Could Be Worse...I Guess

Now that I have slid from perfect, daily-bread burpee citizen to less-than-perfect, binge-and-purge, perpetually-playing-catch-up delinquent, motivation has become a serious issue.  If I dare say, almost an art.  And while you all provide me with a bottomless well of positive support - doing burpees with me at basketball, practice and even virtually over gchat, I realized a long time ago that, for me, a little negativity goes a long way.  (This became painfully obvious when I used to ask my dad to come to my soccer games and yell "you suck" and other discouragements at me from the sidelines).  Through countless teammate interventions during HS and more than a few dirty looks on the rugby pitch, I now understand that most women, and men, but especially women, respond much better to Hob's brand of encouragement than my Hobbesian (nasty, brutish and short) philosophy.  Thus, I will refrain from that type of thing on this forum.

However, fellow burpee-ites, I will not let you off that easily.  Instead I, plan to pick on your American insecurities and post photos from my time in Vietnam, and tell you how much worse things could be.  Without further ado...

Photo of my guesthouse in Ho Chi Minh City.  See that small space between the beds?  Yea?  That's where I had to do my burpees and other workouts since there aren't fancy gyms or even many parks in HCMC.  Oh and look how small that TV is and how hideous that green.  Life is really hard there, I can't believe I survived.

And look at the view out the window.  How did I even muster the courage to go outside?  I mean there used to be warplanes in that very sky!  (Mom, for the last time, the war is OVER!)

And just look at those floating houses behind the floating bodega!  Clearly, the floating grocery woman gets her exercise  from rowing, but what about the others?  Do you think they have the luxury of being able to do burpees?  I mean can you imagine all the upset stomachs and complaints from other floating villagers about the mini tidal waves? Anyway, instead of complaining, maybe you should just be thankful you have solid ground to burpee on! 

The word for the day: KUDOS

Hi! I have several shout-outs to give to burpee challengers!

#1 - KUDOS to anyone who has ever fallen behind in their burpees and either caught up or is still working to and has not given up! You all rock! I fell behind when I was sick and found out that catching up is TOUGH! Especially now that the burpee numbers are getting so high... But it wasn't until i was behind and had to experience the challenge of catching up that i realized how difficult it really is to be in that situation. so KUDOS to all of you that get behind and DON"T GIVE UP!

#2 - That being said, even more KUDOS to everyone in this challenge that hasn't ever fallen behind!!! THAT is awesome! I am curious - how many of you are out there? If you are one of those amazing people that hasn't missed a day since January 1st will you write in and let us know? I am impressed by you and your dedication!

#3 - KUDOS to everyone that is trying to do this without any direct support network. I could NEVER have gotten this far without the support of others...without the texts, emails or blogs.- it would not have happened. Reading Katie Mac's blog about pulling out made me realize how important it really is and how lucky I am to have it. A short story... When I was home recently my mom was all over my case about not taking my vitamins on a daily basis. She finally said "well - i just don't understand how you can manage to do all those burpees on a daily basis but yet not manage to take vitamins." I promptly told her that if there were people texting me and emailing me on a daily basis about taking my vitamins...if there was a blog where i could express my own experiences and read about others' experiences taking vitamins...if there were people saying "i'll wait" every day until i finished swallowing those vitamins - i am SURE that i would have no problem taking my vitamins on a daily basis! Saying that out loud to her really made me realize how important all of the support is! So KUDOS to those of you that have made it that far without it. I am extremely impressed by you! (btw...start looking for a new blog about taking vitamins as i'm sure my mother is home creating one right now... :) )

For those of you that don't have a direct support network and feel like you need some more feel free to give a shout out to get it. We are here! we can text...we can email...we can blog...we can get through this! i have no problem "waiting" while you finish your burpees for the day! :)

KUDOS to all...
still in it or not...
kudos to all :)

Day 57: Making Them Harder Makes It Easier

Since the numbers have increased and my number in the hole has remained pretty high (I'm now down to 90 in the hole - almost a record low!) I've found that the harder I make doing them (7 rounds of set of 10 with another exercise in between, or sets of 25 for time) the more I am getting out of them and the easier it is to knock off larger numbers.

I still enjoy doing 5 here or 10 there to keep knocking them off, but weaving 50 or so into my workout for the day has been helping me. And leaves me looking like this.

Day 55: Injured and racking up the make-up burpees

I hurt my wrist last week Thursday, while losing a basketball game to some 8th graders :). A wrist injury is kind of hard to work through for Burpees because you're catching yourself and bending it back all the time. Someone told me to go ahead and use dumbells for the pushup part so that I don't bend my wrists but that would actually involve me going to the gym! The beauty of burpees to me is that I could exercise outside of the gym. Still, I'm only now going to calculate the damage: I was down 29 burpees, last Thursday was day 50, Today is day 54.
29+50+51+52+53+54 - 2 (I tried to demo two burpees in two separate cases)=257. Good lord. I better get to the gym. I have to say, though, that having been in the hole before, I am confident I can get out. I am NOT giving up.

