Program Reviews of 2 Different 30-Day Ab Challenges

adewale

New member
Programs reviewed:

Blogilates #100 Ab Challenge. Premise: You do 100 reps of a different ab exercise every day for 30 days.

Darebee 2 Minute Challenge. Premise: You do 2 minutes of a different ab/core exercise every day for 30 days.

My starting point (skip ahead if you don’t care): 5’10”, ~150 lbs, 37 years old, pear-shaped. No direct ab exercises regularly, but engaged core in activities. Usual routine: Lift 3-4 times per week, run/stair climb 3-4 times per week, sand volleyball for 2 hours 1-2 times per week, and yoga 1 time per week. I did these challenges with my partner, so I’ll add his thoughts as well. Him: 6’, 200 lbs, 33 years old, lifts 5 times per week, and pretty jacked but little direct ab exercise. I’ll refer to him as BH for Bearded Hottie because that was my nickname for him when he was my volleyball crush before I knew him, ha ha.

Benefits of both challenges:
  • Created a routine. I do abs daily now.
  • But switched up daily within the routine. It doesn’t get stale because you’re doing something different every day.
  • It’s short (e.g., 2 minutes), so it’s easy to fit into your schedule. I usually did abs in the evening with BH rather than adding it to my existing workout time.
  • It’s short enough that I never blew it off because it’s only a little bit of time. No matter how I was feeling, it’d be over in a few minutes.
  • Apparently, calling something a “challenge” works well for my competitive personality. I did not want to “fail” this challenge.
  • I did this with my partner, so there was accountability, but it also made it fun to do it with him.
  • Even though BH is much stronger than me, he found both worthwhile and regularly challenging, so they are probably useful programs regardless of your starting point.
Blogilates #100 Ab Challenge (we did this one first)
  • My rating: 3.5/5
  • BH’s rating: 3.8-4.2/5
Difficulty: Wide range of difficulty. For me, it ranged from super easy (e.g., the hundreds) to pretty difficult where I had to break the 100 reps up rather than busting through them.

Additional benefits from those outlined above:
  • Form videos for every exercise, which included modifications.
Drawbacks:
  • Some “standards” were not included, like mountain climbers and deadbugs, whereas other moves felt “gimmicky” (e.g. eagle crunch) and/or hard to activate abs/core.
  • I legitimately could not do one of the moves (candlestick dipper) and BH could not do a different move (the wiggle) (his sister could not do the wiggle either!). Like our bodies just could NOT move that way, not that we weren’t strong enough. Those days didn’t actually work abs for us even though we tried our best.
  • Because it is based on reps, standards like planks couldn’t be included.
  • While it was nice having form videos, we found the videos pretty annoying. It’d take like 1.5 minutes to actually get to the move after chit chat. I totally recognize that this is just a personality thing, but when you're trying to get through something quick, it just added to the hassle. I know people love her though, so I’m probably just a sourpuss.
Conclusion: Solid program, felt like it improved my ab strength, recommended more for beginners.

Darebee 2 Minute Challenge
  • My rating: 4.5/5
  • BH’s rating: 3.8-4.2/5
Difficulty: I found this one more challenging than Blogilates. 2 minutes doesn’t sound like a lot, so I went into the first day thinking 2 minutes of high knees wouldn’t be too bad. I was immediately humbled. I don’t think there was ever a day where I thought it was super easy, whereas I did with Blogilates.

Additional benefits from those outlined above:
  • Because it was based on time, it could include static moves, like planks, along with moves where you do reps (you just don’t have to get to a certain number). I’ve never tried a 2 minute plank before, but I made it!
  • Really short/efficient form videos.
Drawbacks:
  • Form videos difficult to find (or nonexistent) for some moves.
  • No modifications, just had to break up the time. There were moves where I just had to break-up the 2 minutes (e.g., 1 minute on, 1 minute break, next minute) to finish, like there was no way that I’d be able to do them 2 minutes straight.
Conclusion: BH did not prefer one program over the other and gave them both the same score and generally liked both. I preferred this one because I felt like it was more consistently challenging and had more standard moves that I felt were easier to activate the core.

