6 Reasons Why The 30-Day Ab Challenge Is BAD For You
shivani k 
Image: iStock
All of us are always on a lookout for quick fixes to all the problems we face in life, aren’t we? And this is even more prominent when it comes to matters concerning our fitness and health. We cannot blame each other here — it’s the innate tendency of us humans by default. And if you are from a marketing background, you’ll very well know what we’re saying here.
Off late the fitness industry has gained momentum like never before, don’t you agree? Both online and offline, we’re blitzed with workout programs that go by the tags “Lose 15 kilos in just one month” or “Choose the fastest track to a six-pack!” or “Shed those extra kilos with this revolutionary fitness belt” etc. And the very next line after these tags is a story of how somebody who would never even walk a kilometer in a day ended up losing 10 kilos in a month. Oh, and not to forget the “before and after” pictures of transformation that is put up.
The urge to become fit in a short time without much dedication has become such a hot fad that one look at the fitness corner in your app store and you’ll find all kinds of “30-day challenges” apps. There are ab challenges, arm challenges, squat challenges, leg challenges, and many more. You have an app for every part of your body that you want to intensely target on and get it in good shape. So when we came across the most trending of all — the “30 Day Ab Challenge” which seems to have hit the viral button on social media platforms, we tried to understand it better. And while we think that the whole program is pretty commendable, we also figured that it falls short on certain areas. We’ve highlighted some of its problems, read on.
1. It Involves Incorrect Method
If you see the everyday exercise routine of this challenge, it includes crunches, sit-ups, planks, leg raises — all of which are not at all a bad thing. All of this help strengthen the core strength of the body. However, what we found missing was a warm-up and also a warm-down routine. You always prepare when you have to write an examination, right? Your workout regimes are similar to this, you need to warm-up or rather prepare your body for the workout you’ll be putting it through. Stretching especially is very important before you begin to train and flex your muscles. If you fail to do this, you’ll likely end up with muscle pulls, aches, pains, or much worse, injuries!
2. It’s Very Unscientific
This Ab challenge is definitely not a complete body workout. Working on specific body parts only will eventually lead to muscle imbalance over time — this can lead to muscle injuries. Also, its common sense that doing umpteen numbers of planks, crunches, and leg raises will not help you lose weight. Always remember that fat loss, when it occurs, it does so on your body as a whole and not in targeted parts of the body. This program, however, preaches the otherwise of this simple basic fact.
3. It’s An Incomplete Routine
Any weight loss program is incomplete if it doesn’t include a suitable diet and a cardio routine. And peeps, always remember that what you eat and how much you eat is much more important than counting the number of crunches or squats you’ve done. So, if you’re doing the 30-day ab challenge whilst sticking to your high-sugar and high-carb diet — do not expect any ab sculpting or weight loss.
4. Its Scope Is Very Limited
Ask any fitness enthusiast and you’ll know that you will be better off with working on at least 2 of your body parts every day when compared to just working on your abs an entire month. Your body requires recovery time after every workout. Doing this challenge is going to make your back, thighs, but, and hamstrings sore/stiff. And this challenge is just not meant for beginners because if you don’t do these exercises in the right way, the threat of injury looms higher.
5. It’s Too Repetitive
The word “challenge” just doesn’t fit right to this workout program. Your muscles will mostly get bored doing the same kind of exercises and at some point, it might stop responding as well. It’s important that we do a variety of workouts to keep our bodies challenged constantly. The ab challenge, however, sticks to the same set of 4-5 exercises by just increasing the number of reps. So imagine doing 125 sit-ups, 200 crunches, 120 planks, and 60 leg raises by the end of 30 days — it’s way too much even for a bodybuilder (FYI)! It might take a toll on your spine or at least an aching back is guaranteed (take it from us).
6. It’s Very Misleading
Agreed, that this challenge is born out of a non-commercial concept and has a noble intention of motivating lazy people to get active and fitter. But our question is— is it really doing that job? What do you want to prove with the washboard abs that you achieved in a month? It takes fitness enthusiast months to get those sculpted abs with months of dedication towards working out and eating clean. We really think that this kind of challenge will only make your body sore and kill your motivation to continue to work out in the future.
All we want to say that if any of you out there thought of opting to try a 30-day ab challenge—well, this means that you have started to think seriously about your fitness and your body. You have the right intention, don’t you? Then why pick a wrong way for it? Fitness is an ideal rewarding journey with multiple benefits. So pick a workout program that will help you get fit and not hurt you!
What do you think about these 30-day challenges? Let us know in the comments below.
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