#StayConnected Community Challenge

Hello FB Fam!

How are you all doing? I hope everything is going as well as it can for you, despite current world events. I hope you’re taking care of yourselves, and others, as much as is possible.

I know a lot of us are currently in the midst of practicing social distancing to keep health risks low in a responsible manner. Let’s face it though: for some of us, this can be quite an isolating and lonely experience. So let’s change that! We might be apart, but we can still stay connected through a medium that we all love and enjoy: Fitness Blender!

And what better way to stay connected, than with an FB Community Challenge?

So here we have it: a #StayConnected Community Challenge. All about staying connected, staying healthy, and staying well. The idea is to join together through stay-at-home workouts with a common theme. Because we may be worlds apart, but we can still be workout buddies through thick and thin! So let’s do this!

If you are unfamiliar with FB Community Challenges, here’s the gist: Fellow Blenders here in the community come up with workout schedules (usually similar in structure to K & D’s programs or 5-Day Challenges), we all vote on one schedule we like, and the winning schedule will be the workouts we do for the length of the challenge! Then, all you have to do is plug those workouts from the winning schedule into your calendars starting Monday, April 6th, and we will proceed to have a massive workout-from-home party together for an entire 2 weeks! That’s all there is to it!

This #StayConnected Challenge in particular is going to be a 2 week challenge designed by Raven and I with a weight lifting/strength training theme, beginning on or around Monday, April 6th. I’ve got the first week of workout options in the comments section below to vote on. The structure of this challenge will be about 30-40 minutes of a main workout, with the extra credit length changing each day of the challenge. So, for week #1: the Day 1 options will have an extra credit ranging in time from 20-25 minutes, Day 2 options will have EC of 15-20 minutes, Day 3s will have 10-15 minutes, Day 4s will have 5-10 minutes, and the Day 5s will have no extra credit. Then, week #2 (which Miss Raven will design), will be reverse in terms of the extra credit timing—with the first day of week 2 having no extra credit workouts, and the last day of week 2 having the longest extra credit workouts. The end result is somewhat of a pyramid timing structure occurring with the extra credit workouts only. (Hopefully this makes sense and isn’t too confusing.) Again, this timing structure will ONLY apply to the extra credit. The main workouts for this #StayConnected Challenge will be within approximately 30-40 minutes, and the EC completely optional. So, if you only have time for the main workouts, then just skip the EC—or if you’re feeling up to it, or have the time, then by all means, tackle that EC like it’s your job! Hopefully this will allow for the workouts to fit into everyone’s schedules!

And as always: make this work for you! Once we finalize a schedule, and maybe you see a workout that’s not your fave, or might be too much for you---then swap it out! Or maybe you need something more or less challenging—change that as needed too! Take everything at your own pace, listen to your body (as K & D always say), and make this work for you. Don’t do anything that would cause you injury, undue stress or harm. Just don’t do it. This is supposed to be fun, but done in a safe manner—so keep that in mind at all times!

And if April 6th isn’t a good time for you to start, you can begin anytime that works for you---and it can take longer than 2 weeks to complete as well! Everything is modifiable to suit you—so make sure to take advantage of that as needed!

Ok, that’s enough about that, if you’ve got any questions/comments/concerns/or I missed explaining something, please speak up! It’s better when we work together!

Now, I will leave you to the voting! Below, you will find three options in the comments section for the first week of the #StayConnected Community Challenge. These are all workouts are taken from Fellow Blenders’ suggestions, with a few extra warm ups/cool downs/extra credits added in as necessary. It follows mostly in a format with a strength training theme—with some cardio here and there. The structure is loosely based on FB’s 5 Day Challenges, with the main difference being the extra credit’s pyramidal timing configuration.

Now: it’s time to vote! All you gotta do to cast your vote is click “Like” on whichever schedule you like best listed in the comment section below. The one with the most “likes” will be the winner for week 1 of the #StayConnected Challenge!

Once we get this finalized, my lovely co-host (and the mastermind behind this whole thing, caz she’s absolutely brilliant) Miss Raven will have the second week of workouts for you to vote on in another post—so keep an eye out for that!

Ok, I think that’s about covered it!

So let the voting for the #StayConnected Community Challenge begin!