It’s not the best start for a new year of 30-day-or-thereabouts challenges to have given up halfway through the month, is it? Actually, it wasn’t so much giving up as realising it wasn’t working. Therefore I’m refraining from using the word fail because even though I didn’t do a full month like I hoped, I learnt a lot along the way.

This month, I was supposed to be following a Les Mills challenge schedule, a featured workout each day that is backed by a scientific plan and reason for the order, duration and difficulty. Weeeell….

I started out okay, and the workouts got gradually harder and I kept up for a bit, but then I got busy and started swapping them round a bit, and then they got too hard and I opted for alternatives (which is allowed, but it’s not really in the spirit of the game, is it?) and then I realised I was dreading sticking to the plan.

And if there’s one thing we can all agree on when it comes to workouts and exercise, if you’re dreading it, it’s much MUCH harder.

So I got about twenty days through the month before abandoning the plan and switching to things I know I like and can do, things that I can work on and get better at without breaking any limbs along the way. It’s a shame, but a big part of the reason for picking this Les Mills thing at all was to stop me daydreaming each month that it was something I should do one day.

Now I know that they’re not for me, and I don’t need to look at them ever again. So, whilst it wasn’t the roaring success I would hope for January, it did answer a lot of questions and hopefully will clear up some headspace in future.

On to the next!