Hey, gang! It’s Day 4 of our challenge Now there were a couple of questions that I got this week, so I just want to address those before we get started. One of the first ones that I’m starting to see is that some of you are finding it hard to keep your core engaged. Well first off, just the fact that you’re aware of engaging your core, that’s huge and awesome! But especially as a beginner starting out, don’t expect to be able to hold the core engaged the entire time. That really does take a lot of muscle recruitment and will improve over time 😉
One of the suggestions that I have to help with that is to start by practicing. If you’re in a car, and you’re at a stoplight, visualize and engage the core by pulling your belly button towards your spine. So it’s not one of those, I’m going to turn sideways, conscious things where you do one of those. It’s more of just a gentle pulling in, and you feel the deep transverse abdominals engage. That only time that that muscle actively recruits on its own is when we sneeze, cough, or vomit. Honestly, we don’t really do that, I hope, a heck of a whole lot! So those muscles need to be trained to engage on a regular basis.
If you sit all day at work, that’s a great time to really think about just pulling that belly button in towards the spine, breathe regularly, and right now I’m doing that, and I can feel that muscle really working. Then let it go for a bit. The more you do that, the more the muscle will automatically start to engage when you go to do something. If you’ve ever watched a baby run or walk, they automatically brace their core before they go. But as adults, our bodies find ways to cheat. Believe it or not, they really do. So we short circuit that tendency, and we have to retrain our bodies.
Another question is about knees. If you have bad knees, do what’s right for you. This is addressing over 50 people, so it’s really hard for me to give one prescription, for lack of a better word, that is going to fit everyone. Feel free to comment below and then we can talk about it more privately one on one. But yes, shorten your range of motion for lunges. Only do squats. Shorten the amount that you’re doing. I’m giving you a lot of exercises to do in a short period of time. A more advanced person might find it a little bit easier. But if you’re just starting out on your journey, do five or ten, or pick one day and just go with that.
Also, quads hurting, the tops of the thighs. You’re activating all muscles in your legs. The only thing I’m going to say to that is just to make sure that when you’re exercising.What I can suggest is that when you’re doing the standing exercises, make sure the weight is in the heel of your foot so that you’re able to always wiggle your toes. Once your weight starts to shift towards your toes, you’re shifting the weight onto the front side of your body, hence your knees as well. So really think about keeping that weight back on those heels. As long as you can wiggle your toes, you know you’re good.
So yesterday’s abdominal exercise was the V up where we either came all the way up, all the way up, or the modification was halfway up. If that’s still too much, think about either just doing it one leg at a time, or bringing both knees in, and then slowly taking it down. Then as you progress with these, and I’m hoping that some of you are going to continue on with this workout, that you’ll get a little bit stronger, and it will be a little bit easier for you to do 🙂
Donkey Kicks
So exercise one is our butts. We’re going to start on our hands and knees again. So the good old fashioned, for those of you who have been around a while, these were really popular way back in the day. Well, they were popular for a reason, and they still are popular. You can call it a hydrant, a donkey kick, a side lift, or whatever you want.
But the idea here is to take it up, and then slowly take it down. Coming up, and then taking it down. Now, this is where you get into trouble, and this is where so many people get this exercise wrong. When we go to lift the leg so many people do this. The key is to keep everything aligned, pull that belly button in towards the spine, shoulder blades back down and away from the ears, and just lift the leg. So you’re going to be doing both sides all at once, not alternating side to side.
Bird Dog
The second one is called bird dog. It’s just a fancy title. But again, we’re still in hands and knee position. Now we’re going to activate everything. So here is a lot of balance, and the core is balanced by the way. You’re going to start by taking your right leg out behind you, and then the opposite arm, which is the left, would go out straight in front of you. Again, you don’t want to lean to that side, pull up and underneath opposite elbow to knee. Now we’re going to come in and crunch. So now we’re going to throw both abs and leg, and then extend out. Coming in, and then slowly taking it out. Again, exhaling on that harder part, inhaling as you go out. Keeping the wrist, elbow, and shoulder in a nice straight line, so you’re not putting a lot of twerk in that shoulder. Lifting out of that shoulder girdle, engaging in, taking it out, all on one side. Then switching to the other side. So those are the two exercises for butts.
Scissor Switch
Now for guts, we’re coming on down, and it’s called a scissor switch. The beauty is if you had trouble with the V up, this gives you a little bit of help. You’re going to come up, your leg is going to lift. You are going to grab onto that leg, and use that leg to lift you up. The more advanced version would be both legs stay off the mat, the core is engaged, the chest is lifted, abs are in, and switch, and switch, switch. Again, if this is too much all the way up, come on down. The idea is that the leg is going to help engage the core, and lift up. Just make sure that you’re feeling it there. Again, think about that chest.
Side to Side Hip Drop
Then hip drop side to side is our last one. You’re going back into your plank position, or what I like to call the hover position, where you’re on your forearms. So we’re here stabilized. Everything of the plank, or hover, is exactly the same. Only now I’m going to take my hip, lower it to one side. This is great for your obliques gang.
Then slowly pulling up. Down to the other side, slowly pulling it up. Down and up, down and up. Yes, you can still do this on your knees. But that one is huge for your obliques. Which obliques, by the way, wrap around. So think of your internal and external obliques, more or less your waistline. But they wrap and attach towards the mid-lower back. So sometimes when you do a lot of work or recruitment of those obliques you may feel a little bit of discomfort in the lower back. That doesn’t necessarily mean you’re doing it wrong, it’s just that that’s where that muscle group attaches.
So those are the four exercises for today. Donkeys, 30 per side. Your bird dog, 15 per side, all at once, though. Scissor switch, 20. Right and left equals one. Hip drops you’re going to do for 45 seconds.
Keep up the great work and see you on Day 5!
xoxo,
Jill Ciment | LIVE YOUR BEST LIFE 