I’m sure we’ve all seen those viral YouTube workouts from Chloe Ting, MadFit, Pamela Reif, or other popular fitness influencers. I’m also sure we’ve also seen the flood of people in our YouTube recommended that tested one of these influencers’ workouts for a week and showed off their magical results. However, for this post, I’m going to take it up a notch and test out eight of the most viral ab workouts on YouTube. We’ll see whose is easiest, whose made me sweat the most, and whose I liked the most.
I first saw Luca Whitaker and Linda Sun do this video, and I’ve chosen a slightly different selection of workouts. I tried to standardize this as much as possible by finding some of the most subscribed fitness YouTubers and doing their most viewed ab workout video. Unlike Luca and Linda, I’m not going to be doing any of their arm, leg, or cardio workouts because first, many of these influencers are most known for their ab workouts, and second, me not being at 100% after my knee injury would result in me having to replace a lot of the exercises in the workout videos. With regard to the videos I’ll be using, I’ll likely be able to do all of the exercises, but I’ll be replacing any ones that are hard on my knees with lower-impact exercises.
I’ll be giving my thoughts on how I felt doing the workout, rating it based on difficulty and overall experience, and giving a brief summary of the workout. For reference, I play volleyball and had a serious knee injury last year, so exercises involving jumping or rapid bending and straightening of the knees are very difficult for me. At the time of production (September 2020), I work out every day for about an hour, alternating between a 3-mile run/10-min ab workout and a 10-min arm/15-min leg/10-min ab routine. I use MadFit workouts for arms and legs, and Chloe Ting workouts for abs. If we’re going into skill/strength level, I’d say I’m about intermediate.
With that, I’ll get right to testing out all of the workouts. My body HURTS after finishing this post, but anything for the content. Happy reading everyone!
Rating Breakdown
Intro: the YouTuber’s and video’s stats, how familiar I am with their workouts, any previous thoughts before going into the workout
Structure: how the workout was structured
Difficulty: 1-10, 10 being insanely hard; how much my body hurt after doing the workout
Experience: 1-10, 10 being best workout I’ve ever done; how enjoyable the whole experience was, how much I recommend the workout, whether I’d do it again, how well the video was organized/styled, types of exercises included, etc
Summary: the skill level/type of person I’d recommend it for (beginner, someone short on time, etc)
Chloe Ting
First up we have the one and only Chloe Ting, who has a whopping 14.3 million subscribers and essentially a fitness empire. She’s one of the best known fitness influencers, and she’s definitely had a big impact on the YouTube fitness community. I do her ab workouts every day, and I’ve liked them enough to have done them for over a month now. Slight bias here, oops. Today I did her most-viewed ab workout, which has 233 million freaking views, so it must be good, right? This video is the definition of viral workout, so we’ll see how it fares.
Structure: 21 exercises structured in supersets of 2 x 30 seconds on followed by 10 seconds rest → Chloe often also does 12 exercises, 40 seconds on and 10 seconds off
Difficulty: 5/10; my abs definitely got a workout, but I was doing fine throughout the whole thing; there was no point at which I had to stop exercises because I got too tired; I was able to successfully make it through the up and down planks at the end, so take that as you will
Experience: 9/10; I love how her workouts are structured; she provides a very positive viewer experience, with instructions for each exercise, a progress bar for how long you have left to go, a timer, and a preview of what the next exercise is; Chloe also brings a really positive attitude, which is motivating; she also offers free workout programs that someone can follow very easily every day; my only thing is that these can get repetitive because she has a set of exercises she likes to include in every workout
Summary: beginner-intermediate; not for someone who likes variety
Maddie Lymburner (MadFit)
Next up we have MadFit, the YouTuber I’ve been following for the longest. She’s kind of popped off recently, and has 4.5 million subscribers now, so big props to her. I’ve used her workouts since summer 2019, and I continued to use them when I started working out in quarantine. I eventually transitioned from her ab workouts to Chloe Ting’s just because they’ve gone so viral and I’ve seen so many people get really great results from her ab workouts. Her most viewed ab workout has a very nice 10.3 million views, so I’m excited to give it a try.
