I did my own 30-day fitness challenge: Here’s what I learned
Plus, news about the next one!
I’m totally burying the lede in this piece, which is that registration is now open for the How to Move 30-Day Spring Fitness Challenge! So, TL;DR: It kicks off May 3, and you can sign up here. Lots more details about what’s involved, including a big discount for paid subscribers, at the end of this post.
Last year, I decided to try a little experiment and see if people might be interested in participating in a 30-day strength challenge. I like to give you a lot of ideas around here on How to Move, but I try not to get too prescriptive, because I want you to find what works and not feel defeated if you aren’t able to adhere to my recommendations — but plenty of you have asked me for help just figuring out exactly what to do and when. I get it! So the first challenge, which took place at the beginning of fall, was my answer to that. It was great fun, and people had amazing things to say about it, but I wasn’t able to participate (other than as the facilitator!) because of another work project that required doing a bunch of specific workouts.
So when the time came to host a January challenge earlier this year, I was psyched to do all the workouts alongside the challenge crew. And it feels kind of weird to toot my own horn like this, but I loved this experience. I worked hard and felt so good, and was so much stronger by the end of the month. Here’s why I think it was so effective:
There was zero guesswork.
I’m a pretty regular exerciser (it’s my job!) and I try to do it with smart programming and structure (not always possible when I’m filming and teaching and life is lifeing!), but the challenge was unlike any other program I’ve ever followed because it thought of everything: not just the strength workouts I’d be doing, but also how I’d fit in cardio and Pilates, which are helpful and important but not always easy to carve out time for. The training calendar was flexible — so if I had a busy week, I could get two workouts done in one day; I could take my favorite bootcamp class in lieu of the conditioning workout — but gave me enough structure that I knew exactly what to do, and when, and didn’t really have to think about it much. What a relief!
I felt less guilty.
I know I’m always telling you to listen to your body and find movement that works in your real life. But in my real life, I am not always great at this. I often have big intentions for exercise on weekends specifically; intentions that almost always fail. I’m just not going to do a workout in the living room while my kids play! Things are too hectic, and those squeezed-in sessions never feel all that helpful, so I never want to do them, so I just don’t. It happens time and time again: I really want to exercise on the weekend, and then I don’t, and then I feel guilty.
But with the challenge plan, the only thing on the calendar for weekends was a Saturday rest day and a Sunday cardio day. And walking to the park with my kids counted! Swimming in the hotel pool when we went to visit my brother for MLK weekend counted! And sometimes I’d sneak out of the house for a 30-minute brisk sanity walk, which also counted, and heavily improved my Sunday scaries!
Checking things off felt so fun.
Tracking things like workouts can be fraught and unwise for some of us, so while I do provide workout trackers and a calendar in these challenges, I strongly urge folks who know it’s not a good idea to skip this element of the experience. But for those of us who can make this choice safely, in the context of a body-neutral fitness challenge, it can be fun and motivating! I used my daughter’s sparkly hot-pink pen to check days off the calendar and record the weights I was using for each exercise. (Then I saw Virginia Sole-Smith’s brilliant idea to turn her calendar into a STICKER CHART and was really jealous. Next time!)
I was reminded of this when I read Julie Shain’s great piece about the power of tallying in her newsletter Inhabit: She describes how helpful it was to have her PT print out rehabilitative exercise instructions, and to use that page to tally each time she completed her exercises.
The tallying habit seems laughably simple. How could one small change make the difference between searing pain and a symptom-free body? And yet, it rests on decades of research. It pares down to resolving several common problems at once: linking reminder to effort. Linking effort to reward. And reducing friction by making it clear how to do the effort.
That’s totally how the challenge felt, too.
I got significantly stronger!
I used barbells at the gym for two of the exercises in the program (this is not required btw! I just opted to do it this way), and it was so incredibly satisfying to keep loading new plates onto those bars from week to week. By the end, I’d hit a personal record for squats! I know that consistency and progressive overload are keys to increasing strength, but sometimes it can still be such a surprise and delight to see it happen for real. My barbell calluses came back, too, which will never stop making me feel like a badass. Oh, and I was able to carry that 50-pound bucket of salt home from the hardware store!
Community helps so much.
I set up a Slack community for each challenge so that folks can have an easy way to reach out to me, and to connect with each other if they like. It’s optional, but a good chunk of participants do spend some time hanging out in the Slack. I loved connecting with other people over tricky exercises, hearing how everyone was approaching finding time for the workouts, and just getting a little peek into people’s lives. One of the exercises in the program was a farmer’s carry, and a participant named Hannah shared a photo of herself one day doing a farmer’s carry with a giant bucket of water in her henhouse! A literal farmer’s carry! It was such a delight. Equally helpfully, not all the messages were about wins; many folks (myself included!) shared how they were feeling when illness, caregiving responsibilities, and other challenges got in the way of completing their workouts. It was so helpful to recognize my (correct!) impulse to encourage others to give themselves grace — and let that nudge me to give it to myself, too.
Speaking of Virginia, she did the challenge this time around too, along with a couple of friends, and did an absolutely incredible writeup about it a few weeks ago, which I highly recommend reading if you’re curious! We already talked about her newfound (and shocking) enthusiasm for conditioning workouts. But here’s another tidbit from her piece that I loved (acknowledging of course that results may vary and are not guaranteed!):
Over the course of the month, I was able to make some meaningful changes in my fitness level. I can now use heavier weights for almost every move I do. I can do A FEW push-ups, after a lifetime of zero push-ups. I can tolerate a minute of mountain climbers. That is all quite satisfying.
