- Notice me sweating.
- There's a little bit of thigh action going on.
- Oh, my thighs
feel like actual bricks.
(upbeat music)
- What have I gotten myself into?
So my current workout routine
is nonexistent
Before the quarantine,
I felt like I was a really active person.
- I played volleyball for many years of my life.
Something that I've always loved about myself
are my legs and my butt.
I feel like I have a lot of power.
- I work out pretty frequently,
probably four to five days a week.
It just makes me feel like
I am the master of my body.
- I just need to start treating my body
with respect.
Specifically, I've always wanted to
really focus on my booty.
I just want to give it the attention it deserves.
- I really want to push myself
because I know I can do crazy, athletic challenges.
But, this is 30 days we're talking about.
- Since the quarantine has happened,
I haven't felt that connection with my body.
I'm doing this challenge to feel that connection again.
- I'm worried that I'm gonna do it one time
and my body's gonna give out
and there's no way that I can do it
every day for 30 days.
- My body type is really different
than the two other people that are in this video.
You might be able to tell
how their bodies are changing more than mine.
Whether I see it in pictures or not,
I'm excited to just feel one with myself.
(upbeat music)
- Hey guys, how are you?
I'm Steve Zim.
I just wanna say hello.
When it comes to squatting,
a lot of people are hesitant to do squats,
because they hear their knees get hurt,
and all these different things.
What I'm gonna do today,
is I'm gonna teach you how to do this properly.
We need a chair to begin with.
Any chair that will allow your hips
to stay even with your knee
or be slightly below.
I have a stick in my hand.
The stick is to see
where your feet are lined up to your body.
I take the stick and I put it on the ground
and what I see is that the stick's slightly off.
So, if it's off like that,
bring your foot back
so this way, we can even this off to being straight.
Perfect straight line.
Now, from here,
keep your belly button pulled in.
Breathe out and drive up.
And now, sit back down.
Perfect!
Once we have the position, the chair becomes optional.
Hold.
Breathe out and drive up,
keeping your belly button pulled in, yes!
I'm gonna leave you for two weeks
and check back in.
- This is my partner, Kate.
They are going to be helping me
through these next 30 days.
Today, Kate is going to be filming
how long I can hold the squat for.
- You're gonna do great.
If I can hold this longer than five seconds,
I will be surprised.
- And start.
(upbeat music)
Ow, ow, ow, ow, okay I'm gonna stop.
- Oh my god, my butt is on fire.
- Okay!
(Kate vocalizing) Eight seconds.
- It said 34 seconds.
- 45 seconds.
I'm gonna set my goal for
a minute 45.
- I am about to start my 100 squats.
I'm just like "Okay, let's just get it started."
One.
(upbeat music)
Notice me sweating.
I thought that was gonna be a lot easier than it was.
As someone who has OCD and counts all the time,
thought 100 was nothing.
- I got through the 100 without a lot of issues.
But now that I've stood still,
my thighs are just really sore.
- I kinda feel unprepared,
but I didn't quit.
- Hopefully day two, day three,
I can actually keep going
without so many long pauses in between.
- It is about 9:00 a.m.
I'm thinking that I'm going to
start my day with my squats.
And then I can be productive
the rest of the day with work.
- Today's the first day
that I went 100 without stopping.
Ow!
My thighs feel like actual bricks.
- It's a workout,
and that's truly what I wanted,
so I feel good.
- Okay, so it's my birthday,
and I don't really wanna work out.
I actually only got out of my bed
so that I could get this cupcake.
For motivation, I'm just gonna leave right here,
so that I can at least get through my squats.
- I am weirdly not sick of this yet.
I'm kind of just in awe of how much my body can handle.
(choir sings)
I'm used to a soreness,
but this is a tightness.
I think that's good.
- I'm at 50.
I have 50 more.
I thought this would be easier 'cause is day nine,
but the funny thing is, it doesn't get easier.
- I'm not too nervous to add in the jumping squats.
I think it's gonna be good.
And it's only five.
And I'm gonna do them at the end of my 95.
That might be a bad idea because I just did 95 squats,
but, you know at the end of your workout,
you get adrenaline.
It was a different kind of feeling.
The intensity felt familiar,
which was really what I wanted.
To feel my legs again
and to feel the strength in my legs.
Things right now are just really tough mentally.
This gave me a little bit of relief,
just to get some built-up anger out.
- I really wanna do my squats today
and I just haven't done anything.
You know, there's been a lot going on in the world.
A lot going on with the protests,
and I live in an area where
a lot of the protesting is literally in my backyard
and I've participated.
I always to be strong,
so I don't think I realized how tired I am.
- Ugh, I'm kind of losing my mind a little bit.
I thought everything was going fine,
until I realized I'm not feeling any of this in my booty.
So I'm only feeling it in my thighs, in my quads.
So I've been doing some research
and guess I'm quad-dominant,
which is a real pain because apparently
it's just really hard to channel into your butt
if your body just wants to channel it into your thighs.
I guess on bright side, my thighs are feeling great.
But on the down side,
I really don't want to have super strong thighs
and not a strong butt.
I'm gonna ask the trainer what I can do.
