Day 1 of My 7-Day 30-Minute Bodyweight Workout Challenge Completed — It Was Hard but Fun

Yesterday I decided to start a little trial on myself. I prefer to work out less, but right — I’ve learned that results in more. Now I’m trying a different system.

Why am I doing this when I firmly believe in the methods that have served me so well for the last 3 years?

There are a number of factors that have come together that made me think of trying another way.

Busy Test

I’ve been overly busy of late and noticed that I blew off quite a few workouts recently. The excuse? Work.

Work, and being too busy are never an excuse to not exercise in my book. I preach that all the time in my stories. I realized it was time I do something about it.

Recently, I stopped working out early, as I used to do. By the time 4 pm comes around, you just don’t feel like it and say, it’s ok, tomorrow will do.

This challenge will put a stop to that bad habit I let creep into my own routine.

Fitness Test

My strength has declined a little over the last 2 months, due to my work, and less exercise, besides my daily walking.

I want to return to my best fitness levels and see how fast I can get there. I’d also like to see if this 7-day-challenge bulks me up a little.

Energy Test

I’ve got great energy and I’m never tired during the day. So that’s not a problem. What I want to see is if I can handle the daily hard 30-minute strength workouts and how I’ll respond.

Will I be tired, exhausted physically and mentally, or more energized?

Sleep Test

Sleep hasn’t been great of late. There are a couple of reasons for that.

1. My apartment building’s neighbor in Cambodia has around 10 Roosters running around in their yard. I love animals, but I could wring the blinking necks of these birds and BBQ them for dinner!

They start going off at exactly 4 am, duly waking me up. The window insulation is old and almost none existent. It feels like those noisy buggers are in the room with me.

I’m a light sleeper. Once I’m woken up, I hardly can fall asleep again.

However, I finally managed to find decent ear plugs which block out the noise. But, my body clock is now messed up, so I wake up at 4 am anyway.

No rest for the wicked!

2. My mind is overstimulated at night with work stuff running around in my bran. That gives me weird dreams and patchy sleep.

To calm my mind, I try to meditate most evenings. But to no avail. I’m still frequently waking up.

I’m hoping this extra exercise will tire me that much more by bedtime, making me crash and sleep through the night.

Well-being & Productivity Test

I’ll be measuring any noticeable signs of my well-being and productivity improving.

Will I get up earlier, get the walk and work out done, and then power into a happy, focused, and productive day?

Or, will I battle through and feel more sluggish, because of the earlier mornings and extra pressure on my body.

Here’s the routine:

Day-1

30-minute faced-paced walk

Set 1:

50 push-ups
50 squats
2-minute plank
3-minute headstand
1-minute handstand (against a wall)

Set 2:

1-minute static push-down position
2 -Downhill ski static position
45-seconds sideways planks, each side
2-minute reverse plank
1-minute handstand
2-minute headstand

Set 3:

50 push-ups
20 lunges on each leg (on the spot)
2-minute plank
1-minute headstand
45-seconds handstand

I completed the routine in 28-minutes, followed by a quick stretch and 5-minutes of silent deep-breathing meditation.

It got tough in the third set, but I was inspired, and super-motivated, so I got it done.

The result? I felt great right after the workout, and shower. It’s now late afternoon, and I’m still feeling 100% and full of energy. I got more done today than yesterday, that’s for sure.

Day 1 so far so good — a good test result. Let’s see how I sleep tonight.

I made a short video where I explain what and why I’m doing this, from my rooftop here in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Please check it out.