Week one

I was excited to get going, so for the first week, I decided to get all 100 squats done first thing in the morning. And I was really glad I did. Despite the whole routine only lasting 10 minutes, the first few days were much tougher and sweatier than I anticipated.

Brown set a varied programme, which came as a relief (doing 100 plain old bodyweight squats might have become mind-numbingly dull quite quickly): 10 straightforward squats, 10 squats into calf raise, 10 sumo squats, 10 jump squats, 10 squats with a triple pulse (to up that all-important time under tension), 10 aeroplane squats (a squat followed by a hip hinge with straight legs), 10 squats with an upper-body rotation at the top, 10 squat step-outs (stepping each foot out at a time at the deepest point of your squat – excruciating) 10 squats with a criss-cross jump and, finally, 10 squats into a half rise and back down (time under tension, again).

Week two

By the beginning of week two, I was starting to notice that my hips and knees were less clicky during the squats. They say that motion is lotion for our joints, and I certainly found this to be true.

On the flip side, I did develop painful lats (the muscles in my mid back). I wasn’t sure if this was an old injury flaring up from overtraining or if my core wasn’t as engaged as it should have been, meaning my back muscles were taking over. Either way, it resolved itself within a few days.

I was also surprised to find that I was starting to need less of a break between sets – a few seconds was enough to catch my breath and carry on. I took this as a sign that I was getting fitter and stronger, and I felt pretty chuffed as a result.

“I did 100 squats every day for a month and ran my fastest 5K in 8 years – here’s why it was so effective”