Posts Tagged ‘balance ball crunches’

Finally, the last week of the challenge has started. The first two weeks were definitely the most difficult as my body tried to adapt to a new workout routine. They were also difficult on my mind as I saw almost no change in my bodies physical appearance. Now I am on the downhill side of the challenge. I am able to increase my workouts and my body doesn’t fight me anymore. In fact, my body feels much better the days I exercise. Starting today, and continuing for the next few days, I will be going over the top 5 exercises I feel have been the most effective in my progress.

As I mentioned last week, the amount of time I spend working out each day is actually not very long. On average I spend about 20-30 minutes exercising and from last week have included about a 10 minute run each day. However, this also isn’t all at once. I break the workout into small sections and complete them whenever I can fit them in my schedule.

I am by no means a professional trainer, but splitting up my exercises though out the day hasn’t seemed to have any negative effects on my progress. Since my body can’t adapt to the changing patterns of my workouts, it may have even helped by forcing my body to be ready at all times. The workout program I am using actually even talks about the importance of changing up your routines so your body can’t adapt. This especially makes a lot of sense when you look at the way animals exercise. Most animals have a sleek muscular body, but only exercise in short bursts. You never see your dog or cat running for 2 hours a day. They exercise (or play) in short intensive burst throughout the day.

Exercises of the Day

1. Jumping Squats- Though it is a difficult exercise, jumping squats give a big bang for the buck. They allow me to get a great leg workout that uses both my calves and especially the thighs. They also require use of the mid section and get your whole body moving. After just a few reps my legs start feeling the burn. They also have the added benefit of increasing your vertical jump.
2. Balance Ball Crunches- Balance ball crunches are just as simple as they sound. You lay on a balance (exercise) ball and do crunches. The reason they are better than regular crunches is because your upper body is not supported and causes your body to use addition muscle groups. Since the ball moves, you also have to use stabilizer muscles. By sightly turning you body as you crunch, you can also work your obliques. The key is to do them slowly and really “squeeze” the crunch each time you do it. Try to focus on using your muscles rather than momentum.

Tomorrow, I will be giving more updates on my progress for the last week and covering another of my favorite exercises. Sign up to my RSS Feed to make sure you don’t miss it.