It’s back! My all-time favorite 30 Day Challenge of them all…the 30 Day Core Challenge!
We’ve done it twice before, and we’re going to to it again in August. Why? Because it WORKS!
Why Take the 30 Day Core Challenge?
A healthy life starts with a strong body! The best way to get it is a great topic of debate, but a good place to start is by implementing core exercises to strengthen the center of your body — benefiting…well, everything! The 30 Day Core Challenge is a great way to work not just the traditional abs muscles, but your entire torso. This gives you a strong foundation for fitness and will help prevent injury.
A lot of people hear the term “core” and automatically think “abs.” And yes, they are famous! Who hasn’t seen, dreamed of or if they have them, flaunted their rock hard abs? We all fall somewhere along this spectrum from flabby to firm and a we all know without a shadow of a doubt exactly where we land. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, we all have ‘em! But there is much more to a strong core than the aesthetics of a cut up waist line. A strong core really represents all the muscles on your trunk, everything but your arms, legs, neck and head. You can read more here on why a strong core is important.
What exactly does the 30 Day Core Challenge involve?
Not Familiar with all the Core Challenge Exercises?
Watch this 90 second video featuring your’s truly as the very fancy fitness model!
The Fine Print for the 30 Day Core Challenge:
- For bicycle crunches and knee to elbow planks — you do 20 on each side.
- The schedule is just a baseline – if you are stronger, do more, but be sure to progress each week.
- You must use proper form and alignment to maximize results and prevent injury. Be smart! Break up the reps into sets of 5, 10, 15 — whatever makes sense for your current level of fitness. You are responsible for your own health, so push yourself for improvement but not so far that you hurt yourself! Safety is key.
- These exercises will strengthen and tone the major muscles of your core. You will still want to incorporate cardio vascular exercise a minimum of 30 minutes per day, 3 times per week to maximize results of this challenge.
- At the beginning of the month you will record weight and basic measurements. At the end of the month, you will do the same thing to measure your progress.
- Using your tracker, check off the days as you complete the activities. Always record your plank time because the suggested time is just a minimum. Some days you may feel super strong — push yourself on those days.
- And as with any and all 30 Day Challenges, be sure to check with your doctor before you start any new exercise regimen.
So how do you get started on the 30 Day Core Challenge?
- Like the Teresa Marie Wellness on FaceBook now.
- Find the 30 Day Core Challenge under Events and click “going” then invite your friends to make it more fun.
- Get access to all the trackers by joining the community here. If you have already signed up, then you know where to find all the trackers. And as a reminder, your monthly newsletter will arrive on Wednesday, July 29th as a reminder. If it’s MIA, check your spam, especially if you have Gmail.
- Mark your personal calendar, because your challenge starts Saturday August 1st!
Don’t forget to sign up and get your fun tracker!
Be Smart. Be Safe. Have Fun. Get FIT!
30 Comments
Gontse Moichela
thank you for posting the video! I didn’t understand the elbow knee plank 🙂
Teresa
Glad it was helpful!
Teresa
It is in the welcome email you get after you confirm you address. But I will send it to you again directly.
Teresa
Glad you are on track Connie!!
Kim - Liv Life
Ok… I’m in!!! Thanks for the motivation Teresa!
Teresa
Awesome Kim — this should be a good one!
Karen
Sooooo according to the video it says the first week is 20 reps, does that mean 20 reps of 100 basic crunches, 20 x 50 bicycle… etc….?!?
Teresa
20 basic crunches. Yes. Not 20×100 — that may be asking a bit much 😉 And also yes that for the bicycle crunches and knee to elbow plank. You have to do both sides to get 1. So you will hit your right elbow 20x and your left elbow 20x for those oblique working moves. Everything else is just 20 total until next week. The whole thing should take less than 5min depending on your fitness level. Have fun!
kim
So is static plank and the 30 second plank the same thing…you just do it twice?
Teresa
You hold the static plank for 30 seconds — same thing 🙂
Jean furlong
A day late. Better late than never. Jean
Teresa
And one day is hardly late — glad you’re here Jean!
Jenn_BR
I’m 7 weeks out from having a baby, and am really wanting to get myself strong again. Thanks for putting this 30 Day challenge together! I’m coming from no consistent exercise in 2 years, and I need to start small. This challenge will be perfect. 🙂
Teresa
Hi Jenn! That is so great to hear and exactly why I design these challenges the way I do. I’m so glad you found it! Enjoy and keep me posted on your results!
Wan
My husband and I found this challenge and are starting week four. What do you suggest we do to maintain this after completing the 30 days.
Teresa
Hi Wan! Congratulations on your success! I get asked this question quite often and of course the right recommendation will vary per person, like any activity plan. But the most important point is that fitness is definitely a journey, not a destination. So to keep the results up, you need to keep the action up to – so it’s a good sign that you’re asking! You don’t need to keep increasing reps, and maybe you don’t need to do it every day. But I’d aim for at least 4 days of core work in the 5 minute range moving forward. These are great moves, or you can explore others as well. The Abs and Plank Challenge are also quite good and in July, we’ll have a brand new CRUNCH challenge which should also be awesome! Congrats again on your success and keep it up!
Kathy haggard
H I teresa. I was just wondering if u would mind me Sharing this on fb and creating an event
Eat Drink&Be Skinny (@SkinnyTinis)
Hi Kathy! Thank you for asking! Of course share on FB and get people to get pumped!! Way to inspire! If you want to create an extra event on the 30 Day Challenge Series page, we can put it there and you can moderate it? Some other folks may want to join in with you 🙂 We just did that by extending the May Full Body Fitness Challenge and there are like 150 people in there. Just let me know what you want to do and thank you for spreading the word and inspiring people to get fit!
Mary
I don’t want to seem dense but are we supposed to do a 30 second plank after every 20 reps of whatever we did?
Eat Drink&Be Skinny (@SkinnyTinis)
Good thing you asked 🙂 Nope! Just do the plank after all of the moves. Unless you want a super challenge, then go for it!
Abby
Any idea how many calories are burned doing the 30-day Core Challenge? I’d like to plug it into myfitnesspal
teresamarierun
It’s tough to say because there is so much variation per person. Try timing how long it takes and enter it as “calisthenics” or “light weights” and that should give you a good idea.
maryedooley
Uggggghhhhh I should. FINE. fine. I’ll do it. 😉
Teresa
Bahaaahhhha Mary — you will be glad you did, I promise!
Jennifer
HI! Is it possible to do this challenge without being on Facebook?
Teresa
Of course! Just print your tracker and go! It’s just the daily accountability check-in that is on FaceBook. You can also tweet @skinnytinis if you have a twitter and I can keep tabs on you that way too 😉