Squat Challenge Update!

I started my squat challenge in early February, and am working on my third week. As I said in my first post, I started doing just five minutes of accumulated squatting on that first week, then progressed to ten minutes of accumulated squatting on week two. For week three, I decided to continue with ten minutes of accumulated squatting because I didn't feel ready to go up to more time yet; I'm thinking that things are going okay, and I'm going to move up to either 15 or 20 minutes of accumulated squat time (I haven't decided yet). 

Two weeks in, I still need to elevate my heels. But I noticed that they seem to be overall staying lower to the ground now in a squat (I noticed that using the yoga blocks isn't very comfortable now - I need to find something a bit lower I think). I can also sit okay in a squat for around 3-4 minutes, but getting up to 5 minutes at a time starts to hurt. 

I also discovered that I need adequate rest time between rounds of squatting right now; two days ago, I forgot to fit any squatting in earlier in the day, so I did a round of 5 minutes, rested for 10-20 minutes (I didn't pay attention to how long, I just know it was a bit, but not super long), then squatted again for another 5 minutes. By four minutes in on the second squat, I was hurting! I pushed it to the fifth minute because I didn't want to have to do another squat that night, but that was a mistake; I was sore for awhile after finishing. So yesterday I did three smaller squats (making it to over 11 minutes!) just to split it up more. That helped a lot - I wasn't sore at the end. :)

It'll be interesting to see where I'm at in another week or two! I've already seen some changes and can sit in a squat for longer than when I started. :)

January to Feb 20 Weight Updates

 Whoops, I haven't done a weight update in a bit...

Jan 22:

weight: 235.0
fat percentage: 55.9
hydration: 30.3
muscle: 21.7
bone: 10.4
cal: 2439

Jan 23 (to see if there was a difference):

weight: 233.8
fat percentage: 54.3
hydration: 31.4
muscle: 22.4
bone: 10.4
cal: 2433

Jan 29:

weight: 232.8
fat percentage: 54.8
hydration: 31.0
muscle: 22.2
bone: 10.5
cal: 2427

Feb 12:

weight: 231.4
fat percentage: 54.2
hydration: 31.4
muscle: 22.4
bone: 10.5
cal: 2419

Feb 20:

weight: 233.2
fat percentage: 55.0
hydration: 30.9
muscle: 22.1
bone: 10.5
cal: 2429

I'm not sure what's up, but I've been feeling uncomfortable in my pants lately. My weight and fat percentages seem to be remaining around the same, so I'm not really sure what's going on now. I'm going to keep an eye on how I feel and see how things go.

Squat Challenge!

I attended a Moves Method webinar today, where the host, Vanja, recommended to everyone that we do a thirty day squat challenge. She recommended that you start off on week one with ten minutes of time in a squat, proceed to twenty minutes on week two, and thirty minutes on week three. You don't have to do this time all in one go either; spend a minute or two a few times a day until you get to your total.

I've been wanting to improve my squatting ability for awhile now (I purchased Karin Dimitrova's Deep Squat program this fall and was working on it until I started doing physio; I stopped working on the squat in favour of spending time on the stretches my physiotherapist gave me). I've been hearing that squatting is both a natural human position, and really good for you to be using. So I decided to spend the next 30 days adding some deep squats to my day. I'll still be working on the stretches and strength exercises my physiotherapist recommended, too. 

I'm going to start my challenge a little easier than the Moves Method one though: I'm going to start week one with a five minute accumulation, then go up to ten minutes for week two. I'm not in a rush, and want to build some trust with my nervous system, so hopefully starting small will be a great way to do so.

I already succeeded in doing over five minutes today, though I did a little too much at one time (I did slightly more than four minutes, but had to stop because my legs got sore!) - tomorrow I'm going to try to keep more in the one to two minute range at a time.

Vanja also recommended you do a thirty day hanging challenge; I'll save that for next month.