Shredheads

Common problems with the 30 Day Shred

While both Bill and I sing the praises of the 30 Day Shred, and for good reason, we both realize that it might not necessarily work for everyone. However, I'm pretty certain that if you look at exactly what's causing your issues with it, you might be able to make it work with a few adapations.

Not Losing Weight

Keep in mind that the 30 Day Shred is only 20 minutes long, and will help you burn anywhere between 200-300 calories (not guaranteed of course). If you want to see weight loss, you must watch your caloric intake. Also, you actually have to do it. That sounds funny, but if you're just barely following Anita and not actually completing all the moves for as long as Jillian Michaels has them timed out, you're not going to get as good of a calorie burn.

Knees Hurt

This is a common complaint about the 30 Day Shred, and we strongly suggest that you get a new pair of cross training sneakers if you're planning on doing it regularly. If you've had knee problems and/or surgery, you might want to check out Bill's series of posts about adapting the 30 Day Shred for bad knees.

Not Enough Exercise

Given that it's only 20 minutes, many people say that they need more cardio, abs, and/or strength training. If that's the case, you can consider doing some of our adaptations to make the 30 Day Shred more interesting and more difficult. Or you can always double up and do two levels in one day. Bill has also done running and shredding in one day. (Crazy man!).

Boring

Well, any workout you do for an extended period of time will probably get boring. That's just human nature. If you can't keep up with doing the different levels 10 days each, then you can change things up and rotate in a few different kinds of workouts. We also like the other Jillian Michaels DVDs, however those are definitely longer than one level of the Shred. A super easy fix is to just turn off the sound and play your own music. Trust me, it does wonders.

Any other gripes about the 30 Day Shred that you want to share? We'll try to give you some solutions!

The 30 Day Shred 2010 - Adaptations

We've written about adaptations before, but it's always good to remind people that they're okay as long as you're still challenging yourself!  There are two basic ways to adapt the 30 Day Shred; you can make it easier/lower impact, or make it harder/more interesting.

Making Shred Easier/Lower Impact

You can obviously lower the weights or follow Anita to make the 30 Day Shred easier, but if you find that it's still too much, try looking at how I modify Shred to make it easier on my knees...

Making the 30 Day Shred Easier on the Knees - Level One 

Making the 30 Day Shred Easier on the Knees - Level Two

Making the 30 Day Shred Easier on the Knees - Level Three

You should also listen to your body.  We want No Injuries, Please.

Making Shred Harder/Keeping it Fresh

Adding weight is the most obvious way to make Shred harder.  Kristen talks about her experience adding weight in 30 Day Shred - Adding Weight.

If you have been doing Shred for a while and are either bored with the moves or if it's too easy, check out Keeping the 30 Day Shred Fresh.

You can also do more than one level, which isn't as time consuming as it sounds.  You can skip the cooldown of the first level and the warmup of the second, so it really just adds about 18 minutes to the workout.  But what an 18 minutes it is!

Give us your ideas or questions about adapting the 30 Day Shred.  We'd love to hear them!

-Bill