Jack / Ab / Squat Challenge!

Eekababy

My daughter & I started this weight loss journey together 4 weeks ago. Although she’s 2 ½ hours away we stay on top of each other’s workouts, & progress via phone & text. We weigh ourselves every Friday & take a picture of the scale & text it to each other lol. Last night she told me about doing 7000 Jumping Jacks in a week to lose a lb. I know everyone burns calories differently so this can’t be true for everyone but I figured it’s worth a try. Jumping Jacks are a good way to warm up before a workout and could also be incorporated in a cardio workout. However Jumping Jacks are boring & trying to do 1000 straight would be a killer. I decided to jazz up the challenge a little bit & combine abs & squats. The idea is to do 100 reps of abs & squats with 1000 reps of jumping jacks. Instead of doing the same exercise I used 5 different ab & squat exercises 20 reps each with 100 jumping jacks in between. My first challenge day will be after work today but I’m guessing it shouldn’t take more than 20-30 mins to do the entire workout because you want to do it quickly to keep your heart rate up. I’m going to try it every day for 7 days! Please feel free to join us the more the merrier!

Here we go:
100 Jumping Jacks
20 Crunches
100 Jumping Jacks
20 Standard Squats
100 Jumping Jacks
20 Side Crunches (elbow to opposite knee)
100 Jumping Jacks
20 Kick Back Squats
100 Jumping Jacks
20 Reverse Crunches
100 Jumping Jacks
20 Plie` Squats
100 Jumping Jacks
20 Standing Side Bends (elbow to same side knee)
100 Jumping Jacks
20 Explosive Lunges
100 Jumping Jacks
20 C pulses (crunch with knees @ a 90 & pulse for 20)
100 Jumping Jacks
20 Touch Down Squats

Cairine63

Looks like fun!

JoRocka

Jumping jacks are an okay exercise- they are great for warm ups- but I seriously would think twice about doing that many a week.

Perhaps burpees instead?

Eekababy

I would love to do burpees but I have RA in my wrist & hands which limits my range of motion in my wrist so I can't do any exercise that requires putting pressure on my wrist.

Cairine63

I tried it today during my lunch hour workout. It took about 30 minutes and I had fun doing it. I mixed up the jumping jacks a little and did some low impact ones for some variety (and also because doing that many in a row can be tough on the bladder!!). I will see how my knees and calves feel tomorrow.

It is really like 3 challenges in one - the 1000 jumping jacks plus the 100 abs and the 100 squats.

I also thought that maybe for Thursday (not sure I can fit in a workout tomorrow), I would substitute the jumping jacks with stairs as there are 100 stairs (from basement to the roof) in one of the stairwells at my office. I will just have to drag a mat from the gym for the ab part, as who wants to lie on a stair well floor!

I like the burpee idea too and will likely try that one of the days. So I guess not totally the original challenge, but still fun. Is 100 burpees in a row even doable??? Sounds a wee bit scary, not so sure I will succeed at that one. Will likely reduce the number way down!

Eekababy

I did the challenge yesterday & it was not as easy as I thought. When I started I thought I could finish in about 15-20 minutes but after about 5 sets I stopped for a 30 second water break after each set lol. It was definitely a challenge but I got it done! I also worked up a really good sweat and burned over 700 calories! I'm not sure if I can fit it in everyday because I take classes & burn more in my classes than the challenge. I think I will save it for a Tues, Thurs, Sat workout. Once I get my time down to about 25-30 minutes I'll add light weights for the crunches & squats...

rogerOb1

Is 100 burpees in a row even doable??? Sounds a wee bit scary, not so sure I will succeed at that one. Will likely reduce the number way down!

Id much rather do 500 jumping jacks in a row than attempt 100 burpees non-stop. Good luck!

Cairine63

May try burpees tomorrow...