30 day abs challenge - DONE

Last month a group of skaters started this abs challenge. The task was to complete a series of sit-ups crunches, legs raises and planks. Each day the repetitions increased. It was instigated by one of the skaters Ann Marie who wanted to see if social networking (Facebook in their case), can be of benefit to each other for working out.

In Ann's group a lot of them pushed through to the end. They also did some of the days together in the park which reinforced their motivation.


I missed the start of their challenge but another friend Amy organised different group via Whatsapp.

Social networking did help in getting people going in the first place. I only gave it proper consideration to start after Amy automatically added me to the group. I'd been previously put off from after doing the 100 pushup challenge as fitting into someone else's regime is difficult, as everyone is built differently. That said, a little peer pressure and the challenge was accepted.

With constant messages throughout the week of individual's progress it did help spur people on. The trouble is when people start missing days I do think it also gave people a reason to lapse as well. With about nineteen people in the group, who would notice if you went missing? You could tell people were dropping off slowly just by the fact less and less people were updating their progress. 


I was already doing a load of situps before the challenge so I did feel it was pointless for me to start from day 1. My challenge started on day 9.

Individually each of these exercises can be done without too much trouble, but when they're done back to back in this format you really do feel your abs work. The leg raises however seem to ache for me even if they're done on it's own, they're my nemesis. 

When I was attempting day 30 I had actually skipped straight from day 10. My motivation was 'I just want to do day 30.' So if I skip the build up and just go for it I'll experience less days of pain! I did need quite a few interval breaks to complete the tally of moves, more specifically those damn leg raises.

One of the biggest efforts to deal with this challenge was boredom. It was so dull as it took 40 minutes for me to complete. 


Since then I try to complete the whole set again once a month. With a smaller variation of it all once a week. The challenge certainly keeps the tummy trim and am glad to say I do this much quicker now (20 minutes) with fewer intervals. Leg raises are still a killer but more manageable.

My motivation now is to keep in check for those obstacle runs lined up…




(I recommend using some kind of sports back support if you're starting out. Don't push yourself too much if it's at the cost of poor technique, as that is when you're likely to cause injuries).