- Yesterday, I just didn't feel like I could do it.
So I didn't and I'm glad I didn't.
But today I'm more energized.
I'm about to do these squats.
I'm about to do these squat jumps.
- Hi everyone, how are you?
(everyone greeting Steve)
I'm just calling in to check in
and see how everyone is doing.
- I've really enjoyed it, to be honest.
It's given me a nice little break.
- It also makes me wanna do more things.
If I'm already sweating,
then I might as well do some crunches.
- Yeah, the hardest thing is actually getting started.
When people go "I'm gonna go to the gym,
and no."
And then, if you get there, you never leave early.
- Also, knowing that I'm doing with these two girls,
you know, I wanna be in solidarity with you guys.
And if I'm half-assing, then I'm not really
connecting with you guys.
- I want into this wanting to strengthen my butt,
and I feel like I'm only strengthening my quads.
Help!
- Try your feet a little wider.
Yes, just little, yes.
Let's go down there.
- Okay, so now it's just a little bit back here.
- For you, we're gonna have to go just a little bit wider.
Everybody has done amazing so far.
I'm gonna check in on you at the end,
and I'm expecting great stuff.
- Okay, so I started this out being very
ready to connect with my body.
It only took like a week to connect.
Things are just a lot right now,
but I'm gonna do it.
It's about 9:40.
If I wait throughout the day, I'm not gonna do it, so,
gonna do these squats.
- I need to continue doing my squats,
but I just started my period.
And so, I'm bloated.
As I do my squats and just in the air,
the red flow inside of me will be hopping up and down
as I hop up and down for the squat jumps.
I don't know if I'm ready for all of that.
- So, I've been thinking a lot.
I'm just been going through a lot of mental health issues,
and I feel like not doing the squats well
has not been helping.
I actually did it because I thought it would help
and have something I can focus on,
but it honestly made it worse.
I just need to focus on me more
and not necessarily my butt.
This challenge, even thought I didn't do it fully,
has been really eye-opening
to see how much my body can do.
I'm actually shocked.
Love you guys.
Good luck to the remainers.
- Y'all, I played myself.
I am starting day 20,
and I started doing the 90 squats
and 10 squat jumps on day 18,
because your girl does not know how to read a calendar.
I will say, the first time I was doing the five squat jumps,
I was like "I feel this.
This isn't too bad."
And then, the 10 squat jumps.
I think the burn is a different kind of burn.
- For me, I've realized that
it's easier for me to break things up
in increments of 10.
And then to also do something different too.
What I've been doing is 10 regular squats,
10 kicking squats,
and 10 jumping squats.
- I feel good about this challenge.
I've been consistent,
more consistent than I thought I would be.
But I'm just confused
about these results.
My calf muscle is just like (singing fanfare).
There's a little bit of thigh action going on.
Here is where I'm struggling, guys.
The butt.
I don't see anything.
Just a little more in the tuchus.
That's what I was hoping for.
- Six days left.
I've been watching a lot of volleyball content
on TikTok.
When I played volleyball, I was an outside.
I had to squat low when jump-up.
And so I decided that I was gonna do that today.
And honestly, it felt good.
- I've done all my squats.
I have done my HIIT.
I feel good 'cause
I made the commitment to do the squats
after the workout,
because I really wanted to workout
and I know that because I've been consistent
with the squats,
I'll actually not skip the squats.
But I could skip the workout,
so by doing the workout first,
it made me have to push through.
I got a nice smoothie waiting for me.
(upbeat music)
- Hey, everyone, how are ya?
- Hi! - Hey!
- You guys finished the challenge!
Congratulations!
Tell me how you felt going through this,
'cause this is hard.
- Being committed to something for 30 days straight
was a bigger challenge that I was even expecting,
because I'm not someone who gives up super easily,
and yet, here I was, taking breaks here and there.
But when I would get back,
I felt so good about myself.
- Really, when you do these kind of things,
it's like "Wow, I can finish.
I know my legs don't want to,
but I want to."
- I kind of just set myself up
to not being really worried
about before and after pics.
And about halfway through,
I started doing my own type of squats
that I really enjoyed.
My whole goal was to feel my legs be strong again.
I feel like I did it.
- I wish I could be there to tap you guys on the back
and say congratulations.
I am so impressed, I cannot begin to tell you.
- Today, I wanna hit my goal of a minute, 45 seconds.
I actually feel like I can do it.
- I would hope, after everything that I've done with squats,
that I got a little bit further.
But, yeah it would kinda be a bummer,
but that's not what this is about.
- And start.
- Go.
- One minute, 30 seconds.
- Get my old volleyball back.
- I just passed my goal!
- (groans)
- Ooh, okay, no more.
- Okay.
- Two minutes and two seconds.
I am a thigh master!
- That's a (beep) improvement.
- I am so proud of myself.
- That's 20 seconds more than when I first started.
That's great!
- I have looked at myself frequently over this challenge.
I see more muscle definition in my thighs
than I had before.
They look like they got bigger,
but they also do look more toned,
so I'm happy with how they look.
- I'm not striving to make my ass bigger or anything,
but I was striving to feel strong,
and that's how I feel right now.
(upbeat music)