Ahead, my honest experience and surprising learnings from doing the Women’s Health Flex Challenge for a month.

The Abs Enthusiast track—which is one of three programmes you can pick from when you sign up for the Flex Challenge—includes five different workouts spread across six days. While the track obviously emphasised the core, the programme was still total-body and featured strength, HIIT, and conditioning too. I appreciated that I was still strengthening all over, in addition to the extra dash of abs. All of the routines could be done with just my body weight, dumbbells, and/or a yoga mat—and in 30 minutes or less (perfect for a crazed toddler mum like me).

The backbone of this specific track was a seven-minute weighted dumbbell abs workout, programmed by trainer Jenna de León. The workout featured a warm-up, a four-exercise core circuit, and a cooldown. Get in, get out, get on with the day.

On my first day, I started with the 10-minute dumbbell strength workout followed by my first seven-minute abs workout (the challenge ‘stacks’ workouts, so it’s super customisable). I felt like I blinked and the dumbbell workout was done I used 7kg dumbbells and still had energy left in the tank after—so I made a mental note that I could try levelling up the resistance on my workouts.

The seven-minute abs workout repeats every single day on the abs enthusiast track, and I quickly realised it delivers a serious bang for your buck: short and efficient, but super spicy for the core. De León doesn’t just have you lying on a mat and repping out sit-ups or holding endless planks instead, each session starts with two minutes of cardio (like jumping jacks and high knees). It’s the type of core workout that still requires a high-impact sports bra and sweat-absorbing leggings.

Another element that motivated me: I could see in the video that de León herself was working hard. Her empowering exclamations and heavy breathing made me feel less alone in my workout and motivated me to keep fighting through bicycles just when I wanted to stop. I looked forward to my ‘sweat snack’ with her each day I ended up loving the short-and-sweet abs video so much that I added an extra core workout on my rest day too.

The only workout that made me a bit apprehensive the first time I came to it was Hannah Bower’s bodyweight EMOM workout. HIIT workouts are not really part of my routine anymore, and I worried how many burpees or other wild plyometric moves I’d have to do in the 20 minutes.

After the generous warm-up, I told myself I could take it easy the first round, aiming for 10 reps. It didn’t feel breezy, but I also knew I could push myself a bit harder. I wasn’t too far off Bower’s pace and felt better than I expected I was pleasantly surprised both by the variety of moves and my ability. Knee drives and split squat jumps hate to see me coming.

Yoga with Adriene Mishler was a much-needed refresh by the end of week one. It wasn’t that I was painfully exhausted from the other workouts, but the dedicated time for stretching and breathing is something I often skip or overlook in my usual routine.

The first week whizzed by and my motivation was still sky-high heading into week two. I shifted my focus into levelling up wherever I could and making the most of every second of every move. That meant grabbing heavier dumbbells and upping my rep count for the HIIT moves.

I used a 5kg dumbbell for the core moves and—whew. I swear I could feel every fibre engage in each rep. The same was true for the conditioning and dumbbell workouts. I used 10kg dumbbells and really felt the burn, especially with anything overhead.

I tuned into the coaches a bit closer, too. A few of Wilson’s motivational phrases really stuck with me, encouraging me to thank my body, and tell myself I’m proud of what I’ve done. Here. For. It.

I unfortunately caught a cold this week, but I still completed every workout. I rearranged the order so I did the HIIT workout on a higher energy day when I was feeling better and shorter sessions when I felt fatigued.

Knowing the exercises gave me time to focus on my form. This was especially true with the core exercises. For each one, I coordinated my breathing and thought about posture and position. If I started feeling tired, it helped distract me enough to push through and avoid taking mini breaks even with a heavier 7kg dumbbell.

I found myself actually enjoying the warm-ups and made the most of them. Things like Cossack squats with reach and duck squats in the HIIT warm-up felt so good.

I think the intentional warm-ups helped me avoid aches and pains after the new workouts and even when I used heavier weights. My body was primed for all the movements in each session.

By the fourth week, I could actually see a subtle change in the appearance of my core, especially when I flexed. Even better: I could feel a noticeable difference in how I sat, stood, and moved.

Case in point: I took my toddler sledding and felt my obliques engage when I pulled the sled (with my three year old aboard) back up the hill. I noticed deep core engagement on the swing at the playground as I pumped my legs alongside my daughter, too.

I also felt more stable on my snowboard thanks to my stronger core holding everything together and reacting to changes like bumps, ice, and vertical.

1. Don’t underestimate the power of a motivating trainer

If you’re like me and have fallen into a bit of a motivation rut with at-home workouts alone, I highly recommend trying a follow-along workout challenge that makes it feel like you’re in a class setting. It wasn’t hard for me to imagine each of the trainers from the Flex Challenge talking directly to me and inspiring me to push harder and hold positions longer.

2. Warm-ups are worth the extra time—and help keep your body in performance shape

Though sometimes I was tempted to skip through the warm-up exercises like I’ve done in the past, I stuck with the routine and followed every move the trainers performed (from jumping jacks kicking off a core routine to inchworms and Cossack squat reaches before a HIIT sesh). I’m so glad I did all the warm-ups because I never felt aches or pains after doing any new workouts.

3. Abs isolation workouts still have a place in a holistic fitness regimen

I’ve reported and written plenty of fitness stories that showcase incredible full-body functional strength workouts that effectively exercise your abs and strengthen your core without, say, crunches and other abs-specific exercises. And the Flex Challenge was exactly that, with full-body sessions that strengthened all over. But I also found the just-the-abs workout in the Flex Challenge incredibly valuable for increasing my core strength.

Working the core directly helped me zero in on not just the ‘six-pack’ muscles (or rectus abdominis), but also deeper muscles like the obliques, transverse abdominis, and the muscles in my lower back.

While I didn’t expect to see major changes in the short time I had for the challenge (carving abs takes time!), I surprised myself and noticed real results both in the mirror and in my everyday life.

While I technically finished the challenge, I’m feeling stronger and performing better than ever—so why would I stop now? Even since wrapping week four, I’ve kept up my daily core workout from the Abs Enthusiast track. It’s officially a habit, and I can always find the seven minutes I need to knock it out.

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Jennifer Nied is the fitness editor at Women’s Health and has more than 10 years of experience in health and wellness journalism. She’s always out exploring—sweat-testing exercises and gear, hiking, snowboarding, running, and more—with her husband, daughter, and dog.