Not just Down…I’m Out.

A few weeks ago, I put in a request to be removed as an contributor here ….as I was no longer in the challenge. The response came back that I should blog about quitting ….because I couldn’t just leave silently out the backdoor.

To be honest, I’ve held off because I feel like that would be a total downer here – when there is and needs to be so much more motivation and positivity. I certainly don’t want to take anyone out with me….. And then there was a few brief moments where I thought I could stage a comeback…I was mistaken. 1004 is a big number…..and so… ladies and gents…. here we go…..

There are lots of specific reasons I could give you as to why I am no longer burpee-ing, non of them are good ones, I assure you. Instead I will tell you what I think one needs to complete this challenge…and it’s not time, it’s not strength, it’s not socks or a place to do burpees. Two very basic things …and you don’t necessarily need them both I guess...…but they are internal motivation and external support.

At the bottom of one of our friend’s email’s there is a tag that reads – The body will go wherever the mind takes it. In my case, my mind has taken me to work, to bed and maybe a few times to the bar. It has not taken me to burpee, nor to any other type of exercise in the past two months.

The other…the support part…well, I do not live or work with or near anyone else in the challenge… To those of you Burpee-ing alone around the world with no friends in the challenege…this seems like a very lame excuse…but then you clearly have more of #1 than I. I would do better if there was someone to burpee with…it became apparent to me this weekend, when Hedwig took me with her for 5 sets of 10. It was all #2!

So, it’s not that I can’t Burpee…it’s just that I won’t. And while it’s never easy to admit being a quitter, I wanted to let you all know that I respectfully excuse myself from the burpee table.

I applaud you for continuing and being so steadfast in your challenge. You are inspiring!

Day 50 Challenge

Can you believe we are at DAY 5-0!?

If you want the extra challenge time your 50 burpees and report in the comments how it went!

still in it

Hello all...I'm still in it, FOR SURE!! I've maintained doing all of mine every day (broken down into sets of 10). I was talking with another burpee participant last night and we both decided that if we fall behind, there is no way we could make them up. Surprisingly, I even maintained my burpees while spending 4 days in Las Vegas!! I've added a few places to the list of where I've done my burpees. I will try to be better at blogging as well.

Not sure if I will do the timed challenge tomorrow - I don't think I can, but I will do all fifty!!

Day 49 from California

The last two days my burpees have really sucked. I feel tired the whole time and they are not as dynamic. I am really forcing myself to do them and taking more breaks than usual. I am trying to never miss a day as I saw friends trying to make them up and they were burpeeing all day long. Tomorrow's Day 50 timed challenge is going to be very difficult.

Several of the other bloggers have fallen off the challenge or are in the process of falling off. SO less of us to contribute - those contributors who are still going please try to get on and blog every week. AND if you haven't been a blog contributor, but would like to post your burpee stories here every once and awhile please email me at u19rugby@gmail.com.

My legs, my legs!

As the numbers have grown in our burpee challenge, I have noticed a few things. My arms and shoulders seem to hold up pretty well, it is my legs that start to ache. How do you think you would feel if you did them like this?



Yikes.

Also, I seem to hit my wall of "perfect" burpees at around 15, so I stop and rest. I want to get full benefit from each and every one, and it doesn't make too much sense to do a bunch of half assed ones.

slackers

We have been slacking on the blog posting. I think mostly because a lot of the rugby players participating are out in San Diego for the USA 7s (usasevens.com). This is great for me because I am now surrounded by people who are in the challenge and doing burpees. There is a lot of catching up happening around here - so at any given moment at the field or at the bar someone drops and does a burpee.

While it would be fun to do my daily burpees with a group I am sticking to doing them all first thing in the morning. 45 was rough today.

(frankie, on the other hand, is one of the "slackers" and has 10 left for today - plus 60 back burpees that will be done throughout the weekend with friends!)

Burce Willis, John Wayne and Clint Eastwood are doing Burpees in a bar...

Hey everyone_
It's day 42!
If your burpee journey were an action movie, what would the title be?
Mine is The Bad, The Worse and The Sloppy.
Thoughts?

Day 50 Challenge Anyone?

I was talking with some fellow burpeers yesterday and present a challenge for anyone interested. Dan R seems to have already taken the challenge, buying in with 820 burpees and doing sets of 50 at a time! (Crazy!!!)

The Challenge: On day 50, do all 50 burpees at once, as fast as you can, and time it. Make this your workout for the day, or part of it, etc. See how fast you can crank through them. I will post the challenge on day 50 and you should add your time to the comments. Even if it takes you longer than you thought, try it! We will repeat the challenge at days 75 and 100 to see if you can improve your overall time! Nothing like adding a challenge to a challenge!

Who's in?

