Oh, Gwen. Is there anything you can't do? Gwen Stefani abs is one of my goals during this whole training/diet adventure. Just take a look:
*Sigh* One day...one day.
Like many good things in life, a solid mid-section does not just magically appear one morning because you will it to be so. It takes a lot of work and discipline to achieve rock-hard ab status. Incidently, having a strong core (your core includes the muscles in your abdominals, lower back, and glutes) also greatly improves your ability to run quickly and efficiently.
I've been meaning for the past month to start incorporating a cross-training day into my workout regime. I'm supposed to be doing this anyway, as per the plan, but it just hasn't been happening. I'm determined, however, and from heretoforth, Monday will be my X-Training day. It's the ideal day for me to do something besides run, because it's right after my LSD Sunday and Tuesday Track Day (arguably the two most grueling workouts of the week). So yesterday, I gave it a whirl...
How It Went
First of all, I spent 30 minutes on some crazy eliptical/stairstepper contraption. I thought it was a normal eliptical machine when I hopped on, but then noticed that I had the option to not only increase the resistance, but the incline as well. I cranked both up and man, were my butt and calves feeling the burn! The great thing about those types of machines is that you can flip through a crappy edition of Shape magazine (one of the most pointless publications ever, in this girl's opinion) and it tells you at the end how many calories you burned. 360 for me yesterday in one half hour. Really? How does the machine know that? Does it know my height? My weight? My metabolic rate? Whatever. I did and then I moved on to...
...the Core Workout. I found this online (runnersworld.com of course. Where else do I go? You know me by now. You could actually probably stop reading this and just start trolling around at RW.com and get more, better information. But please don't!) It talks about how ridiculously important it is to have a strong core as a run as it increases your stability, power, and endurance. It then goes on to give you run-down of a 15-minute core exercise plan that should be integrated into your workout regime 3 times a week. You can see it here.
This is supposedly the core workout done by Olympic Hurdler Lolo Jones. Meet Lolo:
Another set of amazing abs and a rock solid core. But I tell you what, after doing that stupid core workout yesterday, I feel not even one iota closer to either Gwen or Lolo status. I know it was only one day, but I barely felt the burn while I was going through the routine. So, this week I'm going to spend some time doing some research to come up with some better core exercises that will not only be a perfect addition to my running workouts but will bring my closer to my dreams of Gwen Stefani abs.
Help a Girl Out
Please - if anyone out there has any brilliant core workouts, let me know. I hear yoga is good for that, but I've never even tried it and am a little bit skeptical for reasons I can't quite explain. I've also been told that P90X and Insanity and those types of workouts are great for your core, but I have yet to experiment with any of those. Comments? Suggestions? I only have 5 months so I need to get on it!
Yo Ash... do you have access to a BOSU ball? Some of the best core/stability exercises I have come across use one.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the deadlift (low weight) is a great exercise to increase core strength.
We know a few people who have done P90X & have heard good things about that. One friend in particular has gotten in great shape with it without following any diet restrictions. Apparently some of the workouts are really long-I think 90 minutes is long!-but they vary from day to day & do incorporate yoga.
ReplyDeleteWe got Insanity, which is what I've been doing, along with using our elliptical on days I don't feel like getting my ass kicked quite as bad or when I wanted to watch basketball while I exercised. :-) It's really not for beginners but even if you're out of shape (like me!) You can still just pace yourself & hang in as much as possible & still get a good workout. The longest workout so far was around 45 minutes but they probably get longer/more intense in the 2nd month. That's the cool thing about it-no matter how ripped you are you can still push yourself harder with the circuit training on Insanity.
Anyway, I like the program-it's just a matter of not letting other things get in the way of me DOING it. There's one workout that is strictly abs & had some good exercises in it-no crunches! You'd probably do really well with Insanity. It's encouraging to see the people on the video sweating buckets & having to take breaks too because it's as hard as you push yourself to make it-so I'm not the only one sucking wind! And my cardio has improved in just a couple weeks as is evidenced by a "fit test" they have you do periodically to track results.
Also, it does have some yoga-type stuff in the Insanity with the stretching (I know from previous blogs how you feel about stretching & I'm kinda the same way, especially after the workout when all I wanna do is fall over...but it actually feels really good).
ReplyDeleteOh, & Gwen Stefani's abs are out of control. !!! What I wouldn't give for abs like hers...
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ReplyDeleteHaven't you seen those infomercials for the AB Circle!!! Lol, Get one! Or one of those cool belts that engage your abs all the time.
ReplyDeleteThe horrible thing about getting really good Gwen-esque like abs that I constantly hear? It's more about diet than anything. And if there's one thing that I can't keep in check, it's my diet. I would love to have abs and I don't mind core workouts (well obviously now my abs are being obscured by the small human in there) but I just can't hack the diet :( Good luck though!
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