While many of you are probably preparing for Freeform’s (although we all know it as ABC Family) 25 Days of Christmas, which starts today with Kittens vs Christmas Trees, there are others stressing about their physical health during the month of Thanksgiving all the way to Christmas. While we spoke about optimizing your health from a food and fuel point of view yesterday, we have a simple, yet rewarding challenge to issue for this month… starting today!
Everyone can do push ups and planks. By that, I mean, there are a lot of people who cannot swim because they do not have access to a pool or body of water. There are people who cannot cycle because they do not have a bike and cannot afford a membership to a gym. Nearly everyone can roll out of bed in the morning and get on the floor to put down a set of push ups and a plank.
This is a very easy challenge, but it serves a distinct purpose. This is to help keep you in a morning routine and build a great habit during a very stressful and chaotic time of the year. Today, on the first of twenty-five days, you are going to do one push-up, a one minute plank, and finish with one pushup. One the twenty-fifth day, you are going to be doing twenty-five push ups, a one minute plank, and finish with twenty-five push ups. The plank does not change… just the number of push ups.
There is no set rest interval; ideally, you are not resting or using a set rest interval. You may, however, need to rest during the push ups or the plank. If you can only plank for 15 seconds before collapsing to the floor, recover appropriately and continue until you reach one total minute. Appropriate rest essentially means that you are resting just enough to complete the set and no more than necessary. You want this to be extremely quick in the morning, without being sloppy or letting your technique fall apart. This is not meant to be your workout for the day; this is not even meant to be a workout.
This is a habit-building challenge to help get you through the holiday season and start your day strong. One push-up and a one minute plank… I just did mine because I want to stay hungry and fit!
