I did Chloe Ting's Summer Shred Challenge

By now, I think anyone who's trying to be healthier during the quarantine period has seen Chloe Ting's workout videos or the many results video of people attempting her free workout programs. She has gained millions of followers during this pandemic and her growth is incredible to watch.

I was intrigued and I wanted to see for myself if they work.

They did and then they didn't.

In this article, I'll list my thoughts on her 4 weeks Summer Shred Challenge.

Pros:

1. It's free!

The lowest barrier to entry for a workout program as they usually cost something.

2. It's structured

Her website is user friendly and on it you can find the structured program broken down into what to do each day for 28 days with beautifully shot Youtube videos that is easy to follow along to.

I loved the fact she broke the rest days to in between workout days instead of 5 workout days a week with 2 consecutive rest days. I find that it's more sustainable for me in this particular format.

3. Minimal equipment

This is all bodyweight and all you require is a yoga mat. However, you are free to make it more challenging by using resistance bands or dumbbells.

4. It works

There are countless videos of people getting amazing results from doing her workouts.

I find her workout to be challenging at first, her abs exercises especially killed me. Surprisingly, I found my body easily adapting to the exercises and I could see my form getting better with time. It took little time to actually feel the strength in my movements.

I took pictures of my body before and after, and I could definitely see that I got leaner. My results weren't the most drastic but I was happy that for an average of an hour workout every day there were results.

Cons:

1. Estimated daily workout length is deceptively short

The estimated timing for each day didn't include warm up and cool downs and instead they were listed as optional videos even though these two things are essential for a safe and more efficient workout. Please do not skip them guys, they are so important.

Her rest periods are really short, like 5 seconds, and that's why her videos are mainly 10 - 15 minutes. In reality, I ended up having to pause and backtrack those exercises to make sure I did everything well.

All in all, my average daily count would be 50 - 70 minutes as opposed to the 20 - 40 minutes listed on the website. This is due to the warm up and cool downs that I did and the longer rest periods that I had to take.

Amusingly, you'll find comments under her videos stating that her videos are the only ones that people do not skip ads on just to get extra rest! It's funny because it's true.

2. It gets boring, really fast.

I couldn't finish the whole 4 weeks and quit after finishing the third week.

By the week 3, I was so sick of the music on those workout videos and just the repetitiveness of her workouts. I ended up skipping some videos because I literally just had enough of the abs exercises thrown in every day.

You'll find the same workout video at Day 1 on Day 20.

3. It stopped being challenging

As mentioned in the pros, my body adapted really fast to her exercises and at some point, I would finish my daily workout and I wasn't exhausted.

It didn't tax my muscles enough and I didn't feel "the burn" as it were. I had done other programs prior to this that had me feeling like 20 minutes were an hour half due to the intensity of the workouts.

I think this was a reason why I didn't quite see the results that I wanted to see because of the lack of weights.

Conclusion

Honestly, try it. If you need to build a routine, Chloe Ting's programs are an easy and free way of starting. There are people who religiously do her programs and she has a good record of putting out new program challenges. See if it's for you and if it doesn't, you would still be active!