A challenge for the mind and body

The industry has come out of the starting gates with fire for this year’s 30-Day Fitness Challenge. Over 600 people across the industry comprising of nearly 80 teams are taking active steps to get fit for homeless youth. The challenge is all about getting together to support building homes for homeless youth while improving the health of participants. Everyone will be in a better place mentally and physically than when we started. The benefits of being active can’t be underestimated over the next 30-days.

Creating goals to improve fitness can have lasting positive impacts no matter how you have chosen to get fit. Whether you are a person with a fitness routine already ingrained or are not an active person, taking on the 30-Day Fitness Challenge gives people the opportunity to hit new physical peaks, or learn the skills required to kick start exciting new fitness habits.

Getting fit can teach you about your body. Like when you take a car to a mechanic to get a check-up, getting active can be a way to diagnose your body to help figure out how to better improve yourself. Realise you’re out of breath quickly during a run, maybe time to give up smoking? Feeling stiffness during yoga, maybe a sign that you need to improve flexibility and movement? Your fitness journeys’ give the body the opportunity to speak to you and tell you what it needs (and maybe what it doesn’t).

There is no greater feeling than breaking through a mental barrier and unlocking a new level of confidence to knock on into how you deal with people and challenges in your day. Fitness is a great platform to build motivation and good thought processes as it’s all about finding your limit and learning how to beat it. Getting stronger, faster and healthier overall plays an important part in training your mind to push for the better.

The other mental benefit getting fit brings is creating time for yourself. You don’t have to go all out to improve mentally from getting fit, fitness is all about investing time into yourself. Life gets busy and overwhelming sometimes and it is good to build healthy habits that can allow you to put everything else on pause and concentrate on yourself. Use a walk or yoga session as a time of thought and reflection, go on runs with friends or join a football team to keep social and connect with others. Your body and mind strengthen together as you dedicate time to positive action.

At the end of your challenge, you will look back on where you were on day one to where you are now and feel happier and healthier with the time you set aside for yourself and homeless youth. The big secret behind the 30-Day Fitness Challenge is that the challenge really starts on day 31. You have created new habits for yourself in the name of supporting youth in need of a home, but how do you take those 30-days and build physical and mental habits that last year-round? This is something you should be asking yourself as you take on the challenge so the positive impact can go beyond helping those in need.