Planks
Are you doing the 30-Day Plank Challenge with us? These suckers are hard, but not impossible. It never hurts to have some tricks up your sleeve to help you hold your position when you think you can’t go o-n-e s-e-c-o-n-d longer.
When you’re starting to shake but you’re still a ways from completing your goal time, try using one of these tips…
1. Start Talking!
Yup. Out loud. Coach yourself on your plank position “Pull up your butt”, “Keep your back flat”. Give yourself encouragement “You can do this!”, “only 30 more seconds – you’ve GOT this!”.
2. Visualize Results
This is hard work, but you’re finally taking steps toward how you want your body to look. Conjure up a visual of what you’ll look like with tight abs instead of a saggy gut. What will you wear? How good are you going to feel? How proud of yourself will you be?
3. Go To Your ‘Happy Place’
Think of something that makes you happy. Spend some time remembering that vacation in Hawaii, or mentally plan the garden you’ll plant in the spring. Focus hard enough on it that you’re in that moment.
4. Catch Up On Your Reading
Grab the magazine you never have time to read. Start that book you loaded on your Kindle but haven’t gotten to yet.
5. Compete With Yourself
Set your phone timer and lay it on the floor right in front of your face. Pretend you’re in a race and it’s important that you finish. Count the timer down out loud, imagine everyone cheering you on from the sidelines. Push yourself to the finish line.
6. Use The Buddy System
Are you competitive? Enlist a friend or partner to plank with you. If you’re at all competitive, you will stick it out until your timer says 0:00. If your friend/partner starts to weaken, pump them up and encourage them to beat you. It’s a win-win.
7. Shake it Up!
If you’re really having trouble, be gentle and rock yourself a bit. Gently push yourself back with your arms and rock from your toes to the balls of your feet, then bring yourself back into position again. Slowly rock forward and backward (I found this eats up the time really quickly and is a great distraction).
8. Rock It Out!
If you’re someone who doesn’t enjoy the self talk and quiet reflection approach, turn on “Eye of the Tiger” and crank up the volume!
We can do this people! Let’s help each other out by commenting below with any tricks you have or words of encouragement.
We need motivation, and after reading your feedback, it sounds like you may need some too. Let’s help each other out.
We need to exercise, but with our crazy schedules, we know that committing ourselves to an exercise program that requires a chunk of time or a long-term commitment is setting ourselves up for failure. Sound familiar? We’ve found that exercising at home allows us to adjust our exercise times to our constantly changing schedules. We look for exercises that require a minimum of equipment, and produce quick results.
Our problem area? Abs. The best exercise we’ve found to strengthen the core that gives you ridiculously fast results is…The Plank.
What’s a “Plank”?
The plank (also called a front hold, hover, or abdominal bridge) is an isometric core strength exercise that involves maintaining a difficult position for extended periods of time. The most common plank is the front plank which is held in a push-up position with the body’s weight borne on forearms, elbows, and toes. -source: Wikipedia
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I was so embarrassed by the original photos of my side view, that my husband graciously allowed me to use him as a model.(Pleeeaase, join me in this challenge. I so need it!)
The plank engages and strengthens the muscles of the abdomen, back and shoulders. I swear it also strengthens the muscles in your butt too, but maybe that’s just in my case because my butt keeps dropping and I have to keep tightening it to pull it back up into position.
Here’s the challenge:
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Do you think it sounds too hard? Don’t be a weenie. Check this out…
The current world record (according to Guinness World Records) for the plank position is 3 hours 7 minutes and 15 seconds, set in Newport, Kentucky on 20 April 2013 by George Hood.
Bless your heart, George, but with all due respect….are you frickin’ crazy?!
We can DO this!!
We’re starting next Monday, January 20th. Comment below if you’re in.
Motivation and Encouragement:
[label]Read[/label]We Can Do This! – 8 Trick for Holding a Plank Position Longer
Do you find this to be inspiring or overwhelming?
A lot of us moms look down at our lower stomach pooch (or more – let’s be honest) and dream of the days where we could rock a pair of pants without that ever-present waist roll from leggings, tights, you-choose-your-pant.
Kelly Ripa hasn’t ever been big, per se, but she has had years where she struggled with her weight, whether it was physical or emotional. We’ve all been there at some point, haven’t we? Instead of just letting it go, she did something about it.
You can feel how you want about the always energetic Kelly Ripa but you can’t deny her hard work and determination. No, you can’t. Nope. I won’t hear of it.
Kelly goes to the gym 7 days a week, she has a ton of money, special classes she takes, access to the best foods (and even someone to prepare it if she wants). It hardly seems fair to compare ourselves to someone who has that kind of privilege.
