A lot of us are on the go and don’t have much time to work out. That has become very obvious as people are working longer hours and traveling more, but it has come at the expense of increased obesity rates around the world. There isn’t much time in the day to get a full workout in, let alone eating right and getting to the gym. Many people are looking toward their mobile phones to perhaps guide the way, and there is an app that has become very popular.
It’s called the 30 Day Fit Challenge, and it has gained a lot of steam in helping people get fit. The idea is a series of quick workouts that you can do at home, but it requires that you fit in the exercises every day for 30 days. That might seem like a lot, but when you get started, the workouts are only around five to 10 minutes long.
What can you expect when trying out the 30 Day Fit Challenge? Let’s take a deeper look into what the workouts entail, and how you can lose weight on the program.
The 30 Day Fit Challenge
The 30 Day Fit Challenge was released by the Leap Fitness Group on the Android Store, and has already had between 10 and 50 million installations. There are a ton of fitness apps available on the store, but this one is up there in terms of ratings. With nearly 200,000 reviews, the 30 Day Fit Challenge has a 4.8 rating, with only around 5,000 reviews being less than four stars.
Not much is known about the people behind the Leap Fitness group, but they launched the app in May of 2016. There other popular apps include the Water Drink Reminder so that you are getting eight glasses a day and a series of selfie cameras. The app says that the plan was designed by a fitness trainer, though it’s not quite clear who that is. Still, people seem to be on board, and the plan has a lot of great basic exercises.
There are a total of six different plans with the 30 Day Fit Challenge, with two of each in the Easy, Medium and Hard departments. There aren’t any rest days listed on the challenge, but you can choose to take one and pick up where you left off. The suggestion is that you try to hit all 30 days in a row, however, as the app says that “According to the theory, 30 days may be the optimal time for making changes that influence your mental, physical and emotional state.”
It’s a great program for beginners, with plenty of different options to choose from. If you are trying to work on a certain area of your body, there are challenges for arms, abs, legs, rear and your full body. You start off by doing some of the basic exercises before building up to more reps and different exercises over the course of the 30 days.
The 30 Day Fit Challenge Exercises
So that you know what you’re getting into, let’s look at some of the workouts that you’ll be doing for each specific target area. You don’t have to memorize these as there are visual cues and a countdown timer, and you can go at your own pace for the exercises that are counted by reps instead of time:
Abs Workout
Crunches – There are several different crunches that you’ll focus on during the abs workouts. You might be doing the standard sit-ups, but there are also the long arm, short arm, bicycle and standard crunches. Expect to feel sore around your stomach area the morning after getting through the ab workouts.
Planks – If you thought crunches were tough, that’s nothing compared to planking. You will focus not only on the standard type of planking, but also on each of your sides.
Leg Raises – Going from a position that’s flat on your back, you will lift your legs straight so that your body is at a 90 degree angle. It doesn’t seem tough for the first couple of reps, but will start to feel difficult. You can also bend your knees in toward your body from this position for reverse crunches, or do the one leg or two leg bridges.
Cobras – If you have ever wanted to look like a snake, this is the exercise for you. Lying with your elbows flat on the ground, you raise your chest as much as you can without using the assistance of your arms.
Mountain Climbers – This is one that doesn’t really look scary, but can make you sweat quickly. While in the plank position, you alternate your legs underneath your chest to make it look like you’re climbing a mountain in place.
Bird Dog – More like a yoga pose, you start on all fours and then extend one arm and the opposite leg, then repeat on the other side.
Russian Twist – Different than the standard sit-up, you are instead focused on going side to side while in an angled position to work on your obliques. You can also do this with a medicine ball for increased difficulty.
Arm Workout
Push-Ups – As you have probably already guessed, doing an arms workout at home without gym equipment is going to call for a lot of push-ups. There are a ton of different push-up variations during the 30 Day Fit Challenge. This includes reverse, diamond, box, rotation, wall and regular push-ups.
Planks – From a plank position, you tap your opposite shoulder with one hand and repeat on both sides. This is known as a plank tap. The other plank is the diagonal, which is similar to the bird dog exercise.
Chest Press Pulse – Standing with your arms in an ‘L’ shape, you lift your arms and up and down, keeping them straight and together.
Dips – Using both a chair and the floor, you will be doing triceps dips to lift your body off the ground using nothing but your arm strength.
Circles and Punches – Doing arm circles is a good way to increase some basic strength, and you will also incorporate some punching, which is essentially shadowboxing with the idea of building strength.
Butt Workout
Donkey Kicks – While in the push-up position, you’ll lift one leg into the air at a time, similar to how a donkey would kick. Just make sure nobody is standing behind you. There are quite a few other kicks in this system, including flutter kicks while lying on an elevated space and kickbacks that extend your leg straight.
Wall Sit – This is the standing version of the plank, basically, as you pretend that there is a chair underneath you and prop up your body on a wall. It won’t hurt for the first couple of seconds, then you will certainly feel it.
Lunges – Getting a great butt means you have to do a lot of lunges, This includes the curtsy lunge, alternating lunges jumping lunges and more.
Squats – Just like lunges, squats make up a huge part of a good glute workout. Get used to doing a lot of jumping squats, sumo squats, plie squats and regular ones along the way.
Leg Workout
Scissors – Many of the exercises that you find during the Butt Workout are also found in the leg workout. There are two big exceptions, starting with the scissors. This includes lying on your back and bringing one leg closer to your face while the other one extends out. You alternate their positions quickly so that you feel the burn during the exercise.
Calf Raises – The other noticeable difference is the calf raise so that you can focus on your lower legs. Standing next to a wall, you will lift yourself into a tiptoe position using one (or both) legs at a time. This will make sure that your calves get shredded, and you can increase the difficult.
Full Body Workout
Taking all of the exercises that you have learned and perfected from the previous exercises. You can finally focus on the Full Body Workout. There aren’t many new additions to this 30 day challenge, but it does introduce jumping jacks, burpees and high stepping to the program.
Summing it Up
This is a good program for people looking to get a quick workout in on the go, as you can workout anywhere. You also don’t have to be an expert in any of the exercises as you only have to do a couple of reps when getting started. The only drawback is that many of the workouts are very short. If you are already in decent shape, you might want to use multiple different calendars at one time to make sure that you are getting a full workout.
The first few workouts will only be about five to 10 minutes each, but will end up being around 30 minutes by the end of the month. Make sure you have enough time devoted to working out as the days go by, and you will see results. The best part is, you can restart the calendar with increased difficulty or add more workouts to your plan. The versatility is great, and it’s highly recommended for anyone that’s looking to get an entry level plan into overall fitness.