more advanced burpee with a jump and a clap in it too?  That’s right. You’re gunna cry!  And as the other levels, you’re adding a burpee a day to your total amount and I’d love to see if you can end up doing 45 burpees in a row without stopping by the end of day 30.

There you have it, the No Excuses 30 Day Burpee Challenge.  Please feel free to ask any questions. Post any comments and PLEASE share your experiences with everyone.  Comment on this post to let me know you’re in, post on my Facebook Page and please use the #NoExcusesYIS on Twitter.

There’s now a Be the Burpee T-SHIRT!!!!!! Get yours! Help kids! Be healthy!