Workout I Did: Making The FBG Workout Challenge My Own

The January Fit Bottomed Challenge couldn’t have come at a better time! My fitness routine had gotten out of balance and I was starting to feel a little jiggle in my wiggle. A concerted effort toward yoga and meditation had successfully pumped up my psyche, but unfortunately not my muscles, so I zeroed in on the strength training parts of the challenge.

I had made the mistake in the past of working out beyond my current fitness level and sorely regretted it — pun intended — but the body-weight exercises laid out in the challenge were totally doable.

The FBG Workout Challenge

Clock graphic credit: Sean MacEntee, Flickr.

Each week I swapped a couple of yoga sessions for 30 minutes of circuit training, followed by 30 minutes of moderate cardio. The first time through, my knee joints encouraged me to stop after only 20 minutes and I obliged. Muscle soreness crept in later that day, but dissipated within 24 hours.

A couple of days later, I was hard at it again. My rep speed increased; I added another set and completed the workout with minutes to spare. My knees felt stronger, but I didn’t want to push it, so I plopped down and finished up with extra ab work.

The following week I extended the length of the workout. I rested less between sets and joint pain was minimal.

By week three, I knocked out so many sets I lost count and was getting stronger by the workout. To keep it fresh, I tossed in a few variations of my own, substituting and/or tacking on sumo squats and reverse lunges.

This week I’m tweaking my arm positioning for the push-ups and have incorporated the walking lunge in order to share the love with my core muscles and prevent a plateau.

Now that I’m back in the swing of things, I’m ready for more. Bring on next month’s challenge!

Did you do take the Fit Bottomed Challenge? How’s it going? —Karen