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1/4/13 Core Exercise Findings

Friday, January 04, 2013

Core Exercises

Muscles to consider: abs (aka obliques) and your tushie

Note: Many ab exercises involve crunches and or some kind of getting down and lifting your upper body up. Even though these are beginner exercises I do NOT enjoy them at my current level of fitness. Crunches depress me and hurt my neck (probably doing it wrong, but if my abs depending on solely crunches I would never work them) and once I am on the floor in whatever superman, plank, airplane, some-other-ridiculous-name-pos
e, uh, I am stuck and discouraged (probably due to bad upper arm strength)- that’s what happens when you are a heavy person. So, I gathered some that could be easily done by even the heaviest person UNTIL we build muscle and then move onto the more challenging ones.

emoticon Works the ABS (or obliques)
• Dumbbell Side Bends (hold two dumbbells horizontally and bend sides to half moon shape) www.sparkpeople.c
om/resource/exercises.asp?
exercise=68
• SEATED twist with medicine ball (sit on bottom hold medicine ball and/or weight in front of you, turn upper body from side to side) www.sparkpeople.c
om/resource/exercises.asp?
exercise=9

emoticon Another note: I was very surprised to see that Sparkpeople didn’t have (maybe I didnt notice it?) what my WiiFit has: TORSO TWISTS- incredibly incredibly easy and I have built a lot of muscle in the past from just doing these. Stand with feet shoulder length apart lift arms out to your sides, like flying, move left arm in front of you so you are creating a L shape with your upper body, think 90 degree angle, then move back to original position, then do the same for the right arm. After you do straight across to form L’s you can move arms downwards and upwards to create windmills. www.buzzle.com/ar
ticles/torso-twists.html

emoticon Works your tushie (aka gluteal muscles)
• Hip Flexor (standing upright, put hands on hips and lift knees straight up towards your shoulders) www.sparkpeople.c
om/resource/exercises.asp?
exercise=113

emoticon Also, found an amazing online stopwatch that is HUGE- very helpful to run when working with dumbbells as our Fitness tracker not only tracks sets, reps, etc. but also TIME
www.online-stopwatch.com
/large-stopwatch/

All in all, not very impressed, a bit intimidated and still confident to stick to what I know when it comes to my Core Friday routine. Any advice (as always) is super appreciated!
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  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

SLIMNDOWN2012 1/7/2013 9:53AM

    Another amazing standing ab workout, is standing in an athletic stance, like a squat ready stance, pace hands in a "freeze" (hands up by shoulders, elbows bent) position or a pre cartwheel place. Then bend to the right and left, the deeper the stance and the lower you go works your ENTIRE midsection at w deeper level. You choose your pace, reps and how deep you go. This may seem easy, but go easy! They burn, in the holy crap I have muscles where I didn't think I did way! Lol
Good luck and emoticon

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JANEMARIE77 1/6/2013 10:34AM

    emoticon emoticon

Comment edited on: 1/6/2013 10:38:08 AM

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2HAMSDIET 1/5/2013 10:42PM

    I emoticon find it is good to mix things up every now and then.

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MTPOETNH 1/4/2013 11:45PM

    Great Suggestions for core exercises- it is wonderful you have taken the time to find something you can do that fits your present fitness level and make you feel better about doing these important exercises . emoticon emoticon

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JENNY712 1/4/2013 10:40PM

    emoticon emoticon emoticon

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GAMMY98 1/4/2013 2:17PM

    Thanks for the exercise and were to go to get them. That is one of the things we all need to do is search for exercises that our bodies can handle. I am lucky enough that the apt. building were I live we do exercises 5 days a week. Kind of sad that not may people come to the class.

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MOMMACASSEY 1/4/2013 2:06PM

    Windmills! I remember doing windmills as a kid--it was my FAVE in PE, when I didn't like PE. But I haven't done them... probably since around that age... however many decades ago that was.

I am doing the January Jumpstart challenge, and today's workout was abs--but it was all from the comfort of a chair. The video is here: http://www.sparkpeople.com/re
source/videos-detail.asp?video=42 It's called the 12-minute seated core workout.

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MOMSFIVE1028 1/4/2013 2:03PM

    I'm with you hate crunches and they hurt my neck also, probably not enough ab strength to do them properly...yet... I always think, well if I was a trim as the person teaching this video I woudn't be having any issues doing these exercises, but when your knees hurt getting on and off the floor it's not that fun...lol

Thanks for the ideas. I've got another one to throw your way that I discovered last night in the pool. double knee lifts while in pool. either from a standing position (but have to be like chest deep to start), or from treading water (which is much harder). Another version of this is to sit on the edge of a chair and do knee lifts from there using your abs for the lifting motion.

Keep up the good work

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