Although it's not the last day of the month till tomorrow, today is the last day of the July Journey to Splits Blogilates challenge. For 30 days we stretched various parts of our legs every day, and each day we do a new stretch in addition to the basic 5. And theoretically by the end of the month we would be able to (or getting closer to) do a standing split.
Well, I did my last split stretch yesterday and I can confidently say that I still cannot do a standing split. But my hips are much closer to the ground on my side splits and I can almost do a forward split, so the month-long work was not in vain. And for the most part I was able to successfully do my stretches every day and managed to take a semi-respectable selfie of that day's new pose. And after a month, looking back on my Instagram history, I have to say it was quite impressive.
This is the first time I did something this public. It's one thing to blab random thoughts and report progress on this blog about my various running, yoga-ing, and other exercises, but it's quite another to take a picture of yourself doing some stretching pose, post on social media, everyday, for a month. I had a lot of insecurities, about how I look, about how I look while stretching, about my surroundings (I have a very small and messy apartment), about what I wear, everything. Initially I took pictures in public places like the gym, then I switched to fancy photoshopping apps and went on a PS diarrhea. Then I just thought, you know what, screw it, and ended up doing a basic blurring of the background and called it a day. Many pictures had my face in it, and in some of them I really didn't look very appealing.
But the feedback was amazing. From the very first picture I posted accepting the challenge I got "likes" from many popsters (other people who also follow the blogilates workout). I returned their kindness with my own likes of other random people on Instagram, and a few of us started following each other and my feed began to be flooded with other people's stretches and other workouts. Every day after I post my pictures I will receive about 20-30 likes, which is not many compared to some other people but considering that I only opened an account for this occasion and only had three real life friends on Instragram (for this purpose) it was a pretty good response I think. And I got slightly more traffic on this blog after putting the web address on my profile. Occasionally I got comments and felt very flattered, but this form of quiet camaraderie and support is perfect for me. It's partly what keeps me going forward and I'm very thankful for those who cared.
And now this month is coming to an end. There's a short plank challenge for the beginning of next month that I think I will do but didn't seem very interested or very well put together. But after this month, with the new gym classes I'm taking and this everyday goal I try to achieve, I think I've gotten into a good momentum to keeping going forward, doing workouts and stretches every day, just to keep myself moving if anything else.
Here's to another great month!
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