Structure: 10 exercises, 1 min each with no breaks in between
Difficulty: 7/10; midway through I was hurting and my legs were screaming at me, but then it got a lot easier after that; leg drops on leg drops on leg drops; my lower abs are definitely feeling targeted
Experience: 8/10; I liked how well-structured it was and how there was constant movement, but I would’ve liked a similar editing style to Chloe’s, where there’s a preview shown of the exercise; since you don’t know what’s coming, you lose a few seconds of exercise time trying to figure out what to do; she does do a good job of explaining the exercises well, though; there were a lot of leg drops in this particular workout, so that might not be the best if you don’t like those;
Summary: intermediate; for people who can pick up exercises quickly; not for someone who likes variety; many shorter workout options available for people who are short on time
Pamela Reif
Pamela Reif rounds out what I’d call the Holy Trinity of fitness YouTubers, the other two being Chloe Ting and MadFit. She’s really close to MadFit in terms of subscribers, with 4.5 million, and her most viewed ab workout has racked up 39.9 million views, making it the second most viral out of the eight I’m trying. I’ve heard so much about her, and I’ve also heard her workouts are the hardest of the three, but I’ve never actually tried one of them before. I’m looking forward to seeing how hard they really are, though I’m expecting my abs to be very sore tomorrow.
Structure: 20 exercises, 30 seconds each with no breaks in between
Difficulty: 9/10; there were some parts when I was doing fine and others where I felt like I needed to stop a few seconds early; definitely very challenging, but the short 30 second intervals made it easier
Experience: 7/10; I liked how many exercises were included in the workout and it felt like all parts of my abs; she moves very quickly and there aren’t any previews or instructions — you just have to watch her for a few seconds or know what the exercises is by name
Summary: advanced; for people who can pick up exercises quickly or who want to do a variety of exercises working all parts of the abs
Where I went before doing the next workout hehe
Cassey Ho (Blogilates)
I think of Cassey as the OG fitness YouTuber. The Chloe Ting before Chloe Ting was even on the Internet. I remember watching her in various sketches, commercials, and fitness videos in elementary school, and it’s great how she’s stayed relevant for over 10 years. She currently has 5.3 million subscribers, and her most viewed 10-minute ab workout has collected about 4.6 million views in the 10 years it’s been up on YouTube. As much as I’ve heard of her, I don’t think I’ve actually done any of her workouts before, so I’m excited to give this a try. Since this video is the oldest out of any on the list, it’ll be interesting to see how the popular videos of the YouTube fitness community have changed over time, if at all.
Structure: 8 exercises over 10 minutes, no rest
Difficulty: 8/10; my lower abs definitely felt it, and there was one exercise that I was about to just collapse during; slightly easier than Pamela’s because all the exercises were on your back and there were no planks
Experience: 6/10; I would’ve liked to see more variety in the exercises; she does a great job explaining the exercises; for this video specifically, there weren’t any timers or previews, so I didn’t know for how long a specific exercise was going to last; however, I think it’s because the video is so old and the technology wasn’t as advanced 10 years ago; for her recent videos, I would probably give her a 9 or 10 for this category because she has the instructions, the timers, the previews, everything
Summary: intermediate-advanced; could also be suited toward beginners because Cassey does a great job with her instructions, though the exercises are challenging
Holly Dolke
I haven’t heard too much about Holly, but she’s definitely a very popular YouTuber, with 1.2 million subscribers and 11.5 million views on her most popular ab workout. I think after all of the Chloe Ting and MadFit videos I’ve watched, YouTube thinks I’m a home workout fiend, so there’s been this one video from Holly that’s been popping up in my recommended over the last week. It seems like her workouts are well-liked and reach a big audience, but I’m going to put this workout to the test and see if it’s as good as the views hint it is. Who knows, maybe she’ll be the dark horse of this post.
Structure: 5 supersets of 4 exercises for 30 seconds each, with 30 seconds rest after each superset
Difficulty: 8/10; when I say I felt it, I mean I felt it; this workout really works your upper abs, and I guarantee you that if there wasn’t a 30 second rest between supersets, I would not have made it through the entire workout; the 30 second intervals made it easier, but since a lot of the exercises were doing one thing on the left side for 30 seconds and the same thing on the right side for 30 seconds, you were essentially doing the same movement for a minute
Experience: 9/10; I loved the structure of the workout because even with the rests, it was still very intense; I personally enjoyed the exercises included, but each exercise was done twice, meaning there was less variety in exercises; there were really clear instructions, a timer, as well as a preview of the next exercise, which combined to create a great workout experience; I’m definitely going to do this workout again
Summary: intermediate; not for people who dislike repetition
Emi Wong
Similar to Pamela Reif, I’ve heard her name here and there in the fitness community, so I definitely wanted to give her workouts a try. I’ve never done any of these before, but her most viewed ab video has 6 million views as of now and her channel has 2.9 million subscribers. She definitely reaches a wide audience, that’s safe to say. I’ve heard that her workouts may be a bit easier than other influencers’, but some people also say Chloe Ting’s workouts are easy (which they are not), so we’ll just have to see.
