Are you ready to take the 30-day ab challenge?

Did you ever want to take on a 30-day ab challenge? It’s quite popular among fitness enthusiasts and is a great way to push the core muscles to become stronger.

Of course, it’s recommended that you work on your ab muscles at least thrice a week, but it’s possible that after a hard session of free weight and machines, you may not have the energy.

However, a 30-day ab challenge will push you into investing some time from your daily fitness routine to work on your core muscles. As it’s a challenge, the mind would want to conquer it.

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What is the 30-day ab challenge?

Abs (Photo via Unsplash/Alonso Reyes)

It’s a fitness programme that is used by fitness enthusiasts to strengthen and tone their abdominal muscles.

Here is an example of what a 30 day ab challenge looks like:

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Week 1

Day 1-3: 10 crunches, 10 bicycle crunches, 10 leg raises, 10 toe touches, 20-second plank

Day 4-6: 15 crunches, 15 bicycle crunches, 12 leg raises, 12 toe touches, 20-second plank

Day 7: rest

Week 2

Day 8-10: 20 crunches, 20 bicycle crunches, 15 leg raises, 15 toe touches, 30-second plank

Day 11-13: 25 crunches, 25 bicycle crunches, 18 leg raises, 18 toe touches, 30-second plank

Day 14: rest

Week 3

Day 15-17: 30 crunches, 30 bicycle crunches, 20 leg raises, 20 toe touches, 40-second plank

Day 18-20: 35 crunches, 35 bicycle crunches, 23 leg raises, 23 toe touches, 40-second plank

Day 21: rest

Week 4

Day 22-24: 40 crunches, 40 bicycle crunches, 30 leg raises, 30 toe touches, 45-second plank

Day 25-27: 40 crunches, 40 bicycle crunches, 35 leg raises, 35 toe touches, 45-second plank

Day 28: rest

Week 5

Day 29: 45 crunches, 45 bicycle crunches, 40 leg raises, 40 toe touches, 45-second plank

Day 30: 50 crunches, 50 bicycle crunches, 50 leg raises, 50 toe touches, 50-second plank

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Abdominal muscles (Photo via Unsplash/Fortune Vieyra)

The idea behind a 30-day ab workout like the one above is to push yourself with more reps every day. You don’t need to increase your reps for each exercise every day, but you must do something more than what you did the previous day.

The core muscles need to recover as well, and so the rest and recovery days are of utmost importance. Additionally, regardless of whether you’re searching for a 30-day ab challenge women or 30-day ab challenge men, the foundation behind the programme remains the same.

If you already have a good foundation and core strength, you might want to start your 30-day ab challenge with higher numbers. That will differ from person to person based on their fitness level and abdominal strength.

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Why should you train your core muscles?

Core muscles (Photo via Unsplash/David Leszcynski)

Undoubtedly, the 30-day ab challenge is for strengthening the core muscles. However, there’s more to it than what meets the eye. Let’s find out:

Better stability

More often than not, you will be encouraged to engage your core muscles during heavy compound exercises. That's because an engaged core plays an important role in maintaining balance and stability. The stronger your core muscles are, the better it is for balance.

More calorie burn

Core exercises require significant effort and energy. To generate extra energy, the body dips into its stored calories. That triggers more calorie burn and as a result fat loss.

Improved functional fitness

A strong core is extremely beneficial during everyday tasks like carrying objects, running, and even walking. You will be able to benefit massively from having a set of strong core muscles.

The 30-day ab challenge doesn’t need to be for 30 days. As a beginner, you can start with a 15-day challenge and push yourself to take on a 20-day challenge after a couple of weeks. That's a great way to indulge in progressive overload for the core muscles.