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5X50 Challenge – Simon Murrison
The concept is easy to understand: exercise
every day for 30 minutes for 50 consecutive
days. There are no rest days – just do it (injury
permitting of course).
I think people really like the discipline that
they have to exercise every single day to
complete the challenge. They are forced
to find the time to exercise and now I don’t
believe anyone who says they are too busy
to exercise – its a mindset! If you do it you
will find your productivity and sleep will
dramatically improve.
Co-founders of the challenge, Raymond
Wallace and Kelly Houston, first ran the
challenge back in January 2011 and found
the fitness and mental benefits of exercising
everyday to be massive. I was asked if I
would be interested in helping them take
it to the Glasgow public, with a vision to
get about 500 people involved in the first
‘proper’ challenge. Little did we know at that
point that by September 2011, when the first
challenge was kicking off, we would have
5,111 people taking part from over 46 different
countries. To say the challenge exploded was
an understatement.
The team that helped run that first challenge
all had very different reasons for being
involved – mine was based around raising
some money for charity. My outlook on the
challenge has really changed over time. Yes
raising money for charity is important (we
have probably helped raise over £250,000 to
date) but I really started to be touched by the
way the challenge changed peoples lives.
On the first day of the first challenge I will
never forget seeing our social media streams
being overtaken by challengers all wanting
to change the way they lived their lives. One
picture of a family who clearly needed to
change their ways will live with me forever.
We had created a simple platform for them
to do this – it was quite an emotional roller
coaster watching it develop.
To date about 25,000 people have taken
part in the 5x50 Challenge and some of the
stories we have received have been simply
amazing. We have quite a few who have
reported their dependance on traditional
medicine has dropped significantly and
their self confidence improved dramatically.
Our usual challenger tends to be heading
towards middle age and perhaps work and
family have made them slip out of the routine
of exercising. We provide the platform and
community to get back to it. As our challenge
has a significant online community it doesn’t
matter where in the world you are – just sign
up and take part. Even try and convince a
friend, family member or colleague to do it
with you!
We are still finalising plans for 2018 but are
going to run two challenges next year. The
next one starts the day the clocks go forward
on 25th March 2018 and the second one will
begin 28th October 2018.
We have tried to make the challenge as
inclusive as possible with five types of
challenge to choose from – so it doesn’t
matter what your starting level of fitness is.
You decide which works best for your needs.
Once you have joined the challenge you can
create teams and get a great group vibe
going on. We are heavily focused on creating
a community feel so on difficult days you
know you are not alone.
Simply find us at 5x50.org and sign up. We
ask challengers to pay a minimum donation
to us of £5 (we are a registered charity) to
help with our running costs and then off
they go.
Pilates Glasgow – Kerry Stewart
From an early age I felt exercise meant
competition. I think we are all taught that
and have fears of not being good enough
when starting any form of exercise. Pilates
has none of that pressure – it’s about making
your body feel better so that you can enjoy
your week.
In Pilates you are so focused on going
through the moves in class that you forget
about stresses outside. Its a mental
break. We think about our breathing too.
Deep slow breaths calms down the body.
It sounds weird but breathing can become
fast paced and shallow if we don’t stop and
practice deep breathing once in a while.