Question: Does anyone really love to exercise? 
Answer:  Surprisingly, yes. 

So much of exercising is considered a chore to most people, myself included. I have found two true forms of exercise that I actually love: tennis and hiking. Unfortunately, I live in Georgia, so occasionally hiking is cancelled by the extreme humidity and heat.

One day while reading….who knows what, I realized that I would exercise if it meant I had to survive whatever adventure life awaits me. If I prepare for running off with The Doctor, surviving a zombie apocalypse, or living in some dystopia, I have to be in shape!

This led to my realization: I’ll make my workout plans revolve around a particular fandom. That solves both of my problems with exercise: a way to make an exercise plan, and a way to keep things interesting. This led me to  working on this post off and on all week, dragging my feet about posting it. I’m not sure if I am worried about if someone won’t like the idea, or most likely because it means I am committing to a workout plan.

I decided to break my fandoms up into monthly chunks. 4 weeks of exercise, with a “rest week” in-between (mostly to give myself an extra week to plan out my next month.)  I’ll post a general schedule for the week, with a breakdown if anyone wants to see. There will be weekly progress updates which are either going to be “THIS WAS AN AWESOME IDEA” or “WHY, WHY DID I THINK THIS WAS SMART?” I’m thinking and hoping it’ll be the first. So without further ado, here’s my first fandom and workout schedule! Things of note: I tend to be strangely intense when it comes to working out. Don’t judge too harshly?

First Fandom: Divergent August 31 – September 27

The Divergent series was my spring time read. If you haven’t read it, you must be living under the same rock I was! I held off on reading the series so long because I burned out on dystopias in 2012ish. Probably a good thing as I hate waiting for books in a series to come out.

Summary:

Trish Prior grew up in the Abnegation faction, one of the five factions in post-apocalyptic war Chicago. At the age of 16, she and the others her age take a test to decide which faction they should move into based on what personality trait they place above any others. The five factions, Abnegation, Dauntless, Erudite, Amity, and Candor each have a role to play in their society. Trish finds out she is actually Divergent, meaning she values multiple factions at an equal amount. She chooses to leave her family in Abnegation and move into Dauntless, the protectors of the city who value bravery before all other traits. She and Four, her Dauntless leader and potential love interest, try to stop an uprising that could threaten their entire population.

If you haven’t read it, READ IT. And then when you are done, come find me so I can give you a link to a fan fiction that’ll make you feel SO MUCH BETTER ABOUT EVERYTHING.

So, outside of a regular dystopia, Trish Prior has to survive getting into Dauntless, or become Factionless.

Let’s be honest. We all would fight to stay with that face.

Characteristics needing to survive the fandom:

• Running (cause…duh)
• Stair climbing (Dauntless’s territory is essentially a pit)
• Hand-to-hand combat (A protector needs to be able to fight!)
• Extremely good upper body strength (To be able to get onto a moving train, as well as climbing up to the train platform.)

Basic Workout Plan Overview:

Monday:
AM: Yoga
PM: 2 miles minimum + heavy bag routine + Core

Tuesday:
AM: Pilates
PM: Legs Day + Stairs Day

Wednesday:
AM: Yoga
PM: 2 miles minimum + Upper body Day + Core

Thursday:
AM: Pilates
PM: Legs + Stairs + Heavy Bag Routine

Friday:
AM: Yoga
PM: 2 miles minimum + Heavy bag routine + Core

Saturday:
Tennis and/or hiking

Sunday:
Tennis and/or hiking

Let me know what you think, or if you want anything further in depth! Look for my first date next weekend — let’s see how much I still love Tris + Four next weekend…