326/365 Naughty Abs

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

This effective abs exercise is brought to you by Shaun T's Insanity. Work your shoulders, core, and more to get great abs. I suppose you could also consider this a functional exercise.

1. Start in your high plank position, hands under the shoulders, legs straight back behind you.
2. With your body planted in position, think about your pelvis. Using your abdominals, tilt your pelvis up towards your belly button.
3. Return to your starting position and repeat.

This is a very small movement but I guarantee that after 5 or 6, you'll start to feel it. Keep pressing your palms into the floor to keep your shoulders nice and strong and not hunched and sloppy.

In health,

Lauren

299/365 Spinal Balance, 2 Variations

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

Balance is super important for daily living especially as we get older. I like throwing in this Spinal Balance exercise at the end of my workout for one final burn in my shoulders and core.

The first example is your standard Spinal Balance.
1. Start with your knees under your hips and hands under your shoulders.

sorry for the crazy bottom image!

2. Extend your right arm forward and your left leg back behind you. Try to reach forward and up as much as possible without dropping your form. You will get the most benefit from any core exercise by keeping your core engaged and locked while doing whatever else with your appendages. From here you can squeeze elbow to knee and extend again or simply switch sides.

The second example is a challenging variation. You'll feel it in your hips and it will burn your shoulders and core even more.

1. Start in your Spinal Balance

2. Once you've held your extended arm and leg comfortably, rotate everything 90 degrees. Your right leg will now point to the right wall and your left arm will point to the left wall. Hold this position for 3-5 deep breaths.

3. Repeat on the other side.

In health,

Lauren

285/365 Shoulder Work: Y-Press-Down

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

Here is that move I mentioned last post: Y-Press-Down. This is just a combination of different shoulder exercises all rolled into one. You can work all three heads of your deltoid in one fell swoop!

1. Start with knees softly bent. Raise arms up in front of you into the shape of a Y.
2. Bend and lower elbows down to a 90 degree angle. Press the arms up straight overhead.
3. Making a semi-circle, slowly bring the arms down to your sides.

To switch it up, you can repeat the exercise in reverse. Bring your arms up in a semi-circle, bend the elbows down to 90 degrees, press up in the shape of a Y, lower down in front of you.

In health,

Lauren

284/365 Spring Workout: Legs, Shoulders, and Core

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

Truth be told, my workouts for these Wednesdays of legs, shoulders, and core changed from week to week. This was mostly due to me being dissatisfied with what I made and introducing sprint intervals to my treadmill routines. This is the workout I enjoyed the most:

Wednesdays
Deadlifts
Squats on Smith Machine
Lateral Flys
Y-Press-Down (illustration to come tomorrow)
Bicycles
Figure 4 Abs
V-Sits

I repeated the legs exercises 3x12, shoulder exercises 2x10, and core exercises 2x25. You of course should listen to your body and decide how many sets and reps you do should you decide to try out my spring workout.

In health,

Lauren