During Lent it is advisable to do without.

So that it is easier for you to do without this time, I’ll help you out with a little challenge. Accept them and you will be a lot fitter after fasting, guaranteed!

There is also a prize for the challenge winner: a Freeletics Coach voucher worth around € 40!

Normally, believers refrain from eating meat during Lent. Fasting is usually less strict on Sundays.

But there are of course many other options: Refraining from alcohol, sweets, computer games, Facebook, television, etc.

It should just be something that is normally a fix part of your life – but please do not miss your workout, that would be counterproductive ;-).

With my Burpee Challenge I would like to help you in any case to give up your couch potato existence and help you to gain more strength, endurance and fitness.

Why burpees?

The Burpee Challenge during LentThe push-up stretch jumps or stretch-squat jumps – better known as burpees – are an extremely effective exercise to strengthen your muscles and increase your endurance. The jumps strengthen your leg and gluteal muscles, when crouching down or backward your abdominal and back muscles jump and when you push up into the support, your arm, shoulder and chest muscles as well. Plus, you can do burpees anytime, anywhere, whether it’s outdoors, at home, or at work. You don’t even need a mat, just a little space and a shower from 50 burpees at the latest :-). Now you are probably wondering why you don’t do burpees regularly – you will soon find out, because they are not only very effective but also extremely exhausting.

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, which is on February 18th in 2015 and therefore the first day of our challenge. The goal of the challenge is to do 100 burpees in a row after the 40 days, to cut a good figure and in a quick time. Here we go!

 

18. February 2015 (Day 1): 5 burpees
19. February 2015 (day 2): 5 burpees
20. February 2015 (day 3): 10 burpees
21. February 2015 (day 4): 10 burpees
22. February 2015 (day 5): 15 burpees
23. February 2015 (day 6): 20 burpees
24. February 2015 (day 7): regeneration day
25. February 2015 (day 8): 25 burpees
26. February 2015 (day 9): 25 burpees
27. February 2015 (day 10): 30 burpees
28. February 2015 (day 11): 30 burpees
1. March 2015 (day 12): 35 burpees
2. March 2015 (day 13): 35 burpees
3. March 2015 (day 14): regeneration day
4. March 2015 (day 15): 40 burpees
5. March 2015 (day 16): 40 burpees
6. March 2015 (day 17): 45 burpees
7. March 2015 (day 18): 45 burpees
8. March 2015 (day 19): 50 burpees
9. March 2015 (day 20): 50 burpees
10. March 2015 (day 21): regeneration day
11. March 2015 (day 22): 55 burpees
12. March 2015 (day 23): 55 burpees
13. March 2015 (day 24): 60 burpees
14. March 2015 (day 25): 60 burpees
15. March 2015 (day 26): 65 burpees
16. March 2015 (day 27): 65 burpees
17. March 2015 (day 28): regeneration day
18. March 2015 (day 29): 70 burpees
19. March 2015 (day 30): 70 burpees
20. March 2015 (day 31): 75 burpees
21. March 2015 (day 32): 75 burpees
22. March 2015 (day 33): 80 burpees
23. March 2015 (day 34): 80 burpees
24. March 2015 (day 35): regeneration day
25. March 2015 (day 36): 85 burpees
26. March 2015 (day 37): 90 burpees
27. March 2015 (day 38): 95 burpees
28. March 2015 (day 39): regeneration day
29. March 2015 (day 40): 100 burpees

For performing the burpees

The Burpee execution is based on the standards of Freeletics. You can also download the app and use it to stop the time of your burpee workouts (at least the 10s, 25s, 50s and finally the 100s).

I have also uploaded a video for you here with the correct execution. Pay particular attention to your shoulders, knees and back. This is where the most common mistakes happen. Edit :In the video I paid too much attention to the speed and overlooked an important source of error: Always put your whole foot on the ground, and not just the tip of your toe – that otherwise leads to one with many burpees wrong load!

Win the challenge and get the Freeletics Coach for free

The Freeletics team thankfully provided me with a great prize for my challenge: a Freeletics coach for 15 weeks worth around € 40. This means that you get all workouts activated in your Freeletics app and one after an initial test you coordinated training plan. How can you win the challenge? You have to complete the challenge completely and at the end do the 100 burpees in the desired execution and achieve the fastest time. Trust is good, control is sometimes better – so please record your 100 burpees as a video and provide us with your time here as a comment (e.g. link on YouTube). I will of course only take part out of competition

Edit: Sonja won the challenge in a time of 07:34 minutes and grabbed the Freeletics coach – congratulations. If you want to find out more about the Freeletics Coach, read my extensive experience report.

Important notes and tips

If you stick with it until the last day, you did a total of 1,695 burpees during Lent – congratulations! When participating, please also note my exercise instructions. Please pause if you feel sick or unwell. For beginners and everyone who finds this challenge far too difficult: Instead of the burpees, just try it with squats. I also created a Google Calendar for the challenge so you don’t forget to do your workout. You are welcome to use or subscribe to the calendar. If you want to add it to your Google Calendar, do the following:

1. Open your own Google calendar in your browser
2. In the menu bar on the left, right under “Additional calendars”, click into the “Add additional calendars” field.
3. Enter [email protected] there and press the Enter key
4. Possibly Change the color of the newly added calendar by clicking on the little arrow next to the calendar name (4yourfitness Challenge Calendar) and choosing a color.
5. Done

If you want to show your friends that you are participating, you are welcome to forward the link to Challenge or participate in or share the corresponding Burpee Challenge for the Lent Facebook event. Thank you for being there!

Have fun. Keep moving! Just do it!