30 Day - Ab Challenge

I started this with little to no previous experience of working on my abs. I’m 21 and I’ve never been a natural gym bunny. I’ve had a Fitbit for a while and used it to monitor my activity levels. Well, I watched it monitor as my weight weight down and back up a couple times. Then decided it was time to change; bought a bike to commute to work, a manual treadmill and downloaded this app. I’m still working on it but can honestly say I’ve seen an improvement. Day one I struggled to do 15 sit ups and a ten second plank, now I’m up to 70 sit ups and a whole minute plank! Shaking like a leaf, but I can do it. The plank countdown timer forces me to commit to the full time, too. I can see the daily increments being too much for some people but if you really can’t power through there are ways to adapt; I currently leg raise from an angle as I can’t maintain doing them from the floor. As somewhere simple to jump off from I can’t fault the app; it’s simple to use and I’m looking forward to completing all the levels and having it all ticked off, then going again!

When I was 15 I got bullied for being big and I was so self conscious but I stuck to this app and did it for months. At the age of 15 I was 16 and a half stone which is not healthy for a 14 year old I comfort ate and then I did this work out every morning and every night for 3 months and I saw a massive change and I lost 5 and a half stone and and I was eating healthier and felt a lot happier. I know it sounds silly but this app honestly saved my life and made me happier in myself and made me able to do the things everyone else was doing like swimming and more sports I love this app and I’m still using it today and I’m now 17 and I see so much hope for others who have felt the way I did and the bullying stopped because I didnt just show myself who was boss I showed them bullies they couldn’t put me down either so thank you to the creators of this app you have changed my life incredibly x

So I’ve been using this app for 3 months now and I’ve finished beginner 1 and 2 and I’ve actually seen some toning on my abs and I’ve carried on with intermediate 1 and I am starting to see the 2 pack. (This review was during the summer). I had uninstalled the app as when I started university I didn’t have much time as I had a lot of fresher events to go to. But I started this app again from January 14th 2019 and I’m doing gym also to get the best outcome. I do gym 4 days a week and so do the exercise 4 days a week and I’ve done it for a month now and I can see the 2 pack fully toned. So I shall be carrying this on until summer of 2019 and will be back to give my final verdict. So I had an injury which stopped me doing exercise completely but I’ve restarted this app from beginner L1 and I think I’ve seen a lot more progress.

Had countless gym memberships over the years but just got bored or lacked motivation with no physical results. This however is exactly what it says, a “challenge”. Was I going to let a phone app beat me, no chance so I took up the challenge and won. I’ve seen more physical gains through doing this in my spare room than I ever did at a £30 a month gym. Honestly it works for me and I’m just flipping it on repeat now. It’s true what they say,30 days and you’re in habit mode. Get home from work, crack out a session, job done. My abs have returned and I’m the wrong side of forty!!

The app is nice & clear to use. The explanatory text and animations are helpful, and there are plenty of options to go at. But the development curve, even on Beginner Level 1, is too high; it adds 10-15 extra crunches a day, and always ups the number of sit-ups. There’s no opportunity to consolidate or to cement your capability - surely it’s better to hold the same level for a couple of days until it’s ‘easy’ than just to add more every time? Plus it doesn’t say over what period to do the exercises or what test periods to take between variations. So a good guide and an ok motivator but I don’t think it’s helpful in terms of embedding core strength or technique.