My second thirty day challenge of the year takes things away from the mental side of life (language learning) and more into the physical (health and fitness). Don’t worry, I’m sure not all the challenges will fit into the Crystal Maze categories. Almost as if they were listening to me, Apple Fitness+ released some updates this year that included a handful of curated collections - workout schedules to help you achieve certain goals. One is to get a stronger back, one is to get a better night’s sleep, and one, clearly made just for me, is a thirty day core challenge.

The Core workouts on Apple Fitness have evolved over time, I remember that they originally only came in ten minute sessions, and when they released the 5 minute core workouts, I thought that five minute workouts barely seemed worth it.

I do not think that any more.

What I have found over the first week is that actually these five minute workouts, that I so easily wrote off when they first appeared, are actually really clever. It’s so short that you’re pretty confident you can get through it, it doesn’t take up too much of your time, and if it doesn’t go well, it can’t possibly have too much impact on the rest of your day because it’s only five minutes. It sort of eases the pressure and that means it’s more achievable and I’m much more likely to get to the end of the month on track.

Along with the recent updates, the team introduced a new twenty minute Core workout, but thankfully, the 30 day challenge does not include that. I’ve got three sets of ten workouts in store, presumably gradually getting harder. We start with the five minutes and progress to the ten, and by the end I’m sure I’ll be an expert on planking and crunching and have a fully formed six-pack. Right? Right??