Perhaps more meaningful: I happened to get my annual bloodwork done during the last week of the challenge (okay fine, no “happened to,” I waited to do it that week just to see) and my cholesterol has dropped several points from last year and a whole bunch of points from when it was Divorce High in 2023. My chronic back pain and headaches are absolutely not gone, but I have learned that a short workout will make one or both feel immediately better than when I woke up. When the 40 pound bags of salt got delivered for my water softener last week, I carried them down to the basement no problem. And I can carry my third grader up a flight of stairs when she’s too tired to walk up to bed.
So, without further ado, I’m very excited that registration is officially OPEN for the next 30-day strength challenge, which kicks off on Sunday, May 3!
In just 30 days, we’ll work together to build a sustainable strength training habit, and we’ll incorporate cardio, Pilates, and mobility to help our bodies feel energized and supported. It’s just $119 (or $59 for paid How to Move subscribers! discount code just past the paywall!).
SIGN UP HERE!
(Please check out with the email address you’d like me to send the materials to, or enter it in the little note field!)
What you’ll get:
A four-week strength plan: strength and conditioning workouts, a weekly Pilates sequence, and guidance for each day
Video library: a full video of each workout + quick demos of every exercise (with substitution options) + warmup and cooldown routines + 30-minute Pilates workout.
Habit tracker: a printable to track your progress
Weekly motivation emails: tips and accountability in your inbox
Support and connection: a private Slack workspace with 1:1 access to me, and optional group chat for mutual encouragement and community
And yes, you will need dumbbells (preferably a range, including some heavies). The official training calendar starts on Sunday, May 3, and participants will receive all materials by Saturday, May 2 so they can hit the ground running — BUT if you’ve got travel or other obligations and can’t start right away, it’s okay: There’s a DIY calendar in the program that allows you to move things around and write in different dates. You’ll have access to all the materials for as long as you need them (though the Slack workspace will close around June 15).
And if the number of workouts each week feels daunting, I totally get it: I’ll be offering suggestions for how to pare it down so you can stay consistent within the reality of your life, schedule, energy level, and other constraints. (This season’s challenge will use an upper/lower body split approach, so it’s even easier to combine workouts into the same day if you need to.)
This 30-day challenge gives you clear guidance for exactly what to do if you want to build a long-term strength habit. It’s designed to be efficient and repeatable, and the combination of strength with Pilates, cardio, and conditioning will help you feel strong and supported. All through a body-neutral, anti-diet lens.
REGISTER NOW!
Ahead is some of the feedback I got from other winter challenge participants in my little wrap-up survey. 94% of respondents rated the challenge a 5/5! Thanks, friends 😍
“I loved having direction of what to do each day, and enough flexibility to take the pressure off. I thought I would struggle with 6 workouts a week but I was able to keep up with it and I’m so proud.
“I also loved the variety of exercises throughout the week and consistency throughout the month to keep coming back to and improving on; there was enough repetition to see my own progress without getting bored.
“Finally this is a small point but the suggestion that I could do push ups from all fours was a game changer! On my knees I’ve never been able to go all the way to the floor, even though I had a strong knee plank. I’m excited to build the arm/shoulder strength and start to work my way up to a full push up one day!” —Anonymous
“I was really psyched to do this winter challenge after having a fair amount of success in the fall one, but then falling off during the extension. Unfortunately, life made this round much more difficult (illnesses, parenting demands), but it was so nice to have the support and Anna’s encouragement to figure out what works best for me. In the end, I feel really proud that I didn’t give up, and was able to get back to 3-4 workouts per week by the end of the month, which felt like a huge win for me! I also loved the encouragement to do the exercises without the full videos, which helped me tune in more to my body and get some time to listen to a good book! Thanks Anna!” —Erin
“Anna Maltby’s winter strength training challenge was wonderful. It was very accessible and had a theme of strength training to support a strong body that can move and do what we want our bodies to do - not how we look. I love that theme! I felt stronger at the end and could see the impact of the training as I packed up my house and got ready to move. I used all my muscles and felt great. Thank you, Anna!” —Amy M.
“This challenge was just what I needed! I thought I would struggle with 6 days a week of workouts, but the positive and flexible attitude Anna brought to it helped take the pressure off and I am proud to say I did every single workout and even challenged myself a bit more almost every time I came back to a workout. I love Anna’s videos, but her encouragement to move away from them eventually was great for increasing my level of mindfulness during my strength workouts. This was an awesome way to start the year feeling strong, and knowing I’m showing up for myself. It was worth every penny!” —Marie L.
“I highly recommend Anna Maltby for her exercise program! They have gotten me out of a Long-Covid induced slump, and that is saying something. She’s a miracle worker.” —Paula
The discount code for paid subscribers is just past the paywall. (Honor system please, beloved paid subs!) Apologies that this means free subscribers can’t comment on this post, but please feel to reply to this email if you’re seeing this post in your inbox, or reach out on Substack via DM.
Hope to see you there! Here’s that discount for more than 50% off…
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to How to Move to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.