Safety Rules

These are the rules

1. Ramp up. Do not start at the number.

The single most dangerous thing in bodyweight training is a large volume of an exercise your body is not used to — a few hundred push-ups on day one when you have not done any in a year. This can cause exertional rhabdomyolysis: muscle tissue breaking down and flooding the bloodstream, which can shut down your kidneys and kill you.

If a challenge's early days feel far beyond what you currently do, cut the numbers in half and build up. Nobody will know and nothing is lost. Severe muscle pain and swelling in the days after a hard session, dark or cola-coloured urine, or being unable to straighten your arms is a medical emergency, not soreness. Go to an emergency room.

2. Water is not a competition.

Some challenges call for high daily fluid intake. Drinking far too much water too quickly dilutes the sodium in your blood and causes hyponatremia, which can cause seizures and death. Spread fluid through the day, drink to thirst, and include sodium if you are sweating heavily for hours. If you are confused, nauseated, or have a headache after drinking a lot of water, stop and get help.

3. Cold and heat both bite.

Cold-water exposure causes an involuntary gasp and rapid breathing that can cause fainting or drowning. Never do cold exposure in a bath, lake, or any water you could go under in, and never alone if you have any heart condition. In heat, train early or late, drink, and know that heat stroke — confusion, hot dry skin, collapse — is a 911 call, not a rest day.

4. Outdoors is a real place.

Traffic does not know you are on day 19. Run facing traffic where practical, wear something reflective in the dark, keep one ear free, tell someone your route on long efforts, carry a phone and identification, and change your plan for ice, storms, and poor air quality. A treadmill day is a completed day.

5. Pain is information. Soreness is not pain.

General muscle soreness for a day or two is normal. Sharp pain, joint pain, pain that gets worse during a session, numbness, tingling, or anything that changes how you move is a stop sign. Training through it turns a two-week problem into a two-year one.

6. If a challenge is making you worse, quit it.

Long, strict challenges with restart rules are designed to be uncomfortable. They are not designed to make you punish yourself. If you find yourself training while ill or injured to protect a streak, hiding what you are doing from people close to you, restricting food, feeling panic or dread rather than resolve, or unable to stop — that challenge is doing damage, and the right move is to end it and talk to a professional.