January 1st is, traditionally, a day that many people use as the motivation to make positive changes in their lives. From getting in shape to going to church more often and everything in between there are countless ways in which many people are vowing to improve themselves, starting today. If you’ve made a resolution to improve yourself but you’re not quite sure how to go about doing so, you may find value in taking on some kind of challenge to help you reach your goals. We’ve collected a list of 10 of our favorite ones for you to check out below the cut.
One of the most attractive features of this Electronic Arts fitness game for the Wii is the 30-day challenge. Designed to help you improve your general fitness, the challenge takes you through a four week training regiment that slowly ramps up the difficulty on you as you get used to the routines. While EA SPORTS Active wasn’t the first fitness game on the market, the 30-day challenge aspect of the program really helped to set it apart as a leader in the field. With the release of EA SPORTS Active : More Workouts they have taken the challenge one step further and expanded it to now cover six weeks.
If you’ve already been on the fitness bandwagon for a while and you’d really like to kick up your efforts a notch or two the Velocity Diet may be just what you’re looking for. This six week program includes a meal plan, exercise, and supplement routine. The program is free, but the supplements that they want to sell you to go along with it are not. If you’d like to learn more about the Velocity Diet check out Rafe’s “Monday Madness” series of posts from a few months ago where he tracked his progress on it.
Running is, perhaps, one of the exercises that many people look at as something they simply cannot do. From fears of damaging their joints to simply not believing they could possibly have the endurance to run down their block (much less 5 kilometers), there are a lot of misconceptions out there about how difficult it is to train yourself to run in a 5k. The Cool Running Couch to 5k program was designed to help dispel those misconceptions. This 9 week program is designed to take someone who is literally a couch potato and build their strength and endurance to a point where they can run over three miles. Having done this program myself earlier this year I can attest to the fact that it works very well. I am still approximately 50 pounds over weight but thanks to this challenge I regularly run 3.19 miles three times a week.
The Great American Smokeout Challenge
The Great American Smokeout is not so much of a challenge as it is a resource for people who want to quit smoking. There isn’t any kind of weekly step by step course for you to follow like there is for the other challenges we’ve listed here, but there is advice on how you can form a plan that will work for you and information on how to sign up for the Quit Line (where, if I understand correctly, you can even score free or reduced price smoking cessation tools). There are also several free desktop tools you can download, such as a craving buster tool with a panic button you can hit whenever you are starting to feel overwhelmed by the need for a cigarette.
The National Body Challenge is a free program from the folks over at The Discovery Channel. It includes a personalized meal plan and progressive exercise routine as well as access to discussion boards and instruction videos. You can track your weight and fitness progress as well. If you’re on a budget and can’t afford to sign up for one of the paid weight loss sites like Weight Watchers this could be a great alternative.
Do you think you would have had what it took to fight along side Leonidas at the Battle of Thermopylae? Then the 300 Workout Challenge might be what you’re after. The actors and stuntmen who portrayed the legendary 300 in the movie that was based on the Frank Miller graphic novel were supposedly given a test at the end that only one of them was able to complete. This program is broken down into four levels that will, supposedly, help you accomplish what 299 professionals who were paid to do nothing but get into shape for a few months couldn’t do. Needless to say, this is one of the gutsier challenges that we’re putting here and you shouldn’t even think about trying it without consulting a physician first. That said, if you manage to pull it off you’ll look smashing at Dragon*Con.
The 200 Sit-up Challenge is the first in a series of three different challenges that are designed to help you improve your ability to do some basic exercises. Although this particular challenge would be more accurately called The 200 Crunch Challenge, it is still an intense and effective way to work on building your ab strength. With clear instructions on proper form and a detailed six week workout routine based on your current level of fitness, The 200 Sit-up Challenge is an excellent way to tone and build your ab muscles.
The second in a series of three challenges of a similar nature, this challenge focuses on building your upper body strength with an exercise that is equally as easy as it is frustrating – the push up. Push ups work a wide variety of muscles if done properly, and can be done just about anywhere (Rafe has gotten into the habit of doing push ups every hour on the hour at work). Like the other challenges in this series, this one is broken down into 6 weeks with instructions on proper form and links to tools such as an iPhone application that can help you track your progress.
The third challenge in this series from Steve Speirs is designed to help you strengthen and tone your glutes, quads, hamstrings, abs and lower back by doing an increasing number of squats. While this may seem to be the easiest of the three exercises he has programs for, squats become deceptively difficult in relatively short order. Like the others, this one is broken down into a six week series that is based on your current fitness level. Speirs isn’t stopping with the three challenges he has currently, either. He’s currently working on a 25 Pull Up Challenge.
Don’t see a challenge listed here that tickles your fancy? Head on over to eHow.com and get tips from the users there on creating your own challenge. This quick guide goes over the basics of setting goals and motivating a group to reach them, and includes good tips on setting up a prize for the person who wins the challenge.
Whatever you decide to do in order to meet your goals for the New Year, picking a definite plan and sticking to it is a great way to make sure you don’t easily wander off the path of good intentions that you’re starting down today. If nothing else, keep an eye out here for our Daily Quests as a way to do something good for yourself every day in 2010!