30-day ab challenge: ‘I trained my core every day for 30 days’

Training your abs is considered such a fundamental part of fitness routines nowadays that some of the best gyms host workout classes dedicated solely to strengthening your core. But for those of you who are short on time (i.e., all of us) or don’t have access to a gym, a virtual ab challenge can also help you get there. The one caveat? That your aim goes beyond building a ‘six-pack’.

Keltie O’Connor, a fitness blogger and athlete set out to complete her own 30-day ab challenge, not only to carve herself a stronger core, but to prove that striving for a six-pack is neither rewarding or, in some cases, ‘healthy’.

‘Ah the famous six-pack, the epitome of fitness. You achieve utter fitness royalty if you have a six-pack,’ she says in her YouTube video. ‘Is that false? Is it possible? Let me use myself as an example: I would consider myself fit, but I’ve never had a six-pack. So, I decided to train abs every day for 30 days, implementing progressive overload as part of a structured plan to see if I could encourage muscle growth by increasing the intensity of my training.’

With the guidance of a strength and conditioning coach and physiotherapist, she used herself as a guinea pig, to show why you might struggle to achieve a six-pack, and why functional goals should always override these kind of aesthetic ones. Always.

Here’s what went down, including her complete plan, what happened as the weeks went on, and her before and after results. Believe you me, no matter how much you think you know about ab workouts and six-packs, some of her revelations will surprise you.

The plan

Keltie followed a 7-day workout split, incorporating push and pull workouts and a combo of tummy exercises and core moves:

• 4 push/pull days. Push exercise example: pallof press. Pull exercise example: crunch.
• 3 mobility and posture days.

Her ab exercises varied throughout the challenge, but some of her favourites included:

• Stir the pot, using a yoga ball
• Bear crawl
• Bent knee side plank
• RKC plank

YouTube

Mobility exercises:

• 3 sets of bird dogs
• 3 sets of dead bugs
• 90/90 hip openers

Posture engagement exercises:

• 3 sets stomach vacuums
• 2-3 plank holds

‘Six-pack’ engagement exercises:

• 2-3 sets double leg bench reverse sit-ups
• 2-3 sets laying leg raises

Week 1

1.Genetics plays a huge part in how/if you can achieve a six-pack

She has a longer torso

Using the example of her bicep, Keltie explains that because she has a longer torso, she needs her muscles to be bigger than most people for them to look prominent enough for her to achieve six-pack definition, as the muscle growth spreads out across the length of her core.

She has postural imbalances

Keltie has a natural anterior pelvic tilt.

YouTube

‘I have a natural anterior pelvic tilt, which means I have an arch in my lower back and my butt sticks out while my abs round forward,’ she explains. ‘For me to achieve a six-pack, I would need to work on this, but this is different for everyone. You might have a posterior pelvic tilt, so if you were to incorporate the same posture engagement exercises as I did (listed above), you would exacerbate your own symptoms.’

She is tall

‘I am genetically lean and quite tall, but I don’t have a very low body fat percentage – my fat is just stretched out, so I appear leaner than I am. For me to get a six-pack, I would need to go below the healthy body fat percentage which is where hormone issues start to come into play and that is never worth it,’ she explains.

‘Achieving a six-pack should always be about core and strength and being healthier. If trying to get one is making you unhealthier, that’s what I hate. Some people with a six-pack can be some of the unhealthiest people, and others are just genetically gifted.

Keltie uses Lucy Davis as an example of someone with a defined core.

YouTube

‘For example, Lucy Davis is ab goals, but if you look a photo of her when she was little, you’ll see that she even had a six-pack when she was younger – she’s genetically gifted! It could also be her posture, and where she holds fat – she might do that in her legs rather than her mid-section like me. That said, she obviously works hard in the gym.’

2. Incremental progression is key

‘I didn’t include any weighted exercises in my first week of the challenge, because I knew this was already going to be a drastic increase in training volume which I’m not used to for my abs.

‘My plan was, depending how I recover, to add weights in week two or three, and this was right judging by how sore my abs were.’

