5 Ways To Make The Most Of Juneathon

Juneathon: A yearly festival of activity and excuses

We’re a third of the way through Juneathon and I hope you’re all enjoying it so far but I thought I’d write a quick list of a few ways to help you make the most of the month.

1. Interact with others

On Twitter

What makes Juneathon so amazing is the community spirit. We’re all here for each other to support, encourage and to gently (or not so gently) nag when motivation is lagging. Make sure you’re following the #juneathon hashtag (and using it yourself when you Tweet your activities) on Twitter and follow other participants – it’s a great way to gain new followers and make new friends. If you’re tweeting that you can’t be arsed to exercise that day, tag me (@juneathon); I’ll RT it and it won’t be long until someone comes along to ‘encourage’ you.

On Facebook

Same goes for Facebook. Join the Juneathon Facebook Group, share your links and ‘like’ others’ posts.

On blogs

Browse the Juneathon participants page on the website and pick a few new blogs each day to visit and comment on – most of the time, they’ll return the favour and you’ll get more visitors to your blog.

2. Don’t get despondent

Far too many times I’ve seen participants get demotivated and give up because they missed a day. DON’T GIVE UP. It’s not possible to fail Juneathon. See the next point.

3. Be creative 

The day’s activity doesn’t have to involve running a marathon or going on a 100 mile bike ride. If you’re too busy/can’t be bothered/in the pub then be creative. Chris at What I Meant To Say pulled a masterstroke in creativity the other day when he used the walkway at Madrid airport the wrong way as a treadmill.

.@jogblog Doesn’t show too well, but using the wrong direction walkway as a treadmill at Madrid airport! #juneathon pic.twitter.com/zFdKtEJGX2

— Chris Bray (@Azhreicb) June 8, 2015

*Slightly* less genius and more in the way of ‘I am a slacker but here is my activity for the day and I’m counting it so there’, was David Lewis who, last year, counted ‘pushed a trolley round Tesco’ as his exercise. If you really are spending more time in the pub than the gym, there’s always the good old ‘bar press-up’ to fall back on.

A bar press up is a perfectly valid Juneathon activity

And of course, not forgetting the classic ‘Dressing Gown Dash’.

Travelling Hopefully (accompanied by me) shows how to do a Dressing Gown Dash

4. Set a goal

A challenge within a challenge, if you like. You might want to challenge yourself to run every day (Andrew Fletcher challenged himself to do this in Juneathon 2011 and has run every day since), or you might be new to running and your challenge could be to run a mile without stopping by the end of the month. It’s *your* Juneathon and therefore *your* personal goals. And please don’t be put off by nutters like Kevin Foreman who ran 455 miles during Janathon 2012 or Stephen Cooper who cycled 650 miles in Juneathon 2013; it doesn’t matter whether you run 1 mile or 100, it’s all good – Juneathon is for the ultra-hardcore and us mere mortals. And the mere mortals way outnumber the nutters anyway, so there.

5. Mix it up

Bored with your exercise routine? Try something different. Go on a walk with a local group (try looking on Meetup for your local one), do a fitness DVD (or if you haven’t got any fitness DVDs, have a look at www.fitnessblender.com – there are dozens of free, full-length workouts on there), or try a new gym class (you won’t ever catch me trying Zumba though. Dancing? In public? Sober? Ha ha ha ha ha. No.)

6. Enjoy it! 

I know I said there were 5 points – this one’s a bonus. Juneathon is supposed to be enjoyable. If you’re not enjoying it, you’re doing it wrong.

Let me know if you’re doing anything different this Juneathon or if you’ve got anything to add to the above.

Stats for Day 10 

Rowing machine: 20 minutes
Treadmill: 20 minutes
Cross-trainer: 20 minutes