5-Day Butts and Guts Challenge: Day 3

Hey, gang! Here in New England, it has been a crazy day, but thankfully we never lost power in this snow storm!

Before we get started, there are three things I want to address. One is to be gentle with yourself. Some of you guys might be really coming down hard on yourself for being out of shape, or not eating healthy. It’s one day at a time. Progress, not perfection. You’ll get there. The hardest part you have already done, and that’s just getting started.

Also, we’re all on the same journey. We’re all in different places. Some are more advanced, some are not as advanced. Some are more beginners. Some are at their weight goal, some are not. So let’s all just be supportive of one another! That’s what this is all about; offering encouragement, support, and accountability.

Now a few of you raised a couple of questions about knee issues, and that’s a great thing to throw out there. Now one, my first question is always going to be, do you have knee issues? Now if you do, comment below and we can talk about it maybe a little bit more specifically.

But if it’s just, in general, I have a couple things to help 🙂

 I love the fact that sometimes you need to get in front of a mirror to actually see your form. Don’t just rely on the fact that you think you’re doing it the right way. So when you go to do your squats, make sure that your knees don’t go forward over your toes. I know this sounds funny, but think about sitting back on the toilet seat. If you sit forward, what’s going to happen? Woops. You want to make sure you’re pushing your weight way back.

Instead of relying on your knees, which a lot of times we do, because our muscles are weaker. Really think about activating the muscles as you come up, and try not to use your joints. So really pushing through your heels, squeezing those muscles will really help. If you’re still having issues, leave a comment below. 

Curtsy Lunges

So the first exercises are going to be for our butts. There’s two. The first one is called curtsy lunges. So it’s sort of taking a squat, and a lunge and turning them into a movement. Now again, if you’re having knee issues, this might be something that we’re going to need to think about modifying.

But you’re going to get down almost into a squat position. I’m going to start forward first, and then I’ll go sideways. Think about this as if you were going in front of the queen. You’re just going to sort of curtsy, come up, curtsy, come up. So the opposite leg is going behind you but on an angle.

You’re staying low so that your legs are active and engaged the entire time. I’m going to tell you right now, if you’re doing these on top of everything else, you’re really going to feel these. Again, be careful not to lean forward.  I always try to say, think of yourself as having a beautiful new pendant on, and you want to show everyone what it looks like. So the minute you start to drop your chest, no one can see that beautiful pendant, so keep that chest lifted as you’re doing these.

Side Leg Lift

Now that’s the only standing exercise today. We’re going to come on down. The second one is a side leg lift. So we’re here. Now again, you know me, I’m a stickler for form. Wrist, elbow, shoulder, all in alignment. Now I always like to take my hand and literally slide it up so that the two shoulders are stacked on top of one another. So now I’ve activated my core immensely just by doing that. Make sure we’re not right on that kneecap, and then lift your leg up.

Now again, for those with knee issues, we’re going to give you a modification  But the full movement is just straight up, straight down. You’re not sinking into that arm, you are lifting up out of it. A more advanced version is with the arm up, straight up, straight down, and not touching in between, if you can. Otherwise come down, tap, breast, lift.

Now with knee issues, you can absolutely come all the way down. Again, though, we’re not collapsing into that shoulder, we’re lifting up out of it, still opening up that chest, lengthening out of that spine, and doing the same thing, lifting up, lifting down.

V-Up

So you’ve got those two leg exercises. The next two exercises are for our guts. Guess who’s going to be joining me because I’m down. The first one is what we call a V up. Now I’m going to show you the easier version first, and then go to the second version. So you’re going to come all the way down, arms over your head. Your legs are slightly bent. You’re literally going to make yourself almost into a V by coming straight up, and then slowly coming down. Straight up, slowly coming down.

Now I can already hear, but Jill, what if I can’t come all the way up?

Great question. You’re just going to come up as far as you can, hold it, and then slowly come down. So you’re coming up, hold, and then slowly coming down. Now the more advanced version is legs out straight, arms overhead, and think of a V. So we’re bringing our legs and our arms up together into a V, and then slowly coming down. Coming up, and slowly coming down.

Mountain Climbers

Now exercise number four is mountain climbers. Your hands are right underneath those shoulders. You’re coming up onto your toes. Now what you want to do is activate that core. Pull that belly button up into the spine, engage your glutes. Lifting up so everything is active, and we start by bringing the legs in.

Now we are going to take our exercises from Day 1, our exercises from Day 2, and add these exercises together for Day 3. So we’ve got the curtsy lunges, 20 each leg or side to side is one. You have the side leg lifts, 30 per side. I’m liking that number 30. V-ups, because they’re a lot more difficult we’re only going to do 20 to start. Mountain climbers, 40. The side, side. So one leg in, second leg in equals one rep, it’s not one two.

Have an awesome, awesome day and hope you’re looking forward to Day 4! 

xoxo

-Jill