I thought I was fit until I tried the gruelling 'Chad' workout

Leg day just got a whole lot darker. Seriously dark! I consider myself relatively fit. I train consistently, I lift, I run, I even do Pilates (sometimes). But nothing (and I mean nothing) prepared me for The Chad Workout.

This brutal bodyweight workout is as simple as it is savage: 1,000 box step-ups for time. That’s it. No weights, no fancy kit, just you, a box (20 inches for women, 24 for men), and a very long mental battle ahead.

Created in honour of Chad Wilkinson, a US Navy SEAL who lost his life to suicide, the Chad 1000X isn’t just a physical test – it’s a tribute. Every November, athletes across the world take it on to raise awareness for veteran mental health. I decided to give it a go. For fitness, yes – but also for mental strength. It was time to lock in and get into the zone.

How to do a step up

• Stand in front of a box or weight bench, feet hip-width apart, wearing a weighted vest (or not, like me).
• Step one foot up onto the box and drive into the heel of your foot to stand up. Lean forward slightly to keep your balance, but keep your chest upright and body as vertical as possible.
• Once at the top, stand up fully by extending your knees and hips, squeeze your glutes and then slowly step backwards off the box and repeat with the opposite leg.

My experience doing the Chad workout

The rules are simple, but the burn is real. You can do the Chad workout with or without a weighted vest. Being the sensible human I am, I opted for the bodyweight version – that would be much easier, right? Ten minutes in, I had my answer. There was nothing easy about this challenge.

Around rep 350, my glutes were screaming, my hip flexors started grumbling, and my heart rate was deep in the red (think, Zone 5) as if I’d been sprinting uphill. It’s a slow burn, and it burns deep.

Mind Over Muscles

There’s no music loud enough or pre-workout strong enough to make this high-volume workout easier. It’s a grind. The kind that tests your mental stamina more than your physical engine. Halfway through, I questioned why I didn’t just do a nice 10k instead. And yet, there’s something strangely meditative about it too. You enter a zone. Step up. Step down. Breathe. Repeat. It forces you to slow down and get comfortable being uncomfortable, which, honestly, might be the real fitness win.

1,000 steps later

I finished in just under an hour, quads fried and heart thumping. Was it fun? Not even close. But was it worth it? Absolutely.

The Chad Workout isn’t your average workout. It’s a physical and mental challenge – and it hits differently. My top tip? Warm up first with some dynamic stretches –think squat-to-reach, leg swings, and walking lunges to fire up the muscles you’re going to use. Another tip: start before you talk yourself out of it - and break the 1,000 reps into sets of 50 or 100, with short rests in between. You don’t want to blow up too early.
I also grabbed some chalk and made a tally after every 100 reps – a weirdly satisfying mental distraction.

If you're looking for a humbling test that builds grit as much as glutes, this is it. I won’t lie –I’m glad I did it. I usually enjoy doing step-ups. I think they're an excellent lower body workout and great for your balance and core too - but in all seriousness, I won’t be doing 1,000 again anytime soon.