61: The Downside of 30 Day Challenges (and what to do instead)

If you search for ’30 Day Challenge’ on the Internet, you’ll quickly realize the popularity of 30-Day Challenges.  There’s a plethora of options, from ab challenges, to squat challenges to arm and weight loss challenges.

They all go something like this: Day one 5 reps of exercise X, Y and Z.  On day 2, you do 6 reps of each exercise.  On Day 3 you do 7 reps and so on and so on, until by day 30, you’re doing quite a few repetitions of the 1-4 different exercises.  Sometimes there’s a rest day built in: for example, you’ll do 6 days of an exercise, then take one day of rest.

As a fitness professional and lifestyle coach, I understand the allure of 30 day Challenges.  Even though I fiercely promote long-term lifestyle changes, doing a “rest of your life” challenge is not appealing.  As humans, we are hardwired to focus on short-term goals, which, when stacked up with a continuous number of goals, and quickly lead to a lifestyle change.  We love challenges, seeing that there will be an end point, and are able to stay focused.  There’s nothing wrong with doing fitness and health challenges: they are a great way to get back to being focused on your health after a bit of a drift, and they can kick start you back to healthy habits.  

There are, however, a few downsides to this particular type of 30-Day Challenges.  And in this podcast, we go over the dark side of 30-Day Challenges, and what to do instead.