What if I told you that I knew someone with a body JUST as incredible (actually, more healthy-looking), has no access to any high end food, diet plans, trainers and consultants. Oh, and this person has two kids and an aversion to the kitchen. The pics say “PP” which is referring to “postpartum”. Yep, that second baby was JUST born!
Now we’re talkin’!
This is Coral and she is our go-to QUICK, CHEAP and EASY fitness friend. We’re busy, we don’t have gobs of money and, if we’re being truthful, the whole thought of trainers, special plans, babysitters to go to the gym and all that business is just too much some days. Most days. Have I mentioned that Coral DOES NOT like to work out. Thank goodness, someone who gets it.
via Instagram @coral_forfitngiggles
Follow us on Bloglovin’ to read the upcoming post by Coral which will give you a little inspiration to start your thin-down before the New Year. Wouldn’t you rather just sit on the couch? Perfect. The workout includes the couch.
If you’re not familiar with Bloglovin, it’s a place where you can create a free account to have your favorite websites send you updates via email at the time and frequency you choose. No spam, just goodness. This is where you do it: CLICK RIGHT HERE.
In a perfect world, you’d wake up each morning, do what you love and get paid gobs of money for doing it. You wouldn’t have to deal with office drama, feeling bored and dreading that inevitable Monday morning.
That’s not possible for many of us. So, what do you do in order to not go bat sh*t crazy in the corporate world?
Have you thought of blogging?
What is blogging?
It’s a web log. Shorten the words and smoosh ’em together and youv’e got yourself a weblog.
It’s a form of networking. You write, you share and people read. That’s the most simple way to put it.
You’re reading a blog right now.
Who can blog?
You. When you’re at work thinking of all the things you’d rather be doing, what’s at the top of your list? What do you want to rant about? What makes you feel empowered?
What kind of blogger are you?
According to Zemanta.com, there are 7 types of bloggers:
- HEDONIST: Hedonists promote different lifestyles to enrich people’s daily routines. They are emotional and are not afraid to express feelings or reach out to others.
- TECHIE: Techies don’t get much satisfaction from the writing process, but enjoy spreading their word, sharing knowledge and educating.
- PROFESSIONAL: Professionals present accomplishments and seek feedback from their followers. For them, blogging is all about making connections.
- PREACHER: Preachers enjoy sharing content and interacting. They are all about studying content, presenting key viewpoints and opening a platform for further discussion.
- LIFE IMPROVER: Life improvers share know-how, give support and instruct people how to improve their life.
- BEAUTY HUNTER: Beauty hunters create or promote beautiful things, educate others and exchange opinions.
- LIFE STAGER: Life stagers are focused on life task situations, such as parenting, student life, marriage, senior life, etc. They are focused on emotional benefits of blogging. They search for help or they want to share their experience and make someone else’s life easier.
More of a visual person?
What should you name your blog?
To figure out a name, you can use your own (that’s easy) or you figure out what your blog is going to be about.
How do you figure out what you want to write about?
Think about this: When you want to escape or just get away from it all, what do you resort to? Crafting? Organizing? Talking with friends? Research?
Whatever your answer is probably describes your passion. Your passion is likely what you’re great at…naturally.
Now you have your subject and can come up with your name.
How and where do you start a blog?
Starting a blog is free. Now that you’ve discovered your name (ish), you can go to any of the following blog options (they are listed with the first three being the most popular) and get started.
We listed our 4 favorites and have enlisted the help of LifeHacker to explain our favorites.
WordPress is a popular open source blogging platform along the lines of the venerable Swiss Army knife.
Blogger is a popular and free blogging service owned by Google. Blogger’s big draw is ease of use and nearly instant setup. You can go from blog-less to publishing your first post in under 15 minutes thanks to its extremely easy setup process.
Tumblr is an interesting fusion between a full-fledged blog and a Twitter feed. Known as short-form or micro blogging, the style of blogging on a Tumblr blog is focused on short and frequent posts that are normally longer (or more focused on media like images or video) than Twitter updates but not as involved and formal as a regular blog post.
Posterous aims to be an absolutely no-fuss and zero-stress way to blog. You don’t need to sign up, you don’t need to know any code, you don’t need to know how to do anything but send an email to set up your own Posterous blog and start sharing your ideas and media. Simply email post@posterous.com from any email account and Posterous will create a YourName.Posterous.com blog for you.
In conclusion:
Don’t let the at-work boredom consume you. Take control. You can be a better person for everyone else if you take a moment to let out your passion!
Want to turn your blog into a paying business?
It’s all in our “Take your Business Online” eBook HERE. Instantly download today.
Once you get going, share your blog with us! We wanna read!! Have one already? Comment below by telling us what your blog is about and include the link!
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