#Baldyschallenge 2013

#baldyschallenge 2012 was just a bit of fun. I challenged people to do 1 press up on New Year's Day and add one on each day and see how far they could get.

There were quite a few joining in and sharing their progress through Twitter and Facebook. I think only two or three people made it into February though!

I've been asked to do one again this New Year but I've decided to make it more useful and helpful this time, doing more of a home workout program for people to join in and start feeling the benefits from.

It'll be 5 days a week, and starting off with 14 minute workouts that include a 5 minute rest break. It's mainly for beginners and works all areas of the body and will help people to tone up, lose weight and start feeling confident again.

Each week we'll be stepping it up a bit but it still allows for you to do it at your own pace and against your own targets.

On rest days, I'll post lifestyle and nutrition tips to help you make small, positive changes to your life as you go. I'm looking forward to hearing about the results and what it's helped people to achieve.

If you are competitive, you can always post your scores and compare with others doing #baldyschallenge and if you are experienced or elite level, it's a fun bolt-on to what you are already doing! (I'll be weight training, as well as doing the home workouts).

Please let me know if you want to join in by tweeting me at @graham_lay and share with your friends who want to make a start on getting fit, losing weight and toning up!

Here's an example of one of the workouts:

Day 1 - thighs and bum

Today's workout is a bodyweight squat interval session, lasting 14 minutes.

From a standing position, feet about shoulder width apart and feet pointing slightly outwards, bend your knees until your thighs are parallel to the floor and extend your arms straight out in from of you. Then extend back up to the standing position. Focus on pushing your bum out and backwards as you go down and keep your back straight. This is 1 squat. You will be recording the total number of squats so have a pen/pad or smartphone handy.

Set a timer to 14 minutes and do:

30 seconds of squats, 30 seconds rest.
Repeat this for 5 sets, until timer says 9:30 to go.

5 minute break - use the time to walk around, stretch, write your scores down, get your breath back and prepare for the second set!

When timer says 4:30 to go, do your second set of 5 x 30 seconds on/off.

Score = total number of squats done in the work time.

As a guide, I did 160 today (16 per 30s rep). I expect scores to range from about 50 (total beginners) to 300 (elite athletes).

My legs felt pumped and I was sweating a bit plus out of breath in the second half of each set. The idea here is not to kill yourself in week one, just go at a pace that you feel is fairly testing but not pushing yourself to the limit just yet!

You can start upping the ante when you learn more about your fitness level and are feeling more energetic and confident.

You should recover within a few minutes but still feel it in your legs for a while after. Your body's metabolism rate is raised by this type of workout, so you will continue to burn calories for some time after you've finished!

Here's a link for a video intro to the challenge, please share with friends/family/colleagues so they can decide if they want to join in too!

http://youtu.be/3X7Ljmyrq_c?a

Thanks for reading, looking forward to doing this with you all!

@Graham_Lay #baldyschallenge

Http://baldyschallenge.webs.com