When Robyn Mendenhall Gardner, a fitness enthusiast and mother of eight from Montana, created a Facebook fitness challenge for herself and a few friends, little did she realise how fast it would go viral. Her 30-day Ab Challenge that started off with a handful of close friends to stay motivated to complete a fitness routine, has garnered so much attention from Facebook users that at last count it had nearly 2.6 million who were joining the fitness challenge. In fact, several enthusiastic people from the city too have signed up for the challenge, each hoping to complete the 30-day routine to fab abs.
“When I saw the event on my Facebook news feed, I realised it was easy and didn’t need any fancy equipment. I thought it was a great way to motivate oneself and stick to a regime. I never actively look for exercise plans on social media, but when something like this comes along then why not? It’s easy to incorporate this challenge into my usual fitness routine,” says Neethi Akkinepally, manager at a family firm.
With several people stumbling upon the event on Facebook through updates from friends, the lure of joining more than two million people worldwide to complete something they wouldn’t otherwise stick to sealed the deal. Incidentally, Robyn, a fitness enthusiast herself, had initiated this challenge as a way to keep herself motivated to complete a routine. On the event page she has posted saying, “I found this Challenge awhile back, thanks to Jodi Higgs, and started doing it for a couple days and then stopped out of lack of motivation. I decided to create this event to get some friends and family to join me so we could motivate each other and this has seriously blown up!” She adds, “You can do this from home or your office at your own convenience. You can do this once a day or if you really want to get max results you can do it twice a day!”
On her events page Robyn has also posted video links to how each exercise should be done correctly to avoid injuries. For Pallavi Ritesh Dharmsey, a senior IT consultant and young mother, Robyn’s fitness routine has come at the perfect time. “Being a working mother it is hard to find time to dedicate an hour or two to a gym workout each day. This routine is something I can easily incorporate into my schedule. While the need and necessity have always been there the lack of requisite knowledge was a stumbling block. Robyn’s plan provides a simple structure with rest days after every three days of exercise and is practical. I’m quite excited and will probably take it forward a bit more and make it a part of my routine,” she says.
The plan also seems to have spurred those into action who have been putting off exercising. “I’ve wanted to start exercising for some time now and it was that urge that made me take up this challenge. Who knows it might be a good way for me to kick-start that exercise routine that I’ve planning. If I finish this challenge successfully then I am definitely going to be more stringent about my fitness routine,” says Rasanpreet Kaur, an HR executive.
