A month of grueling workouts and muscle-bending routines has come to an end, and what a month it was. The challenge started off as a long, dark tunnel with not a hint of light to be found. “Am I really going through with this?” I thought to myself, wondering if it was all a mistake. I’d probably burn out a week into it and end up laying on my couch, buried in nachos. And through the course of that first week, it seemed to be a dire possibility.
But once the initial sluggishness wore off, I found myself pushing harder, trying to get past the ‘beginner’ level of training. Days were spent mapping out my routine to the second, obsessing over each workout and making sure that I could get through my target number of sets without collapsing. Certain routines looked daunting, but with the right attitude and drive, they were reduced to nothing more than a casual stroll through the park on a sunny spring day.
Many a morning (after the first week) I woke up feeling sore but accomplished; it was a good kind of pain, and it powered me through the day until my next workout. But my quest was not without its perils. I managed to give myself a cold and still went on, sniffling and coughing all the way through. On the 28th day of the challenge, I did a routine slightly wrong (because my brain decided the exercise was done a bit differently than it actually was) and screwed up my lower back, but not enough to stop me on the last two days.
And at last, here we are. I feel fitter and more energetic than I’ve felt in quite some time. Clothes that used to feel skintight now leave me with some breathing room, though there’s still some more space to free up. I didn’t have any delusions of looking like a sculpted Adonis after only a month of exercise, but it is gratifying to see my stomach heading for a more concave look.
Would I do it again? Without a doubt! I’m planning to do a challenge every other month or every 2 months, to keep pushing myself a bit further. We’ll see how that pans out, but at the very least, my regular exercise routine of 4 days a week is now getting bumped up to 5. But we’ll get to that later on. For now, I’ve earned myself a rest day. Maybe I’ll go lay on the couch.
On second thought, I think I’ll take a walk.
Stranger in a Strange Mind 