The core is everything

Being strong is one of the most wonderful feeling that I know and even if the journey can be painful there is few things that beats the feeling when you realize you can push your body to new limits. And as a house needs a strong foundation so does your body and therefore is he core one of the most important areas to strengthen (not only because you will look good in a bikini).

This is a few moves I did yesterday to strengthen my abs so I can do even more fun things at my yoga practice 😉

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I started out doing a slow pull in followed by as equal slow hip adductor and then finish off with a pushup. I did not have to do a crazy amount before I started feeling the nice familiar burn 😉

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I kept on working my abs but did a different variation to get deeper into my shoulders and upper back. This was a pike from a shoulder stand…

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From there I popped up to my hands and did another 10 pikes from the hands

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To finish the series off I oblique crunches…from a push up position you swing your knees to the outside of your triceps alternating the sides.

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A six-pack Monday

I loooove the summer and I looove the humidity and even if it makes it a little bit harder to breathe while running I don’t care and when I came into see Jonathan this morning he sent me and MrsL outside to warm up. We were running along Willow Road where you can find a little sneaky hill (there is not that many around) and we had set our heart on it. THe thing was though that we were supposed to turn around after 6 minutes but I guess both me and MrsL had issues with just turning around without finishing the hill. We ended up running for almost 2 miles and we were late coming back into class so Jonathan gave us the evil eye but a girl needs to do what a girl needs to do….finish the hill 🙂

The other ladies had already started the first circuit and although it was a total body workout we put a lot of focus on the abs.

core

My arms are still sore from Fridays killer workout especially the biceps and working with the 20 pounds medicine ball really got them working again when we were doing the 50 russian twist and the wood chops. The workout was not really cardio based but the humidity really got us sweating like there was no tomorrow.

woodchoprussian 

We kept on working with the medicine ball and first out in the third circuit was a “step back lunge with a twist then up to a high knee with a twist. I am not a big fan of this movement but I know for sure that is really effective working the core as well as the shoulders and arms.

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With the arms tiring out as we picked up the 16kg ketllebell and did slow 10 shoulder presses followed by 15 fast with help of the legs. The last set I could not finish the 15 because I was afraid the arms was going to give in and that the kettlebell would end up on top of my head, not to fun! We finished out on leg raises to the sides to get the obliques working.

 

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It was not that the workout was not hard but I actually did not run this weekend so I felt pretty fresh and the hour flew by fast. The last three exercises we did was weighted leg raises, plank with extended arms that was pretty straight forward but I could feel my lower back compensating when I did the squat to press. I would not be surprised if I wake up with an ache tomorrow morning but I don’t mind because I actually like waking up and when I move my limbs and they hurt I know I did something right the previous day.

weighted leg plank with ex

 

 

squat to press

Now the “big storm” is rolling in and I am sitting inside watching the sky light up and the rumble of thunder and hoping it wont rain too much because me and MrsL is going for a run in the forest tomorrow morning and I don’t wont to get my shoes muddy…lol