How long does it take to make a positive change in your life? How long does it take to improve your health and well-being? The answer is that it really only takes moments to change your health for the better.

It only takes as long as you need to make the decision to take the first step toward better health.

One of the things that makes change so difficult isn’t the desire or decision to get healthy, it’s the planning and overwhelm that often comes next. Once you make the decision to improve your fitness, then what? What are the next steps? When do you know you’ve achieved success and how do you measure it?

This is the power of a 30-day challenge.

A 30-day challenge gives you a day-by-day plan. You follow the plan, take the steps that are put in place, and at the end of the month you will be able to measure your results. Most experts tell us that it takes 14-21 days to create a habit. This 30-day challenge sets you up, if you choose, to create a daily exercise habit and plan that you can continue after the 30 days. It also provides you with an abundance of tips, advice, and measurements. 

All you have to do is take it one day at a time. You can do it! Today is the day you start making positive changes to your health and fitness.

How to Use This Challenge

You have 30 days of exercise, mobility, fitness tests, and tips and advice ahead of you. It’s strongly recommended that you sit down every Sunday at the beginning of the week and look to the week ahead of you. There are workouts planned for you, but you also have some decisions to make.

For example, if a workout has you doing push-ups and you’re unable to do a full pushup, then you’ll need to identify the hardest movement you can perform to get the benefit from the movement. You might do pushups from your knees instead of from your toes. In general, there is minimal equipment required for the challenge.

Additionally, there are three days where you’ll test your fitness. You’ll test yourself on the first day, the 15th day and the 30th day. This test isn’t designed to make you feel bad about your fitness. Quite the opposite. At the end of the month you’ll see the progress you’ve made and the mid-challenge test will help you stay motivated – you’ll be amazed at how much can change can occur in just a few weeks.

A quick word on warming up and cooling down. With the exception of mobility days, please warm up your muscles before you work out, and cool them down when you’re done. Sprinting with cold legs is painful and you won’t get your best results. It’s also good to know that as you age, you need more time to warm up. Forty-somethings need more warm up time than twenty-somethings.

Warming up for a cardio day may be something as simple as walking or jogging slowly for a few minutes. Warming up for strength days should be related to the movement. For example, if you’re doing a squat/lunge workout then perform a few slow and gentle squats and lunges. Walk briskly or jog slowly for a few minutes. Get your heart rate up and your muscles warm before asking more from them.

Before we start with the first day, decide when you’re going to exercise. Are you going to do it first thing in the morning or mid-day? Do you have more time and energy at the end of the day? Take a look at your personality and your reality. When are you most likely to follow through and exercise?

Remember that it takes a few weeks to create a habit. So the first week or so may be really tough. Give yourself a fighting chance at success by scheduling your exercise when you’re most likely to follow through. Good? Okay, let’s go!

For this first day you need only to set aside about a half an hour. However, you’re going to be setting your baseline for a number of movements that are good indicators of your fitness. You’re going to perform three movement tests.

#1 Pushups – The first test is to do as many pushups as you can in three minutes. You can rest as much as you need. And if you are unable to perform a strict push-up from your toes (and most people cannot, so don’t beat yourself up if that’s the case) then do your pushups from your knees. Or start on your toes and drop to your knees when those start to fail. Record how many pushups you were able to do in three minutes, and how you performed the movement.

#2 Squats – Again, this is a three-minute test. Perform as many full-depth squats (your hips are at parallel or just below parallel with your knees) in three minutes. Take as much rest as needed. Remember to put your feet shoulder width apart and make sure your knees track over your toes when you squat so they don’t cave inward. If they fall in toward the middle, it can cause knee irritation.

#3 1 Mile Walk/Jog/Run – Find a track or map a mile in your neighborhood. You can use a tool like Mapmyrun.com to get the distance from your front door and do a nice out and back run. Grab your phone or watch and time your run. Keep in mind that you’re setting a baseline here, not trying for a personal record. Do your best, but don’t push too hard – especially if you haven’t exercised in a while. If you need to walk, then walk. Just time your mile and write it down.

You’ll retest all three of these movements on the 15^th and 30^th day. Have fun! Come back here to this site every day for the next post.

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