Archive for February, 2009

The point of this challenge was to get a toned body in 30 days. While 30 days will technically be up next Monday, two of the 4 days are rest days and so there will not likely be much of a change. I will continue on exercise for those two days and post a final picture. I will also give a review of the Truth About Abs program I have used to achieve my results. However, since today is the end of the fourth week with only two rest days and two workout days left, the results shouldn’t change much. So before I go into anymore about the last four weeks, here are the pictures.

In the last picture I have definitely put on more muscle mass and lost fat weight, but I am also slightly more tan which may be a little misleading. This wasn’t intentional, but something that happened since we had great weather earlier this week and I went snorkeling. Also, note that the number refers to the number of days exercised, and not the total number of days passed since day one.

Overall this project has been a lot of fun. It was by no means easy (especially in the first week), but the fact that I had declared publicly that I would do it made it easier to complete. So what are the results? Was I able to get toned in 30 days?

The Results

I pictures posted above a a good representation of my progress after 20 days, approximately 15-17 hours of exercise time. I increased the size of my muscles and also lost some body fat. While I wasn’t able to get to the level of the picture I posted on the first day, I did see increased tone in my abs and in my chest. I am also proud of the fact that I as able to make these changes without any expensive equipment.

What the pictures don’t show is the overall increase in my strength and energy. While the point of this challenge was to see if I could increase my body aesthetically, the real benefits were in my health. Building up my core muscles gave me much better balance and took away most of the pain I had from previous injuries. The increased physical exercise also helped me sleep better.

It is possible to greatly improve your physical condition in 30 days without spending too much time exercising or changing your diet. Doing the right exercises, in the right way really helped me get in better shape. If you want to go for that really cut figure, then you you will probably need to do some intensive exercises in addition to the right diet.

Better Results

Since I made no changes to my diet and limited the amount of time I could train, I am happy with my results. However, I think I could have had even better results had I followed the diet, fat burning tips, and some of the additional exercises in The Truth About Abs program. The program is very comprehensive covering the exercises, the amount reps, and the diet. I think I would have seen more improvement had I followed them better.

As I mentioned I didn’t change my diet at all. While it wasn’t unhealthy,  skipping the sweets and  ice cream probably would have helped. It would have also helped to eat foods to support muscle growth. All this information was in the program. I just couldn’t use it because of the guidelines I had set for the challenge.

What Now?

I will still complete the last two days next week and post pictures once the full 30 days is up. Once the thirty days is over, I am planning to follow the program more closely as well as use the diet. Though this won’t be a main focus for the blog anymore, I will still occasionally post my progress.

Since I am getting this post out a little late, I have decided to combine day 26 and 27 (yesterday and today). This works out well since I added a swim to my exercise routine for the last two days. Though technically I was snorkeling, and the water was too cold to stay in more than about 10-15 minutes, I tried to get as much exercise out of it as possible. It also helped me to realize another reason to break up your exercise routine through out the day. Something unexpected may come into your schedule that stops you from completing that day.

Being that it’s February, it had been a while since I had been out under the direct sun swimming. Putting my body under a bright sun for a little over an hour zapped all of my energy. I didn’t notice it at first, but a couple hours after I returned home I became very tired and wasnt motivated at all to do my exercise routine. My whole body felt heavier and sluggish. I would have been perfectly happy to fall asleep in front of the TV.

I actually did go on and push myself to complete the rest of my routine and even went for a short run. I felt much better afterwords and my energy seemed to be restored. It also helped that I knew I would be writing about it later and that the results wouldn’t be as accurate if I missed a day.

However, I had already done a parts of my routine in the morning and combined with the swim that would have been an adequate workout for the day. It wouldn’t have been a big deal to let my body rest for the night.  If I had a set workout schedule, skipping the routine without effecting my results wouldn’t have been possible. Knowing that part of the workout was already finished also made it easier to start again when I was tired.

Tomorrow is technically the last day of the challenge so please be sure to tune in for the final results. Technically the challenge was 30 days, but the following 2 days would be rest days and so won’t count.

Exercises of the Day

Bicycle Crunches- Laying with your back on the floor and your legs bent and elevated of the floor, slowly crunch your right elbow to your left knee (then do the same with your left elbow and right knee). Using your stomach muscles lift your upper body as much as possible off the ground when doing the crunch. I also hold each one for a second or two. This exercise is still one of the most difficult for me.

Pull-ups- The reason I am such a big fan off pull-ups is because of the number of upper body muscles it requires. Not to mention that using only a bar, you can do several types of pull-ups, working different muscle groups. Seeing my upper body strength increase by the ease I can do  pull-ups has been very motivating.