Structure: 15 exercises, 30 seconds each with 10 seconds rest
Difficulty: 5/10; my abs got in a good workout, especially my lower abs, but the short time intervals and frequent rests made it relatively easy to get through
Experience: 9/10; very similar structure and style as Chloe Ting; she provided previews of each exercise and the workout overall, as well as a timer; she had great instructions in her voiceover, and her demeanor was really positive and encouraging; you do 7 exercises and then repeat them, so there’s less variety, but I liked the exercises that were included (would’ve liked to see more planks and oblique work, though)
Summary: beginner-intermediate; not for someone who likes variety
Lilly Sabri
Just like Holly, I’m not familiar with Lilly’s content. Linda Sun featured her workouts in her video, and Lilly definitely has a big audience, with 1 million subscribers. Her most viewed ab workout has 8 million views, which is very impressive. Since I haven’t heard of her before this post, I don’t really know what to expect going in. Maybe I’ll be in pain for the next few days; maybe I’ll be totally fine afterward, so we’ll just have to see.
Structure: 10 exercises, 50 seconds each with 10 seconds rest
Difficulty: 6/10; this workout felt very similar to Chloe Ting’s usual workouts due to the similarity in structure and exercises included; it was harder than the Chloe Ting workout I tested because some exercises were more difficult and the time interval was longer
Experience: 8/10; I liked most of the exercises included because of how many different parts of the abs were worked; I would’ve liked to see more planks; she had great explanations during the rest periods, but sometimes they went into the workout periods and the 50 second timer started with me not knowing quite what to do
Summary: intermediate; for someone who wants to work the entire core; could be used by beginners, but the length of the workout periods may prove challenging
Where I went after the next workout hehe
Alexis Ren
Are we saving the best for last? We’ll see. Alexis Ren has 1 million YouTube subscribers, but I wouldn’t really call her a YouTuber since she’s much better known for her modeling work and has many more followers on Instagram. However, this ab workout has been appearing on my YouTube recommended for, I’m not kidding, years. It’s racked up 35 million views, which makes it the third-most viewed one that I’ve tried. Even though she's not technically a fitness YouTuber, I don’t think I could have done this post without trying this workout. Fingers crossed this makes me look like Alexis Ren.
Structure: 19 exercises, 30 seconds each with no breaks in between
Difficulty: 7.5/10; I felt this mostly in my upper abs, but I was able to get through this workout mostly with no problems; there were times when my abs were hurting, but I was able to get through the exercises due to the short 30 second intervals
Experience: 6/10; she included a lot of exercises that I liked, but most of these exercises involved a similar set of movements -- a lot of crunches; structured very similar to Pamela Reif in that there was a timer and a name for the exercise, but there weren’t any instructions or previews; you either had to watch her for a couple seconds or know the exercises by name; there wasn’t any noise/sound when the 30 seconds was up, so you needed to keep watching the screen to know when to stop
Summary: intermediate; not for people who like variety; for people who pick up things quickly
Final Ranking (Difficulty):
Pamela Reif (9/10)
Cassey Ho (Blogilates) (8/10)
Holly Dolke (8/10)
Alexis Ren (7.5/10)
Maddie Lymburner (MadFit) (7/10)
Lilly Sabri (6/10)
Chloe Ting (5/10)
Emi Wong (5/10)
Final Ranking (Experience):
Chloe Ting (9/10)
Emi Wong (9/10)
Holly Dolke (9/10)
Lilly Sabri (8/10)
Maddie Lymburner (MadFit) (8/10)
Pamela Reif (7/10)
Alexis Ren (6/10)
Cassey Ho (Blogilates) (6/10)
Overall Thoughts
I really enjoyed trying all of these different workouts this week. I’ll definitely be going back and doing some of them again as well as checking out some new YouTube channels, like Holly Dolke and Lilly Sabri. In the coming weeks, I’ll probably incorporate some of the more difficult workouts on this list, such as those from Pamela Reif and Holly Dolke, into my routine going forward. I also won’t stick to one fitness YouTuber like I have in the past because I think changing it up makes things more exciting and exposes you to possibly better and harder workouts. Goals going forward: get through Pamela Reif’s workouts without dying. I’m glad I did this post, and I hope y’all enjoyed reading it!
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