Wednesday, March 9, 2011

A Lenten Challenge

This year I have decided to take on a new challenge for Lent.  I got a little help from my friend Anne on putting together the challenge. 

My original idea was to create a group of 40 exercises (one per day) as a way to incorporate more core and strength exercises in my schedule.  I am horrible about doing any core or strength work and just assume that my running will take care of me.  I was going to start out with one exercise per day but Anne talked me into doing a compilation of 3 per day.  Her idea was to have one upper body, lower body, and core exercise for each day. That made a lot of sense so I decided her idea was better.

I ended up with a mixture of exercises that included kettlebell days, stability ball days, and yoga days.  I wrote out my three exercises per day on some note paper and then put them all into a bowl.  Each day I will select a paper from the bowl and then complete those exercises.  Originally, I was going to make a paper chain but it was hard enough writing out 40 workouts so I just went with a bowl!

My draw for today, Day 1, was a yoga draw.  My challenge was to do: Bridge Pose (3 x 20 seconds), Cobra Pose (3 x 20 seconds), and Triangle Pose (3 x 20 seconds per leg.) Mission accomplished during a commercial break! I'm hoping to combine my workout challenge with reduced sugar consumption but know that it will be tough to cut back until I make it through next week which will be pretty stressful at work. 

4 comments:

  1. Oooh I really like this idea, there wasn't anything I wanted to give up for lent. But I like the idea of adding something positive. I have been adding a bunch of new core exercises into my night routine lately.

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  2. Great idea! Thank you for the salad tip!

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  3. I love your Lent challenge. My mother's friend gave up sugar for lent. I thought, oops too late for that with me, I ate a lollipop with my snack on Wednesday. Then I thought about giving up wine for lent. And then oops, too late, I took communion for the service Ash Wednesday. Hmmmm. I finally just decided to follow the advice at Ash Wednesday's sermon of being a good samaratin. I hope I can do it.

    Good luck on your challenge. Sorry to hear about stress at work.

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  4. WOW what a fab idea for Lent!!! Wish I would have thought to do the same thing... oh well, there's always next year!
    BTW you have a new follower! :P

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