Keltie’s strength coach Jeremy Bell concurs that weighted ab exercises can be effective for results. ‘Any form of loaded (weighted) resisted crunch variation, these target the rectus abdominis – the six-pack muscles,’ he explains. But these results are very much dependent on body fat levels, and inter-individual responses to training.’ For example, you may see results sooner than someone who regularly exercises and whose body may be used to certain exercises.

Week 2

3. You can have a six-pack, but you may not be strong

Someone without a six-pack may well be stronger than someone with a super-sculpted six-pack, and core training should always take precedence over having jacked abs.

‘Core training encompasses multiple muscle groups, not just the rectus abdominis, a.k.a. the six-pack,’ Jeremy explains. ‘It includes the obliques, transverse abdominis, rectus abdominis, lower back muscles, lats – all the muscles in your mid-section and trunk which need to be strong for you to have a strong stable core. Just having a lean looking core means you won’t be as strong or functionally able as someone who has a truly strong mid-section.’

Week 3

4. Water retention is a big factor in having a six-pack

YouTube

On day 21, Keltie says she could see that her abs were ‘holding more water than when she started the challenge, which is totally normal’ as she had upped her water intake as the challenge progressed. ‘Female bodybuilders and models – the night before a shoot – they cut water, to avoid water retention to help their abs become more depleted,’ she says. ‘A lot of the before and afters you see on social media can just be because of water retention.

‘Your digestion, whether it’s your time of the month and whether you have food in your stomach are all also factors that will influence whether your abs look defined or not.’

Week 4

5. Results take time

Keltie incorporated progressive overload within her plan.

YouTube

It was a whole 27 days before Keltie attempted to do bench crunches with weights, after building up her strength with other weighted exercises. ‘Every rep I did, I felt in control which is the most important thing.’

Sure enough, Keltie’s physiotherapist Joe explains that the biggest mistake he sees when people train their core is ‘flailing around’. ‘Most ab workouts are done in an AMRAP format, so the goal is to do As Many Reps As Possible, meaning that you forget about your form and don’t reap the rewards,’ he tells us.

As well as nailing your technique, Keltie is adamant that progressive overload aids results. ‘I want definition without losing weight, and to do that, you need progressive overload. If you increase your volume (how much you lift), you will increase muscle mass,’ she says.

‘I started with bodyweight exercises, then progressed to weighted, and then I’ll progress by adding to that weight. Because of this, today (day 27), I looked in the mirror, and I noticed that I had more muscle.

‘That said, my period is due on the same day that I will take my after photos. But to be honest, every single day my abs look a little different which is why you should never put too much pressure on yourself. Some days I look a bit puffier, some days my bathroom habits are a bit off.’

6. Making core workouts a habit will help with results

How many of you leave your ab exercises to the end of a workout, when you’re probably so whacked that you rush through them as fast as you can? Same. And Keltie’s just like us. ‘I would leave abs to the end of my workouts, but by focusing on them and building a 30-day habit has been groundbreaking,’ she says. ‘I devoted a short time a day and it became auto pilot in my day. Even when I was flying for work, I fitted in my exercises.’ Doing so meant that Keltie has experienced some hug rewards…

7. Core strength can be life-changing

‘I noticed subtle changes that drastically affected my life – my lower back pain has finally gone in the last 30 days,’ Keltie shares.

Read on as Keltie breaks down how core strength can help ease lower back pain.

8. Your ab muscles can only grow so much

‘Your first year of weight training is the most exponential growth you’ll have as you experience newbie gains,’ says Keltie. ‘Which is something I didn’t have as an athlete; I make minor progressive gains. I did see changes in how much weight I could lift, though, which was a good indicator of muscle growth.

‘The best example is that when I travel, my lower back is usually destroyed, but when I went to LA during this challenge, my lower back pain wasn’t there, so I know that my core has built strength and is helping my posture and therefore, my lower back pain.’

Keltie’s results

Keltie’s before and after photos.

YouTube

‘30 days is probably not enough time to see a drastic change, especially as I didn’t change my diet, which isn’t something I wanted to do.

‘I just wanted to see how much was possible in 30 days if all I did was train. The reality is that these challenges you see with hugely different before and after photos include diet changes, so you will see more drastic results in 30 days.

‘But you should never expect crazy results this soon; you should aim to make your core workouts a lifetime habit. Core exercises should be like eating your vegetables.’ Keltie for PM!