Up and down planks, plank jacks, mountain climbers, reverse crunches, the list goes on and on. If that gives anyone a slight shiver or a sigh of “I don’t want to do it,” you know exactly what I am about to get into. Chloe Ting took the internet by storm early this quarantine with her two-week shred challenge. I remember watching countless videos on Tik Tok talking about her workouts and the results people had achieved from completing the challenge. Although amazed by the results people were seeing, I was a little intimidated because the workouts seemed challenging. I decided that in May I would tackle Chloe’s 2020 Summer Shred Challenge.
On the first day of the four-week program, I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into. I barely completed the workout and soon after, laid on my basement floor for 10 minutes because I was that exhausted. I run occasionally at the gym and I have been a dancer all of my life, so the fact that I could not catch my breath was shocking. When I woke up the next morning, I was so sore that I could hardly walk. I was sore in places that I had never in my life been sore before but I knew that the workouts were paying off and that I needed to power through the pain. All the tightness in my body meant the exercises were working. Aside from the soreness that went away after about four or five days, the first week of workouts was not that terrible.
The next two weeks in the challenge were the hardest. I could dance for six hours a day without an issue but finding the motivation to do an-hour long workout was challenging. It felt like I was repeating the same motions over and over again without making any exterior progress towards where I wanted my body to be. I was indeed getting stronger and the workouts became easier with time. Physically seeing the changes occur on my body took longer, which made it difficult to stay motivated. It was great to see my stamina improve and I was able to accomplish longer intervals of exercise. From doing this four week long challenge, I could see how much my mental health was improving. It was so nice to feel so great about myself and realize that I was becoming the strongest I had been in a very long time. By the last week of the challenge, I completed each workout with ease and my body began to see results. I thoroughly enjoyed the program and wanted to continue to push myself even after the challenge was over. I know internal results are just as important as external results, but it was nice to see that all of my hard work from the past four weeks finally paid off. It is also very important to remember that everyone’s bodies are different and exercise affects everyone in a different way. Chloe’s workouts have been great for me and I cannot wait to continue doing them in the future.