Hardcore, Serious Business

Day 40.
Guys, this is flying by for me. I took this as sort of a lark, something that would add fun to my workouts, to see if I could survive etc, but now this is reaching Daft Punk proportions in my life (IE I have to put on a dedicated Daft Punk song when it is burpee time. Harder, Better, Faster STRONGER).
Now that we are in the HSB (Hardcore Serious Business) phase of the challenge, I wanted to share this thought;
Those who were going to drop out by now have. Because we are mostly athletes in this Burpee Community, I believe the harder the challenge becomes, the more motivate we are. I am super excited for the remaining 60 days! Thank you allowing me to be part of this with you all.
Lastly, are any of you still doing this continuously?

Day 39: Only 100 in the hole

I'm back from a week of intensive school time in Cleveland. I went there with 126 burpees down I caught up a little, but essentially came out of there with 126 down.
So, today I started catching up. Did 75 post basketball game with fellow burpee-ites. So, now I'm only down 100!! I vow to catch up by the end of the week. I think its incredible that my body is already capable of doing 75 decent burpees in a relatively short amount of time, though my arms are still trembling an hour and half later and I'm sure I'll be sore tomorrow.
Hang in there everyone!!!

from my inbox!!

Another fun inspirational email from a fellow-burpee challenger

i tried to quit the burpee challenge but i could not

Thanks for maintaining this blog. Last week I was hit with cold/flu type thing-my body was worn down and all my training caught up to me I think- and I basically said to myself, 'forget it, I can live with out the burpees'. On 1/26 I went to a U19 coaches meeting and although people were burpee'ing here and there. I mentioned that I stopped doing the challenge and was pleased with my decision.

No joke, Monday morning I went to the gym, ignored the burpees.

Tuesday I bucked up and assessed the damage: 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26. 141 in all.

I did a Colgan lift and started banging them out in between my sets, 66 by the end of the work out. Tuesday night I had a sports conditioning class-I was able to turn the thrusters into 10 burpees (why not, right?). Checked 90 off the list.

More catch up burpees on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday plus 27, 28, 29. So, long story short, thus far I can't even quit at quitting. It's day 30 and while I'm not caught up I'm only about a day off and still have another gym session where I hope to finish up tonight.

Day 37 from California

Thanks to everyone who is still leaving a comment that they are still in the challenge on Day 30 - we have counted well over 50 people - AMAZING!!

Yesterday 36 felt like a lot. I am still doing all of my Burpees all at once in the morning as opposed to breaking them into sets throughout the day. Today I decided to count differently though. I did the first 20 (which now seem easy!) quickly. Then I paused for a few seconds and started over with my counting thinking of it as a set of 10 - which weirdly worked in tricking my mind into thinking 10 is easy. The last 7 still sucked regardless of how I counted them.

I am really excited that in the beginning I could only do 5 full pushups and now I am doing 30 full pushups!!

Someone asked me yesterday if I was just going to stop when I got to 100....right now I can't really imagine 100, but I also can't imagine not starting my day out with burpees!!

Day 35 - Broomball Burpees

These pics are from last week's post broomball game burpee bash. Hoop (still with helmet on - burpees can be dangerous!), Hobs, Buss, Slitty and myself in the foreground did the remainder of our day 28 burpees outdoors after our game. We may have lost the game, but we were all burpee winners (wow, can anyone smell cheese?)

Tonight will be day 35 burpees - for me at least split up into pregame and then post game burpees!

Day 34: Burpees with my MPODS

I'm in Cleveland, Ohio, working on my master's program. Its called an MPOD because its a Master's in Positive Organizational Development, a mouthful, and that's why we call it MPOD for short. People who are in the MPOD program? MPODS.
I was down 120 burpees when I got here due to an unfortunate run in with a flu virus for a couple of days. Now I'm in class from 9 to 6, every day. What better way to stay energized than do some burpees throughout the day? However, I didn't want to completely alienate my fellow students and decided to adopt the same strategy as when I embarked on this challenge: recruit support! I have sold burpees to the class as a fun (and funny) activity to do on breaks. Also, I told them that I could really use their help. If they ask me to do a burpee with them, I'll do more.
End result: I've done all my burpees for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday (the 3 days I've been in class) and I've caught up on 59 more than that. Also at least 12 out of 42 MPODS have also gotten some healthy exercise. Yeah yah!!

Keep Checking in on Day 30

According to the comments there are over 52 people doing burpees around the world (Belgium and Shanghai) and all over the USA. Bunches of rugby players but lots of non-rugby players too! I think there are lots of people participating out there that haven't had a chance to comment yet - so if you haven't left a comment on Day 30 please do! We are proud you've made it this far and I know I feel better knowing that there are so many other people struggling through as well!

A friend described my burpees this weekend as "Thunk, thunk, pant pant pant, thunk"

Day 31 & Day 32

I guess Super Bowl weekend got in the way of any posting! But, at least for me, it was a burpee weekend. I cranked out day 31 and 32 burpees + the remaining 80 i had to make up. I'm all caught up!


I just read through all the comments from Friday's post - I didn't have any idea there were SO many people involved! We all made it to Day 30, now lets keep each other going as we get to days 40, 50, 60....


Lastly, a picture of Slitty (this is back from Day 11) doing some outdoor burpees!