Progress pics: I saved these for last because I do NOT think my progress is very visible here. I workout in my sports bra in front of this big mirror, so I constantly see my abs, and I’ve noticed way more definition, especially when I’m unflexed. But I don’t think it’s very visible here. I usually have the opposite problem where I don’t notice progress until I see pictures. I don’t know. I have a shitty phone camera and the pics aren’t great.

Next up: We are in week 2 of this program and it is way harder than either. Definitely only recommend if you really want to push yourself.

Let me know if you have any questions. Hope this was helpful to someone!
 
@adewale I came here because I’ve been trying to to Blogilates “10 Minute Beautiful Ab Sculpt” video for a while and the eagle crunches seem hard to do correctly. I add this routine onto the end of my cardio workout so being sweaty only makes it harder to twist my legs and arms around eachother for the eagle crunch. Never feel like im doing it right! Im glad to know you thought it was a “gimmicky” move- would love to know what I could replace it with to target similar muscles? Although the way I eagle crunch, I don’t think any muscles are really being worked at all…just slipping and sliding all over my yoga mat.
 
@adewale Thank you so much for sharing. Based on your review, I think I'll print off the Darbee to throw in my gym bag. Currently my only abs-focused exercise are plank shoulder taps and I've been thinking I should add in some variations, so this works out!

Cheers :)
 
@adewale Thanks for doing this, and for sharing! I was just thinking this morning about adding more core exercises into my routine so I'm going to give the Darebee a go :)
 
@adewale Very interesting, thanks for reviewing them. I'm going to give the Darebee one a go. I find challenges like these good for restarting motivation so hope it'll help me out on that front.
 
@dawn16 Here is the description: https://www.shape.com/fitness/workouts/30-day-ab-challenge. I'm not sure why this link doesn't have the calendar/graphic thing, but the graphic took me a lot of time to figure it out too.

Each week:
  • Days 1 & 2: one set of the 4 ab exercises
  • Day 3: HIIT exercise for that week (and no sets of the ab exercises)
  • Days 4 & 5: 2 sets of the 4 ab exercises
  • Day 6: Sprints
  • Day 7: rest day
I'm feeling a little mixed about this one, but it's definitely way more intense than the 2 I reviewed.
 
@adewale Yay! Thank you! I very rarely do HIIT, but I'm looking for something to straight murder my core right now, so I'll probably adapt this around the HIIT day.

Your progress pics are wonderful, by the way - can totally see the definition!
 
@dawn16 Aw, thanks! I can definitely see progress in real life, but the pictures aren't great. I need to up my selfie game, heh. But I appreciate the kind words!

Good luck! I hope you like it. :)
 
@adewale Thank you for the comprehensive write up! I've been looking for a good ab routine. Darebee will likely be my go-to with how positively you reviewed it, so hoping to see some good results as well.
 
@adewale Thanks I have been wanting to do this! So far I tried this one ... once. It was hard.

Are you sore after? I feel like if I'm not sore I didn't work hard enough, althou it feels impossible to do more at the time! But maybe not? Abs are so different than other muscle groups.
 
@momtoonegirl Yeah, that one looks hard. The ab challenges are shorter, but every day, so you should still see progress.

I was sore pretty consistently the first two weeks, but I no longer have been getting any soreness. I don't think lack of soreness means lack of progress.
 
@adewale When my boyfriend tried to do candlestick dippers, I noticed he was having difficulty and I'm pretty sure its because of how he was stabilizing (or lack thereof) on his foot/leg that was sticking out. Maybe try planting yourself more and it will make them a little easier. If it's a oblique weakness thing, you can always "airplane"!
 
@soulyrical That's great advice for others who may want to try the Blogilates challenge! I, however, will never do those again, ha ha. It very well could have been a form issue since I don't have weak obliques, but there are other oblique exercises that I can actually do. The good part of an ab challenge is you only have to do each move once. :)
 
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