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Fitness Friday: Fun Ab Exercises
Welcome to another edition of Fitness Friday!
I’m not sure about you guys, but I reeeeally dislike doing ab work. I don’t have the personal motivation to stick it through a long plank. I don’t like taking a break during my heart-pumping workout to lay down on a mat. I justify skipping ab work all the time because I’m “bracing my core” during all my other exercises.
Truth is, yes, we work our core in almost every exercise we do. But that alone is not enough. Core strength is imperative to everyday movement. A weak core can lead to a slew of pains and injuries in your back. I’m the kind of trainer who will tell you crunches are lame, but that doesn’t mean we should skip out on the core work all together.
The following are a list of some of my favourite core exercises. They’re the few that motivate me enough to focus on my tummy. And when done properly, it hurts to laugh the next day. The true sign of a good ab workout ;)
Diagonal Woodchop
Start holding a medicine ball or dumbbell (5-15 lbs). Come down into a partial squat, bring the weight to one side like you’re picking something up. The straighten up and push the weight above your head on the other side. Really exaggerate the movements to get the full benefit of the exercise.
Sit Up on Ball
Sit on the edge of the ball with your feet planted on the ground. Let your spine fall over the ball, and pull yourself up using your abs. Try not to let the ball roll underneath you. As this gets easier, you can hold a plate or medicine ball at your chest or above the head.
Reverse Crunch
Lay on the floor with your arms to your sides. Bring your feet above your body, with a slight bend to the knee. Using your abs, lift your hips toward the sky. Try not to tense up your neck and shoulders and don’t use force to get your hips up. As this gets easier, you can try doing it on a decline bench.
Prone Jackknife
With your feet on top of a ball and hands under your shoulders, roll your feet in toward your chest. Try to keep your hips down and control with your abs.
Ball Pike
A step up from the prone jackknife. Start in the same position, but bring your hips up in the air and toes on the ball. This one is hardcore!
Russian Twist
Take a seat with your feet on the floor and slight bend to the knee. Keeping your back straight, lean back bringing your torso to about 45 degrees. Hold your arms straight out in front of your chest (better with a weight like a dumbbell or ball) and twist your torso side to side. Try not to move your arms too much and keep the twist solely in your core. Make it harder by lifting your feet off the floor and/or sitting on the round part of a bosu ball.
Boat Pose
When I don’t feel like doing a plank, I do a boat pose to get my isometric core work in. Take on a similar position to the Russian twist, leaning back with a straight torso and slightly behind your sit bones. To begin, keep your knees at 90 degrees and shins parallel to the floor. Once you master that, bring your legs straight out like in the picture. Want to make it even harder? Get out that bosu ball!
Hanging Leg Raises
One of the hardest ones, but amazing once you master it! You can usually find horizontal bars on the cable machines at the gym. For a beginner, start by bending your knees toward your chest. Straighten your legs once you have that down, stopping once they’re parallel to the floor. Once you have that mastered, you can bring them all the way up like in the picture!
As always, there are tons more ab exercises to do. This is just a handy list of the ones I find to be:
1) effective
2) fun!
Just don’t watch any funny movies after ;)
Question of the Day: What’s your favourite ab exercise?
Weekend Delight
Hellohello!! Hope everyone had wonderful weekends :) I went MIA yesterday, but hopefully my new Fitness Friday series was enough to hold you over! I’m trying not to get all bent out of shape about posting every single day anymore. When it comes to writing, I’m a true believer in quality over quantity. But I’m happy to finally be sitting down to share my weekend with you!
Let’s get to the highlights, in a topical and orderly manner.
Breakfast
I like to think of Friday’s breakfast as the black & white cookie of oatmeal.
Dark chocolate dreams + marshmallow fluff atop protein oats.
Post picture, I swirled together the two melted toppings. My father said marshmallow fluff is not appropriate breakfast fare. I beg to differ.
I can’t get my new protein waffle recipe off my mind. On Saturday, I made another fluffy batch with date pieces cooked in. Dipped in a sauce of syrup and almond butter. It was nothing short of amazing.
This morning, I wanted more waffles, but was missing an ingredient.
Next best thing – coconut walnut french toast. Bread dredged through a mix of two eggs, almond milk, vanilla extract, cinnamon, flaked coconut and walnuts. Ohyes.
Snacks
A dark chocolate vitatop smothered in my Easy Peasy Cream Cheese Icing and flaked coconut.
Just how easy is it? One wedge of laughing cow cheese + one tablespoon marshmallow fluff = instant deliciousness.
New tasty snack thanks to Lynn – dates stuffed with cream cheese. Sugar and cream cheese were meant to be!
Music
My friends rocked it out on Friday night. I’m trying to learn how to take decent band pictures. The low light and movement makes it pretty damn hard! The pictures don’t do them justice either, you can listen to The Station Agents here ;)
Exercise
During my fitness assessment last week, I realized that I’ve been ignoring my core a little too much. Okay, I hate working my abs. But I know having a strong midsection is so important to not just sports and exercise, but everyday mobility. So here’s the ab-focused full-body strength workout I came up with:
Exercise | Sets | Reps | Load | Target |
Assisted pull-up | 3 | 12 | 70 lbs | Back, biceps |
Push-up | 3 | 12 | — | Chest, triceps |
Swiss ball crunch with dumbbell pullover | 3 | 12 | 10 lbs | Abs, upper back, chest |
Curtsy lunge | 3 | 24 | 30 lbs | Quads, glutes |
Swiss ball leg curl | 3 | 12 | — | Hamstrings |
Prone jackknife | 3 | 12 | — | Abs |
Front raise with lateral open | 3 | 12 | 5 lbs ea | Shoulders |
Back extension on roman chair | 3 | 12 | 10 lbs | Lower back, glutes |
Captain’s chair | 3 | 12 | — | Abs, hips |
Cable pushdown | 3 | 12 | 40 lbs | Triceps |
One arm cable bicep curl | 3 | 12 | 12 lbs | Biceps |
Cable horizontal woodchop | 3 | 12 | 25 lbs | Obliques |
I did these in mini-circuits of three exercises, indicated by the different colours. With a 15 minute cardio warm-up, whole thing took me 65 minutes :)
Beer
I did pretty well in terms of beer this weekend. I went out both Friday and Saturday nights, which provided ample opportunity to consume mass quantities of alcohol. I waited till Saturday night to splurge on any, and they were worthy splurges indeed.
Mill St. Lemon Tea Beer: “Sunset-coloured (orangey-amber) slightly sweet, malty palate with dry lemon-tea finish. Beer made with addition of Black tea leaves and lemon in aging tank. Very smooth and quenching; unfiltered.”
Smelled like tea, tasted like beer! A good tasting beer, thumbs up.
On an impulse, I treated myself to my new favourite beer, Fruli.
I know how some people feel about fruity beers, but this strawberry white is downright delightful.
The view at Sin & Redemption pub isn’t too bad either. Nice bike, no? ;)
Sausage
Because you can’t attend a barbecue without grilling up some of the delicious sausage prepared by your neighbourhood butcher. Featured here is a handmade garlic mushroom sausage. Probably one of the best sausages I’ve ever had. No joke. Not pictured is the sauerkraut that was eaten on top. Not audible are the “MmmMMmMmmms” made while eating this.
Salad
Because there’s no better way to wrap up a weekend than with a giant bowl of greens. This one here included some kale, tuna, olives, mozzarella cheese, and a dressing made up of pesto and lemon juice whisked together.
Last but not least, I bought a watermelon for two dollars today. A pretty stellar end to a pretty stellar weekend, I’d say :)
Question of the Day: What are your weekend highlights?