The 30 Day Squat Challenge

I wish I could give credit where credit is due, to whomever came up with this squat challenge, because this is a serious leg and butt toner.
If you'd like to learn about what got me here, continue reading, if you want to get to the challenge skip the next three paragraphs.
I worked out for about 8 years before I got pregnant fall of 2013, thanks to morning sickness and a busy schedule fitness was the first thing to go. Since the birth of my son in May of 2014, I've had a lot of weight to lose. Really that's a relative statement, for me it was a lot. When I was admitted for my induction I weighed 190 lbs. The weekend I was home after his birth I was at 171 lbs. That's the most I've ever weighed. Before that the highest I let my weight get was 145. For awhile I said I didn't care, that I was over working out, who cares, blah blah blah. Then I ordered some jeans.
Pre-pregnancy I was a 3/4 or 5/6 at Rue 21, they have a curvy fit jean that I adore. Post pregancy, 13/14. The highest size they had in the line I preferred. Once I was cleared for physical activity I began fitting a workout in when my baby was asleep. I did this for about two months. Only now I got really sweaty really quickly. How I longed for the days in high school when I could do a workout routine and not break a sweat. Thanks to the 30-40 extra pounds I had, this was no longer possible for me. Unfortunately my knee gave out when I was doing single leg deadlifts and the area targeted by the 15lb weight in my hand became my lower back. I gave myself a week off and attempted working out again, tweaked it again. This happened a third time and I threw in the towel for about 2-3 months.
Then came the holidays. I was determined, despite Thanksgiving and Christmas food gatherings, to gain weight over the holidays. In fact, I might have even lost a few pounds. Around this time an acquaintance of mine had her baby and was back into her old clothes two weeks later. Seething rage didn't even  begin to describe how I felt. Granted, she carefully watches what she ate and was still hitting spin classes. I hunkered down and got serious about losing weight since I had learned this acquaintance would be visiting in the spring. In March I finally got into the 150s. I had said I would start working out again when I hit this point since, well the amount of weight I was starting with seemed like a mountain. Enter The 30-day Squat Challenge.

I had found this challenge in Pinterest some time ago. I'd tried to complete it several times, I may have done it once, but I can't be certain. This time I was determined to finish it. I started on March 6th and finished on April 8th.

Here are my numerical results for the challenge.

Weight at start: 150.8 lbs
Weight at end:148 lbs

Relevant measurements.
Start: Hips 40", Thighs 24"
End: Hips 38", Thighs 23.5"

Now it may not sound like a drastic loss, but it entirely reshaped my legs and behind.

The image on the left was taken march 16th and the image on the right was taken April 9th.

 Granted it slipped my mind to take a very beginning photo so I did one about 10 days in, though I'm not sure how many days of the challenge I had completed at that point but still a good example of what I started with. The second was taken the day after I completed the challenge. You can't argue with these results. I will say, for me, when I stopped it did revert slightly so I knew I needed to keep doing squats. I'm not 17 anymore, I can't just work out for a month and expect my muscles to stay. It also doesn't help that I have a part time desk job where I sit for 5-9 hours on a given shift.

If you want to take the plunge yourself, here's the plan I followed. I will also say that I did alternate wide stance  (sumo) squats and hip-width squats are more akin to sitting in a chair as a way of keeping things slightly less boring. I also broke them up into manageable sets rather than going the full amount at one time.

If you are interested in going even farther there is an extreme squat challenge that starts at 250.

As far as concerns go about this challenge, the good thing is that it's three days on then a day off. The benefit I found in this was the second day you workout, it helps to work out the soreness that you would have from the first day. If you are able, taking a couple ibuprofen usually helps any over whelming soreness that you might have. Also remember to hydrate.