Okay I know I’ve been talking about this for a while now and I’m finally getting you the results! I put together a 3 week challenge for ladies in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s to do a weights routine at home 5 days a week and to see how it improved their tone, strength and overall “fit” feeling. I provided each of the gals with a set of weights and asked them to take before and after photos.
You can get the challenge here. It has the complete workout guidelines as well as photos showing each of the moves. You’ll need a set of 5 lb dumbbells and 10 lb dumbbells. Some of the ladies doing the challenge felt that 10 lbs was a little out of their league and opted to sub in 8 lb weights.
**First off, I need to make a disclaimer that I am not a physical trainer or a doctor – I merely put together a grouping of moves that I like and that have proven effective for me.**
With that out of the way, I put together 4 workouts that all take less than 10 minutes to complete. My intent was to show that you can get real results in even a short amount of time as long as you keep up with a routine. As women, we all get busy with various chores, work, social outings and everything in between. As moms, we are further occupied with changing diapers, driving a taxi, and being superwoman. Well – even we can fit a workout program like this into our busy schedules.
You’ve already seen what the workouts look like, I’ve been posting them individually as I’ve done them throughout the past four weeks (I ended up doing my three week challenge in four weeks because I had the flu and was laid up in bed for ten days… this might be short and sweet but a 104 fever isn’t going to cooperate…)
Look familiar?
Most of the ladies requested to have their names and faces remain anonymous, so you’ll only see my face in the pictures. But without further ado… here are the before and after photos.
20 – Something **
30 – Something
50 – Something
I also asked the gals to provide some feedback on their experience and results. While I believe that each of the women had visual results, most of the women were most impressed with how they felt. Everyone reported back a marked increase in strength, an increase in energy on the days they lifted an overall improvement in their mood 
All good things!
It was also really cool that the women that completed the challenge (I had one girl drop out after having surgery) ALL shared the workout with someone else. We started with just four, plus myself. By the end of the three weeks we had well over a dozen people participating. If you were one of those people and you happened to take before/after photos, I’d love to see your results and hear from you as well! I’ll be putting together a complete collection of the before and after photos to attach to this post as well. Be on the lookout for that!
I also heard back from the girls that they loved how easy it was to fit into a busy schedule and that they would be continuing the workouts even now that the challenge was over. That is just awesome!
Once again, if you are interested in doing the 3 Week Arm Weights Challenge, you can find all the information here. That links to a printable PDF with the full schedule, workouts and pictures of each of the moves. If you do take the challenge, PLEASE share your results – its fun to hear back from you guys!
I am in the process of putting together a LEGS Workout Challenge – I have a few girls already signed up but if you are interested shoot me a quick email at thefamilypracticeblog@gmail.com
**I’m waiting for one more “20 – somethings” pictures, they’ll be posted soon!
