I Tried the Viral 12-3-30 Workout for 21 Days: Here's My Love-Hate Honest Review

Have you ever procrastinated on starting a fitness challenge, only to find yourself haunted by the thought of it? Meet Beatrice Caruso, a weight loss warrior who knows this struggle all too well. With her disarming blend of humor and honesty, Beatrice takes us on a journey through her experience with the viral 12-3-30 treadmill workout. From calf-cramping woes to unexpected knee discoveries, Beatrice's candid account invites readers to laugh, learn, and perhaps find the motivation to tackle their own fitness goals. Keep reading to follow Beatrice's three-week adventure and discover whether this trendy workout lives up to the hype.

What Is 12-3-30?

Beatrice explains, "Lauren Giraldo is a YouTuber. She typically does kind of lifestyle vlogs, and a while ago she went through a body transformation. She wanted to get healthier, she wanted to get more fit, but I don't want to tell her story and everything. I think she says it best and her video. Highly recommend. love her. As she was going through this body transformation, she came up with this challenge and it's a pretty straightforward concept and a lot of people started doing it. You just walk on a treadmill at a pace of three incline of 12 for 30 minutes, and in her video she said she did that five to six times a week."

My First Day: A Rude Awakening

 

"That is not easy, dude. … Oh man. I'm not conditioned for that kind of cardio anymore," Beatrice recounts. "For the past little while before this, I've just been walking on the treadmill. Nothing wrong with that, but walking uphill, it's such a steep climb. I don't know. 12 is steep. I'm not going to lie. Dying a little bit, very sweaty, very hot."

The Calf Conundrum

"I'm just going to let you know right now that walking at an incline of 12 is a special kind of [he-e-double-hockey-sticks]. It wouldn't be so bad. For the most part, my respiratory system has caught up. It doesn't feel as terrible on my lungs. However, my calves just keep getting tighter and tighter and I don't really know what to do about it," Beatrice shares.

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My Theory on Tight Calves

 

Beatrice theorizes, "When I was younger, I used to walk on my tiptoes everywhere. For years I would just be walking around in my tiptoes. So the equivalent of wearing heels in your developmental years. So I think that because when you're on your tiptoes, this is going to be a bad example, but when you're on your tiptoes, your calf is always contracted and then the front muscles extended how muscles work. But I have this theory that my calf muscle never fully lengthened."

The Unexpected Knee Discovery

 

"As I was trying to find interesting camera angles to make the monotony of the treadmill the slightest bit more interesting for you guys, I noticed something about my knees. It looked like baby heads, do they not? It looks like I was supposed to be triplets in the womb and I absorbed my siblings straight into my knee holes and they're just there now forever. Try to unsee it. I dare you," Beatrice humorously observes.

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My Calves Were Killing Me

 

"I didn't like it… I didn't like this challenge. For me personally, my calves killed me the entire time I was making up in the middle of the night with muscle spasms in my calves, which yeah, I would not have survived without rest days," Beatrice confesses. "And me saying that I didn't like the challenge is in no way, shape or form any kind of shade toward Lauren. She's absolutely amazing."

The Results

 

Beatrice shares her results: "When I began, I weighed in at 230.3 pounds and at the end of the 21 days, I now weigh 224.5 pounds. That means I lost 5.8 pounds during this challenge. Here are my beginning and ending measurements, and as you can see, I kind of lost everywhere on my body with the most loss coming from around my abdomen. Very happy about the two inches lost around my belly."

What I Saw in the Mirror

 

"So here we have the before and after pictures. I'm not seeing too much of a change, maybe in my face a little bit and maybe in my stomach, but otherwise, these look pretty identical," Beatrice notes. "And then we get to the side view, which is where I see the weight loss. Pretty significant change in my stomach. I'm very bloated in this one. I felt bloated that day. My double chin's kind of poking through. You can't really see it in this one because my shoulder's in the way, but it's a little less. But my definitely went down."

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Closing Thoughts

 

Beatrice concludes, "Ultimately just happy in general for completing the challenge, getting it out of the way. Another box checked and now we can focus on other things, hopefully more enjoyable things. Hopefully not like me having a petty beef with a challenge, you know what I mean? Hopefully it's something that I want to do, but I digress." And if you enjoyed this article, take advantage of these 15 Quick Ways to Lose Body Fat Percentage in a Week.