Whew it’s been 4 weeks since I started the Blogilates 30-day Flat Abs Challenge. This week was killer. I had to take a short breather in between sets. Somehow I’m off 2 days again…I don’t know how this happened. I did the exercises every day for 30 days but I’m at 21 per set today and I should have been at 22 yesterday. I think I forgot to check off 2 days on my handy calendar. You’d think it’s because I want to prolong this but I really don’t.

To recap, I started with 3 sets of 5 ab exercises to 5 sets of 20 ab exercises in 30 days! (I should have been at 22). I remember thinking I don’t know how I’m going to work my way up to 110 ab exercises in 30 days but it was definitely doable. The amazing thing is that I haven’t felt a lot of ab soreness since the first week.

I mentioned that I was experincing some lower back pain last week so I did take 2 days off from doing the reverse crunch and I’ve been very careful not to bend my back too much when doing them. I was thinking of pairing the ab workout with a lower back strengthening workout but taking a short break from the reverse crunch and modifying it seemed to do the trick.

Diet and Exercise

Diet and Exercise has stayed the same this week. Nothing out of the ordinary. As for exercise, I did my usually walking (25 mins 5 days/week) and I’m continuing the Thigh Challenge. I’ll have an update on that when I’m at day 60.

Group Chat with Friends

The group chat was an intergral part of the entire experience. It definitely made it a lot more fun. It not only served as a reminder but motivation to get the exercises done. So far, the consensus is to continue with something but we’re not sure what yet.

Final Results

To be completely honest, I wasn’t sure that I was noticing a lot of change visually since day one. I did notice the upper abs getting tighter at week 3 but as far as the lower abs, it didn’t get as flat as I was hoping. Then, I pulled out my day one frontal view photo and compared it with my day 30 frontal view photo. I was surprised that there was cinching of the waist. Must have been the good old criss cross set.

Front View
Side View

Final Thoughts and Conclusions

If you’re looking to get your abs into shape in a gradual way, I highly recommend this challenge. Although it’s a gradual increase, it is definitely a challenge but it’s a great challenge for anyone who hasn’t worked out their abs in a long time. If you have a weak lower back, you may want to modify the reverse crunch by not bending so far over. You may also want to modify the leg lifts by not lifting as high. Otherwise, this challenge was great as strengthening my core and even taking off inches, particularly around the sides of the waist. I didn’t see as many results in the lower abs but that could have been due to my modifiation of the reverse crunch. If I continue on and make this a 90-Day Challenge like I’m doing with the Thigh Challenge, I may see those results more. I’m going to take a short break before deciding what to do next. 🙂