25 Things I have learned from Squatting Every Day

As promised I said I would keep you posted on my progress during my #SquatEveryDay challenge. I am 25 days into to my challenge and thought I would share what I have learned thus far!

Ready?

1. You need to be OBSESSED with achieving your goal. If you’re not obsessed then you will lose interest in doing the actions you have to do to achieve your goals. When you lose interest in taking action, then you’re less likely to take action. So, get obsessed. Share your goals with likeminded people. Surround yourself with people who inspire and encourage you to keep going. Don’t ever apologise for caring about your goals!

2. You cannot be in a calorie deficit even if your goals are to lose weight while doing Squat Every Day. What your body isn’t Getting from actual rest and recovery it is getting from fuel. If you’re in a calorie deficit then you will be rewarded with a very short attempt of being able to squat daily. See ya!

3. Building on that Nutrition is King during the squat every day challenge. You will need to eat and by eating I mean you will need to eat more even when you are uncomfortable. I consume around 4,000+ calories per day.

4. Nutrition and sleep done the right way will increase your likelihood of Suffering with less DOMS during the beginning of the challenge.

5. Day 3 of the Squat Every Day Challenge is surprisingly the hardest of them all. Your body starts to question your insanity but as soon as you get going your body re-adjusts! Keep going my friends 💪

6. Squat Variations differ daily. Around 20 days in I begin to use different stances, my body naturally forces me to take shorter stances, different hold on the bar ect but when I am feeling my best I naturally go back to my preferred stance.

7. By Squatting daily you will notice your strength in other lifts go up dramatically and that run you attempted on day 1 becomes a walk in the park.

8. You cannot seek validation from your peers. Everyone will question your insanity. If you are open about sharing your goals you will be met with a lot of textbook junkies throwing out all the reasons why you shouldn’t squat every day. Take it from me, I’d rather learn from someone who has already squatted every day than from someone who can only squat once or at max twice a week. I want to hear from someone who can walk the walk not just talk the talk. Get in the trenches then teach me.

9. You have to learn to be selfish about achieving your goals. Thats the honest truth. You have to guard your training time like an important event Every single day. That might mean skipping family time, nights out, longer lie-ins etc.

10. You will get called arrogant for being Passionate about achieving your goals... Well you are! 😛

11. Squatting is no different to walking. It’s one of the FIRST functional movements you learned to do before you even knew what the word ‘squat’ meant. It’s the first thing you did before you could stand up! We don’t take time off from walking every day (even if that’s a few steps around the house) your still walking, squats are no different. Squatting heavy is like going from walking to running ;)

12. You realise that ‘Motivation’ means jack-shit when you want to achieve your goals. Discipline and self-belief is way more important. What are your values? What will it mean for you to achieve your goals? You take action regardless of how you feel.

13. Squats are therapy. As someone who has always struggled with depression and deep dark suicidal thoughts I believe the daily squatting has helped pull me out of some of my darkest days. It’s the true symbol of life. When the weight of the world is on your shoulders, you have to get back up.

14. Your Goals will become bigger than you first thought imagined. It was my goal to simply squat every day, now I want to work towards breaking a world record. Call me crazy, but one day, one day!

15. Less likely to take crap from the negative Nancy’s around you! You’ll have less time to spend, so better choose to spend time with people who uplift you as most of your energy is on getting through the challenge.

16. You will learn more about yourself than you ever thought imaginable. Both attempts at squatting every day, one for 30 days I realised I was in a relationship that wasn’t really right for me, second attempt of 90 days, I took the chance to dive right into self-employment with my PT and currently in this attempt I’m learning more and more about my sexuality and orientation... This challenge could force you to make uncomfortable but must-do changes.

17. You will think about all the things you could squat (that doesn’t include a bar) 😛 Oh yes, what else could you lift? Your girlfriend? What about a Car? 💥 Maybe that’s just me...

18. You will know Your own body. Know when to push, know when to stop, know when to eat, and when to eat more, when you need sleep and when you can push your limits further.

19. Nothing is Unachievable - If you put in the hard work, stay consistent, ignore all the naysayers and do the work for yourself you can achieve anything you set your mind too.

20. Your body will transform without doing endless cardio and ab crunch exercises. While squatting daily, and only squatting, benching and deadlifting i have noticed changes in my abs and my body without even really trying!

21. You cannot skimp on warm up and cool down routine if you want to continue to Squat safely. Your warm up routine could be 15-30 mins long depending on how sore you are!

22. You will go through stages of feeling as if you have been hit by a bus to feeling alive and fricken amazing. No day is ever the same. Keep pushing through the hard times to get the better days.

23. You have to find a time that works for you to stay consistent. For me, I find it better to train really late, towards midnight so that I have the whole day to eat, and catch up with sleep. I’m naturally a night owl so it works better for me this way.

24. You can still eat pizza and chocolate cake! Cannot lie, I have been eating pizza like it’s gone out of fashion!

25. Tequila has fuelled more PR’s than water ever has! What can I say? This isn’t something that’s backed by science, but then neither is squatting every day, cos what so called ‘health’ expert is willing to get down in the trenches to test this hardcore theory? Squatting daily isn’t for the faint of hearted 😬