Friday, January 22, 2010

Abs That Rock

My name is Sarah. I am a stay at home mom to my 9 month old daughter while my husband is finishing up his last few semesters in college. I'm Katie's walking buddy, and I'm also the one who took Katie to the abs class that nearly killed her. I am in no way an expert in abdominal workouts, nor do I have abs that in any way resemble a rock. But Katie asked me to share a few of the moves that we do in my class on The Skinny. I couldn't think of a good way to describe the exercises without making silly little videos of myself, so that's exactly what I did.
Now, this is just done on my kitchen floor with my husband recording me on our digital camera, so the quality isn't really that great. My form is far from perfect, but it will give you a general idea of what the moves are supposed to look like. I just chose a few of my favorites to demonstrate (and by favorites, I mean the moves that sort of make me feel like I'm going to die, but in a good way). With that said, onward to the embarrassing video clips!
I call this first exercise the "hard pushup thing". In class we use gliders, but paper towels work just fine. I like this exercise because it works my abs while I try to maintain a good pushup - or 'plank' - position, but it also really works on my upper body and arm strength.

Got it? Now repeat the whole cycle 3 or 4 times. My arms are really cooking by the end of it.
This next one I call the "one that makes my sides sore". There are three different levels of intensity for this move. The first is lifting just the knee, the second is touching the toe, and the third is lifting both legs up. I have (sort of) demonstrated all three levels in the clip.

Finally, this is the one I like to call the "lift your bum off the ground" move. It's pretty self explanatory. The one thing my instructor emphasises is it's not swinging the legs up, more lifting the legs up. Again, this one has 3 levels that I've (tried) to demonstrate.

And that's a small sampling of my abs class! I attend this class twice a week, and every time it really gives me a run for my money. When we're in the middle of a hard move, my instructor likes to call out "This is supposed to be hard! If it's not hard, you're not pushing yourself enough."

7 comments:

Katie Lewis said...

Haha! These are great! You make it all look so effortless! (For those of you who are wondering, it was the very first move she did in the very first video that ended in a face plant for me.) I am very impressed. Thanks for sharing these exercise videos!

Katie Lewis said...

P.S. For those of you who would like to try out the moves with your makeshift "gliders" just spray a little cleaner on the floor before you start and you can kill two birds with one stone! (Repositioning yourself around the kitchen as needed, of course.)

Dorothy said...

Awesome demo's Sarah! You are going to be so buff...already I can tell you're looking more fit! Guess I'll have to give it a try myself. :)

Kathy Haynie said...

Oh, ouch! Good job, Sarah! In the first video, after the part where you slide out and then go back to standing several times, are you doing a full pushup or a knee pushup--well, plank--for the other moves? I love your grin at the end of the 2nd video. You look proud of yourself - and you should be!

Sarah said...

Kathy - I try as much as I can to be in full plank position, but my arms aren't quite strong enough yet to hold it the whole time. So yeah, I was on my knees for some of it. :)

Lisa Lou said...

Man, these were so inspiring! I am going to try them all. And you look so happy after them!

Lauren @The Little Things We Do.... said...

way to demo for us :). thanks for some great ideas!

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