Challenge Day Fifteen

So my Niners lost :(  It was a good game though.  I'm disappointed but now it's on to basketball!  No time to dwell on what might have been!

BUT!!  The great news is that you have made it to the halfway point in the 30-day challenge!!  Your challenge for day fifteen is AB-mazing!  Ha!  I just made that word up.  Okay, maybe I didn't make it up but it sounded cooler if I made it up.  Instead of just one exercise tomorrow, I'm going to give you two.  Everyone always likes to work on their abs because who doesn't want a flatter stomach, right?  More importantly, though, your core/abs/trunk is what stabilizes your body every second of every day and we don't want those muscles to weaken.  It's equally important to strengthen your back muscles as well to ensure core balance. 

The first exercise is one of my absolute favorites.  Russian twists.  If I could do Russian twists for an hour and no other exercise and still get the same results, I would.  That's how much I love them!  So here's what they look like. 

The easiest way to get in the correct position is to sit with your legs out in front of you and then lean back until you feel your abs engage.  Once the abs engage, lift your feet off the ground.  Holding that position, you are going to rotate from right to left just using your abs and upper body.  If you have never done this exercise before, you might want to try it without weight for a few reps to just get the feel of it.  Once you are comfortable with the movements add weight.  I recommend no more than 10 pounds, especially if you are just starting out.  I want you to do 30 total (right and left).  If you have to take a 2-4 second break during the set, that's okay.  Just don't rest too long as we want the abs to work as hard as they can without too much rest. 

After you've done your 30 Russian twists, you are then going to do side plank.  Some of you may need to do modified side plank and that is completely fine.  Your focus should be on maintaining engaged core (abs, back and glutes) while you hold the position.  Here is what side plank looks like. 

To modify this, you will simply bend and rest your knees on the ground and lift up from there. 

I want you to hold this position for 30 seconds on each side.  If you feel good, try it twice on each side.  Between that and the Russian twists, your core will be getting a great workout. 

BE BOLD!! BE YOU!!