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Summary
On episode 91 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan takes on the wave of 30-day fitness and food challenges filling up social media feeds, from the plank challenge to Whole30-style eliminations, and asks whether they're actually worth doing.
His verdict: they can build real habits and accountability, especially with a friend doing them alongside you, but only if the challenge lines up with your actual goals and becomes part of an ongoing program rather than a 30-day stunt that ends when the calendar does.
He warns that missing a single day often causes people to quit entirely, and that challenges disconnected from your goals, like a push-up challenge for someone who wants to run faster, don't move the needle on what actually matters to you.
Links
- https://40plusfitness.com
Key Takeaways
- Thirty-day challenges work best when you have a partner for accountability. Doing a challenge alongside a friend adds intrinsic motivation to stick with it that doing it alone typically doesn't provide.
- Repeating an action daily for 30 days can be enough to start a habit. Allan notes research is mixed, some studies say 30 days, others closer to 66, but consistency over that window is often enough to shift behavior.
- Food and water challenges function like mini elimination diets. A structured 30-day reset, like a Whole30-style challenge, can meaningfully improve gut health and other markers in that timeframe.
- A challenge only helps if it's aligned with your actual goals. Allan's example: a push-up challenge won't make you a better kayaker or a faster runner; the exercise has to connect to what you're actually training for.
- The all-or-nothing structure causes most people to quit after one missed day. If the challenge is framed as “every single day for 30 days,” missing day 15 often means people abandon it entirely instead of picking back up the next day.
- A challenge needs a plan for what happens after day 30. Without a bigger program or an intent to keep going, like the podcaster Allan mentions who quit alcohol for 30 days and never went back, most people just return to their old baseline once the challenge ends.
- Even 30 days can move real, measurable health markers. Allan says consistent behavior over just a month can improve hormone profiles, cholesterol numbers, and blood pressure.
- The best use of a challenge is as a building block inside an ongoing program, not a standalone stunt. Allan's example: doing a burpee challenge specifically to get better at burpees so a weekly WOD that includes them doesn't wreck you, with burpees staying part of the regular routine after the 30 days end.
