The Lockdown 3.0 Challenge

As if it’s already mid-February! I haven’t had the time (or headspace) to write a post. It might be another lockdown living situation but the news cycle has kept me very, very busy!

Towards the end of December, when Birmingham went into Tier 4, a colleague of mine based down South, who was also in Tier 4, suggest we do a daily challenge and update each other when we’ve completed it, for the whole time we’re in Tier 4.

Sounds simple enough, right? 25 burpees, 25 press-ups and 25 squats.

Here was my attempt on Day One (30th December 2020)…

I managed 13 normal press-ups and 12 on knees, 10 burpees and 25 squats. After doing that, I did seriously question if I could really do this daily (and that’s considering I hadn’t even hit the 25 target properly for the press-ups and burpees!)

We’ve also renamed it the Lockdown 3.0 Challenge as Tier 4 turned into National Lockdown a few days in to the challenge! That also means we’re doing it daily until the lockdown ends. I mean, there are LOTS of reasons we all want lockdown to end but this is very quickly becoming one of the top reasons 😂

On Day 35 (3 February 2021), we added 25 crunches to the mix, too. I’ve never been a fan of core work because it’s hard but I’m also realising more and more, certainly over the past year, just how important it is. So as much as I dread crunches, I know they’re good for me!

Anyway, roll on to Day 42 (11 February 2021) and I’m regularly hitting 25 burpees, 25 press-ups (NONE on knees), 25 squats and 25 crunches.

Considering I couldn’t even do ONE press-up back in January 2021 and therefore would always do them on my knees, I’m really happy with the progress! Okay, I can’t do them all in one go (as with the burpees) but I feel like I’m slowly building that strength.

There is the odd day (usually a day after I’ve done the challenge AND a workout) where my back and legs just aren’t having it and so I end up doing fewer burpees and there’s more knee reliance on the press-ups.

The key thing, however, is just doing the challenge daily. Even a little work is better than no work!

Now that you’ve read this post, I urge you to give it a go. Adapt it as you need, so you don’t injure yourself. I started slow, built on it slowly over six weeks and continue to see positive growth – you can too!