I Tried these Viral FitTok Workouts—Here’s How it Went

Over the past month, I tried trending FitTok workouts that intrigued me most. From a simple 30-minute incline walk to 600 crunches a day, here’s the good, the bad, and the ugly:

12-3-30 Treadmill Workout

This workout has been all over my For You Page: walk at a 12 percent incline at 3 mph for 30 minutes. After completing this workout multiple times in the past week alone, I’ve got to say—I love this routine. 

As someone who prefers resistance training, I’m not always motivated to add cardio into my gym sessions. To me, “cardio” meant I had to be drenched in sweat. But this low impact, LISS approach makes it more manageable physically and mentally at the end of an intense weight session. Plus, that burn in my bum as I climbed uphill was an enticing motivator. 

On days where I missed the sweat that comes from a vigorous run, I used Sweet Sweat to encourage perspiration. 

5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

45-Minute Stairmaster Challenge

I would like to provide a disclaimer for what I’m about to say. Any form of movement that is healthy and you take joy out of is a good way to spend your time…but I hated this workout. 

Here’s why: I find spending 10 minutes on the Stairmaster barely tolerable. It’s hard and, frankly, boring.  Designing my workout, I opted for a HIIT approach, but despite my efforts to jazz up the exercise, it just wasn’t for me. I’ll stick to my incline walking. 

2/5 stars ⭐⭐

The Lily James 600 Workout

This is another workout that seemed to haunt my For You Page over the past couple months (and with the original video garnering over 2 million likes on TikTok, it may be with good reason). 

In the video, we’re told Lily James prepared for her role as Pamela Anderson by performing 600 crunches a day—and the challenge calls for us to do the same for 30 days.

In truth, I didn’t follow this challenge to a T. I only did this 3 times a week because I don’t believe in training the same muscle group every day. Nevertheless, I reached 600 crunches by rolling out my yoga mat and completing the following:

• 100 regular crunches
• 100 bicycle crunches
• 50 reverse crunches
• 50 scissor kicks
• 100 Russian twists
• 50 toe touches
• 50 ankle taps
• 25 stability ball crunches
• 25 sliding crunches with core sliders
• 50 sit-ups

Did this workout feel good? It was hard, but yes. Would I do it again? Probably not. With the amount of breaks I needed to take, this workout could take me upwards of an hour to complete. Generally, I prefer to spend my exercise time more dynamically— adding 10-20 minutes of core at the end of a session. Still, it’s always fun to mix it up. 

3/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐

If FitTok teaches us anything, it’s that there are million ways to get active. So, try a few and figure out what works best for you!

This article was written by Melissa Pelowski.