Burpees Anybody?

So, it has been just over two months since I completed the 100 day burpee ladder (and popped out a few extra to round up the total). Since then I have noticed a couple of things:


  1. People who didn't take part feel like they missed out
  • People who started but didn't see it off, well, they feel like they missed out 
  • People like me, and others who aren't like me but still finished it, we feel like we're now missing out on something.

  • So, inspired by Burt Bacharach (he was the man who sang "what the world needs now, is burpees, more burpees" wasn't he?), I'm going to hang out a chance for everybody to scratch that itch. Another ladder, but let's make it a year to remember, a burpee year to remember!

     Day 1: do 1 burpee, day 2: 2, day 3: 3, etc etc until we get to day 365 when we'll pop out a cheeky 365 reps. 

    But, lest a few people miss out on the chance to test themselves to their own capacity, we're going to add in a couple of stages for our journey together.


    Base Camp: 30 day ladder. Set your stall out, and cash in your chips after 30 days. A perfect way to break yourself into the daily discipline and routine of doing something different. It's only 30 days, what have you got to lose by giving it a crack?
     Stage 2: The 100 day ladder. Fancy a shot at this one? And why wouldn't you. Just over three months of regular discipline, the mental aspect will probably be more of a surprise to you than the challenge of the physical. Back yourself, stick your name down for this one.


    Stage 3: The 180 day ladder. Oh hello! Feeling saucy, but don't quite back yourself to finish the full year? Why not try the six-month endeavour?


    Stage 4: The big one. Come on then, who is going to be silly enough to opt for this one?


    It's a fool's errand, so let's kick it off on April 1st!


    How?
    Sign up in the comments box on the burpee year page. We'll build a forum (web and facebook group)for those who are participating to share experiences and provide support (believe me this helps). When you say you're in, nominate your stage, back yourself.
  • Buy-in. Yep, there's always a financial element! Stick a couple of units of your local currency towards any charity of your choice. For me it would be Clic Sargent or Help for Heroes but this is about your values and your journey, not mine. Just donate what you can afford to whichever cause is important to you. The exercise is primarily about the mental challenge but it would be nice to think that we can do something good for other people along the way to. I won't be checking, it won't be logged anywhere as attributable to this exercise, so you could choose not to. Again, your call.
  • We'll explain what a burpee is in another post. This will set out our standard. Again, I'll add a couple of progressions to make it accessible. State your minimum level for the challenge. Hopefully, with time, you'll progress, but importantly, you will not, at any point, sink below this level.
  • If you miss a day, you can catch up by doing the missing reps. If you miss more than 2 days, sorry, go straight to jail, do not pass "Go", do not collect £200. Take a week off, rest, recover and resolve to do better next time. Experience from the group in the 100 day ladder shows that playing catch up is putting yourself on the fast track to injury and defeats one of the points of the exercise.
  • Let the world know what you are up to. Get talking about it on Twitter and Facebook and whatever other social media fora that you loiter around! Use the hashtag #burpeeyear so we can keep in touch.
  • Over time, I'll add in some other resources, tips and advice to help you (and me) along the way.
  • I think that about sums it up. Who's with me?

    Postscript
    A good friend of mine swears blind that counting up the reps before you kick off is a monumentally bad idea. I'm inclined to agree, as it can be really off-putting. Knowing the size of the trip ahead does not change the scope and does nothing to remind you that every journey is completed one step after another. But, if you're that way inclined, allegedly Carl Gauss showed us the way. To figure out the total number of reps in the ladder, take the number of rungs (n), add one and then divide the total by 2. Then multiply the result of that by the number of rungs. For the geekier amongst you, I guess this would look like this
     
    Total = n((n+1)/2)
     
    or something like that. But who really wants to figure that stuff out anyway? As Han Solo says
    Star Wars, clearly not my material. Rights still owned by Fox (for now). Seriously, due referencing aside, you really should try to watch the original movies, preferably the versions before George Lucas mucked around with them.
     
    "Never tell me the odds"
     

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