30-Day Ab Challenge: Final Thoughts

Source: 30dayfitnesschallenges.com

Here's the only cosplay-related part of this post:
I've been working out, partially to look better as Yoko Litner and WiiFit Trainer. The rest of this post will be specifically about the 30-Day Ab Challenge.

So I did this fitness challenge thing. It wouldn't be fair to say it was "hard", but it seems too cliche to call it "challenging", even though that's exactly what it was. Most importantly though, it's both doable and it has results. Maybe not very drastic results, but it certainly does something.

It should be noted that I didn't change my diet, which would have helped a ton, and I also didn't do any other exercises or even cardio, which also would have helped a ton.

So, onto the part I'm sure everyone is interested in, does it work? It really depends on what your goal is. Personally I'd say, yeah, it totally works. On Day 1, I barely muscled through the initial 15 sit-ups, and by Day 30, I did all 125. Yes, I had to keep pushing myself, but I did it. Also, a two-minute plank? Yeah forget it, I never thought I'd be able to do it, but I did. I mean, my plank form suffered heavily and was super sloppy by the last 10 seconds, but I did it. Also I can do (very few) sit-ups without having my feet held down, which is amazing to me. Basically I gained a lot of ab strength.

Also I did see some visible improvement of my abs, which I know is the part that everyone cares about. Frankly, I didn't have any fat to lose, so I didn't make a very drastic change. Anyway, here's my progress photos:

Day 2

Day 14

Day 31

Draw what conclusions you will from those. Oh, the last is day 31 instead of 30 because I did an extra day (just Day 30 over again) to make up for when I accidentally took two rest days in a row near the end (long story short, I slept about 20 hours straight after SacAnime).

Moving Forward, in order to get more fit and not lose the progress I've made, I'll be doing more of the 30-Day Challenges from the original website. I'll be stacking them instead of doing one at a time so that I'll get a full-body workout and finish a majority of them before Fanime!

First up are the 30-day plank and easy squat challenges, along with starting the cardio challenge. The cardio challenge is a little different than the other challenges in that the reps don't increase at all, and instead it's a timed challenge. The time stays the same every day, you just do as many reps as possible every day, with the intent that you'll eventually you'll be doing more since your endurance grows.

I made my own calendar thing for this one since it didn't exist.