What Happened When I Did A Jillian Michaels Ab Workout Every Day For A Week
My abs and I were feeling all sorts of ways!
Instagram By Gina Florio
Jillian Michaels is one of those timeless celebrity trainers who is always a reliable source for health and fitness tips. Her new app, My Fitness by Jillian Michaels, promises to help you feel your best, eat healthy, and slim down. Having always been a Jillian superfan, I just had to give it a shot.
I've always envied Jillian for her chiseled abs. As someone who has never had a visibly chiseled core, I was curious to see what would happen if I did a Jillian Michaels ab workout every single day for a week. Would I see much of a difference? I went all in to find out. I did an ab workout from Jillian's app each day, and this is what happened.
My Abs Were Really Sore the First Couple of Days
I couldn't believe how sore I was when I woke up on the morning after my first ab session. It was only a 7-minute core workout, but it totally kicked my ass. Jillian had me moving from squirm crunches (which really target the obliques) to double leg lifts to mountain climbers, and I hardly had any time to complain about how hard it was.
I generally don't do any isolated core exercises (I get my ab work from doing compound exercises and Animal Flow), so I wasn't surprised to find out how sore I was during the first half of the week. Plus, there's no denying that Jillian's workouts are effective as can be.
I Only Saw a Slight Change in the Mirror
Photo: PopSugar
I'll preface this by saying, I know you can't expect to see major changes in the body from doing anything for only a week. When I looked in the mirror, I could see a little more ab definition, which you might be able to see in the above picture, but that was about it.
From the side, I could tell that my abs were a bit flatter than before I started Jillian's program, but I couldn't be sure it was enough of a difference for others to notice. It made me curious of what would happen if I continued doing these ab workouts for two, or even three weeks. I have a feeling my abs would show a pretty tremendous difference if I stuck with it.
I Felt Stronger Lifting Weights
Jillian has all sorts of different ab workouts on her app, including 25-minute HIIT cardio sessions that target your core big time. The more time I invested into my abs throughout the week, the more of a positive change I felt in my strength-training workouts. My core felt stronger in deadlifts, squats, and even shoulder presses. It made me feel empowered to go a tad heavier with one of my weightlifting sessions. This inspired me to continue regularly with ab sessions even after the week was over, because it was paying off in the gym.
I Even Felt More Confident Outside of the Gym
Call it the placebo effect, but I suddenly felt like my abs were ready to peek out in a crop top. I've never been one to wear anything that shows my midriff, and it's not because I don't like the look of it. It all comes to feeling insecure about my midsection. But after a week of planks, reverse crunches, and burpees, I felt ready to show off my hard work. I rocked a brand new crop top to an event that weekend — and felt pretty damn good in it.