100d x 10m = 1 strong core (Page 5)

Oh for pete's sake--your abs look great! 

Can I use your boobs for my after?

LMAO!

And yes, they do look great! Why are you in this challenge again?

Yes. I am sore. And I still have five minutes to do tonight.

I hear you on this one. Lordy.

I was appalled at the whiteness of my belly, so today at the pool, I lifted up my shirt and let the sun in. I realized that my belly hadn't seen the sun since I was 8 months pregnant with my 12 year old. Yes. I wore a bikini to the pool at 8 months pregnant. And I rocked it, too. (Taught that other pool mom a lesson that summer. Never tell a pregnant woman who is wearing a modest maternity swim suit that she is "really hanging out there." Because she will let it all "hang out.")

Did two 30sec planks tonight at the end of my core WO, I felt like this after 5 seconds on each one!

Thanks for the invite, Switch......but this sounds like something that would make me cut down on beer.....I am decidedly NOT in!!

What's a plank?  Does this challenge include stretching?  Is it dark where you do this?  I'm scared.

Awwww, c'mon!!!! You're telling me I've got family genetics and lady chromosomes to fight???

Love the story. Of course you rocked it.

I'm honored.

I'm a big fan of torture chambers.

BTW, my abs are sore to the touch today.  I'm cursing myself.

Day two was just stability ball abs for me.  I did twice as many sets as I normally do to make the 5 minutes into 10!

A little tip for ball abs that I share with my classes:

Make sure you're seated on the "edge" of the ball (as though the ball had an edge) with knees at 90 degrees and weight into your feet.  Then, WITHOUT moving your butt position, keeping your tailbone glued to that ball "edge", lay all the way back over the ball, almost like a back bend.  It's that over extended position that really pulls the abs open before you contract them.  The ball should not move forward and back and when your done your butt should still be in the same position glued to the ball.

I see people doing these often with just their back on the ball and butt totally off the front.  That kinda takes away the point of being on the ball and becomes more like just doing crunches flat on the ground....which is the least effective way to get into that core!

Oooooh, thanks!  I've seen people do them so many different ways that I'm often confused. I do the butt glued and 90* knees, but the "back bend" I haven't been doing. Good to know...and knowing is half the battle. Now to go wage the war. 

Day 3 done...included those stupid side planks.  Thanks, Amy.

Now get out there and get it done...if this guy can do it, you can, too:

Great tips Noelle!  You reminded me that I wanted to share a couple of things with the group.

When doing core work, it is really important to try to engage all of your abs, including your transversus abdominus (little video tutorial on what they are and how to find them).  The first 3 minutes or so of every pilates class I teach I review this and remind people on how to engage and think about them.

The other caution that I give is that you should only do as many ab/core exercises as you can with good form, especially keeping the abs concave/in.  Once the abs start to out-pouch or poof up (whatever term you want to use here, but you get the idea) you are just reinforcing the stick-out or pooch.  You will come out ahead if you take a break for 15-30 seconds and come back and do a set with good form.

The last tip of the day is to really think about muscle recruitment/engagement while you're doing the work.  Do this little exercise with me:

• Do a bicep curl motion imagining you are holding a pencil, notice how that feels.
• Now do a bicep curl imagining you are holding a 5lb weight, notice how that feels.
• Finally, do a bicep curl imagining you are holding a 25lb weight, notice how that feels.

In each of these scenarios, the actual weight at the end of the lever has not changed, only what you are thinking about has changes, yet your muscle recruitment has absolutely changed, so much so that I bet you could fatigue yourself doing bicep curls with an imaginary 25lb weight. 

If you think about what you're doing during strength training--including core work--

you will absolutely (see what I did there <---) get better results.

Go us!

"transversus abdominus"

Just another reason not to join.....chit I can't pronounce.