Pros and Cons Of 30-Day Workout Challenges

30-day squat challenge, plank challenge, ab challenge, beach body challenge, pushup challenge, little black dress challenge (LBD)—workout challenges seem to be the latest trend. Some of these 30-day challenges actually work while others don’t.

Upon further research, talking to other women who have done them and my own experience, I can honestly say that the results of each challenge vary from person-to-person despite people doing the same challenge.

Regardless of the challenge you do, though, the 30-day challenges generally have pros and cons. It is up to the individual to strike a balance in order to get the best benefits and results from these challenges.

The Cons to 30 Day Challenges

Unfortunately, since everyone’s metabolism and body is different, a challenge that produces excellent results for one person won’t necessarily produce the same results for another person. However, some of these challenges can also be extremely harmful.

Trainers and gym enthusiasts that when you exercise a set group of muscles day after day, you will not build on the muscle; rather, you will actually start to tear, stretch and overexert that muscle (that is, if you have good form).

If you have bad form, the issues with doing a 30-day workout for the same area will be even worse. This can and will result in more pain and issues that will hide the minimal results. Essentially, you will end up hurting yourself instead of benefiting from your hard work.

Another con to 30-day challenges is the promise of results that are over exaggerated by media, the challenge itself and the people who do these challenges.

These challenges fail to mention that eating healthily is also very important and beneficial for the results to be the best they can be.

These exercises are seen as something that will work on their own—all you have to do is the exercise itself. Also, when the challenge stops after 30 days, people tend not to continue or even bother with anything else, which means that their results will fade much faster than they think.

These challenges are not long lasting, meaning that they do not guide or even encourage more exercise after they are done. Lastly, the big con to these challenges is that people forget to do, and cheat, or do not have time to do the last few days, which takes longer compared to the first few days.

The Pros to 30-Day Challenge

These challenges can and do work if you do follow them correctly. To avoid injury, many trainers recommend doing a 30-day challenge over 60 days so that every other day is a rest day. This is the main pro to these challenges as you will get the benefits from the intense workout and will be doing so safely.

Another pro to 30-day challenges is that they start off easy for people, and allow for people to grow in a safe manner that will be beneficial.

The beauty to these challenges is that they tell you what to do, and how much to do each and every day; they’re the perfect guide. 30-day challenges also tend to be very motivational and provide people with a lot of satisfaction as they track their growth, motivate them to finish and continue, and satisfy people when they can see how far they have come by day 30.

30 Day Challenges That Do Work

30-day challenges work when done right. Most people tend to get the best results from the squat challenge—the bigger the booty, the better, right ladies? The plank and ab challenges have also been considered to work wonders as they have drastically increased people’s arm strength and core. It has also helped people to tone up.

Another way to get the best from 30-day challenges and to see a complete change in your whole body would be to do a series workout of each and every challenge.

This way, the challenges will feed off each other and will be extremely beneficial—especially the challenges that aren’t that great for results when done alone. Plus, with a series, you avoid injury and the overexertion of muscles as it is a different muscle group getting beneficial exercise every day.

Day 1 would be the LBD challenge; day 2 would be the abs challenge; day 3 would be the plank challenge; day 4 would be the squats challenge; day 5 would be the push up challenge; day 6 would be the beach body challenge; and day 7 would be a rest day. Then, the cycle would be repeated. You would do day 1 of each challenge in the first week and follow through the challenges with one day of each challenge per week.

While 30-day challenges may not be entirely beneficial on their own, they can work well in combination with each other and other forms of exercise. What 30-day challenges have you tried and found to be successful?