Catherine Delannoy

Day Five – Abs Workout

If you think a minute goes by fast, you’ve never done a plank before.

Kris J Simpson

Yesterday, I took the day off from working out. My muscles were aching, and I realised that there was no way I would have a productive workout while they hurt so much. However, today is a new day, and it involved a new workout devised by 8fit – this time a nine-minute workout devised for my abs. I also got my husband to workout (and struggle) alongside me.

8fit made this workout seems easy – just a nine minute workout, with no traditional crunches or sit-ups. However, they’re a bit cheeky – no breaks were allowed.

So, if I didn’t do any crunches or sit-ups, what did I do? Well…

  • Forearm plank – 1 minute
  • Sidekicks – 15 seconds right, 15 seconds left
  • Isometric V-ups – 30 second hold
  • Plank hip dips – 30 seconds
  • Walking lunges – 30 seconds

For my first plank, I completed the minute completely on my toes. However, my abs were still aching from last week’s workout, so for my second and third I modified the plank and did them on my knees. Similarly, I switched between knees and toes for my plank hip dips.

I’m not sure about how much my abs will really be strengthened by a nine minute workout – last weeks workout seemed much more intense. However, it does feel great to be sticking to a workout routine (even if it’s just my 4th real workout since starting – not counting cycling).

On a slightly different note, one thing I have really liked with all the workouts I’ve used so far is the pictures and/or gifs that are provided alongside. They really help me to quickly figure out what I’m meant to be doing, which saves me from having to Google what an exercise is.

Till tomorrow – stay happy and healthy!

Catherine Delannoy

Day Two – Abs Workout

My abs are like my boyfriend… In that I don’t have a boyfriend.

Anonymous

I woke up today, and felt a twinge in my legs. That feeling only intensified as I stood up and began to walk around – apparently I really need to workout my legs more often! I’m hoping that as I workout more regularly my muscles aches will gradually ease.

After walking around a bit, trying to ease the ache in my legs, I headed to the bathroom to weigh myself – not exactly my favourite task. There it was – the weight stared back at me – 68.9kg. Meaning I need to lose 13.9 kilos to get to my goal. As a 164 cm woman, it’s very doable, but will still be a big challenge.

Today’s ab workout comes courtesy of Hugo Rivera of Bodybuilding.com. This screenshot doesn’t show it, but you do 3 sets of 15-20 reps for each of these exercises. As a beginner, I decided to just do 15 reps for each set, and I gave myself up to a minute between each set to recover.

Now, let’s be clear… I HATE abs exercises. However, I think it’s probably cause I have such poor ab muscles. If I can keep this routine up, I might have a chance of beginning to enjoy ab exercises.

I really struggled with the jackknife sit-ups, and ended up going to google to get some further instruction. Howcast had a great video, and I used their modified (i.e. simpler) version of the jackknife, as it was more suitable for my weak abs!

In contrast, the flat bench leg pull-ins were the simplest exercises for me, and offered a welcome respite.

As a fun little extra, I started to get a migraine halfway through my workout. I started getting them after my concussion, and they tend to come on when I get too tired, or get too dehydrated. Lately, it’s been really hot and humid, so if I don’t drink enough I quickly get painful head pain.

Regardless, I decided to power through, so as to keep on track with my challenge! For the 2nd and third sets of each exercise, I decided to follow yesterday’s example, and do two sets in a row for each exercise. For some reason, it just helps me to keep motivated.

So… review of today’s workout? This one was a real challenge. My ab muscles haven’t been worked this hard in a looooong time, and I can only imagine that I’m going to have some aches in my belly tomorrow.

Hope to catch up with you tomorrow – hopefully my predictions are all wrong!