This is a really neat test! I love doing crunches so I thought this would be fun for me. I had to do my crunches different by placing my arms next to me which I don't care for. But I wanted to do the test right.
So my result....
67 crunches in 60 seconds!
WOOHOO!!!! According to the ratings that is EXCELLENT! Actually, more than excellent and even was above the excellent mark for the men ratings. LOL! And I did this right after I had finished my ab workout.
Here's the test if you would like to try it: The Crunch Test
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
My ab workout and a new goal
So I'm starting a new goal today! My goal is to do 30,000 crunches by January 1st.
How I do crunches
Obviously, most of us know how to do crunches. Lay on our back, knees bent up, bring our head up towards our knees and 'crunch'. Some people put their hands at their sides, cross their arms in front of them, whatever. I cross my arms in front of me. This feels most comfortable to me. If you do it this way make sure you are using your abs to bring you up, not your neck. If you are using your neck you will know it because it will start to hurt. Relax and breath. Remember it's not a race to see how fast you can get done. Focus on doing each crunch correctly.
Laying on the floor I can do 500 or so crunches at a time and while I am doing them correctly I don't really *feel* it. And I don't have all day to do tons of crunches. So now to do my crunches I lay on the girls incline mat (head at the bottom, feet at the top) and I'm feeling it pretty fast! I LOVE this!!!! I can't do as many, but I feel like I'm getting a better workout this way.
Variations
Regular crunches are great for working the upper abs... but there's more to work than that. So I do my crunches in a few different ways. I am NO expert... but this works for me. LOL! At this point I am doing 250 crunches at a time but am increasing weekly (I do not increase EACH set every week, I usually focus on increasing 1 or 2 sets at a time and then the next week increase another set or two).
50: My first 'set' of crunches I do like I mentioned above. Laying flat on my back, arms crossed and crunch up.
25: Second set I do side crunches to work on obliques. I lay on my back like I am going to do a normal crunch and then I drop my bent legs to the side on the floor. Upper body is still facing the ceiling. Then I crunch up just like a normal crunch.
25: Third set is normal.
25: Fourth set is side crunches again but on the other side.
25: Fifth set is normal.
50: Sixth set I move to the floor and do reverse crunches to work the lower abs. Lay on my back and then as I bring my upper body up I bring my knees up. On the way back down my legs go down but my feet don't touch the ground. And then repeat up and down... you get it. Simple, but effective (again, for me).
50: Seventh set... normal (on the floor).
That is the end of me 'counting' my crunches (at least for this challenge). I don't always do them in that order, but that's basically what I do.
At this point I usually move to doing planks. Here's a good tutorial on that: How to do a plank
After this I roll back over onto my back, knees slightly bent and feet spread apart (shoulder width). I crunch up and move "back and forth" tapping my heels with my fingers as I move. At this point I touch each heel 50 times before stopping. I do want to work on increasing this to tapping each heel 100 times but I always do this at the 'end' of my ab workout and I'm ready to be done. LOL!
Then I'm DONE! Roll over on my stomach and stretch out. Push up on my arms to stretch out more, etc....!
I do this 5 - 6 days/week. It doesn't take me long and I definitely feel like I have accomplished something when I'm done.
I am excited to see at what point I am able to reach 30,000 crunches. Based on what I'm doing now I should meet that goal before January 1st... but I wanted to keep the goal reasonable so I would not feel overwhelmed.
How I do crunches
Obviously, most of us know how to do crunches. Lay on our back, knees bent up, bring our head up towards our knees and 'crunch'. Some people put their hands at their sides, cross their arms in front of them, whatever. I cross my arms in front of me. This feels most comfortable to me. If you do it this way make sure you are using your abs to bring you up, not your neck. If you are using your neck you will know it because it will start to hurt. Relax and breath. Remember it's not a race to see how fast you can get done. Focus on doing each crunch correctly.
Laying on the floor I can do 500 or so crunches at a time and while I am doing them correctly I don't really *feel* it. And I don't have all day to do tons of crunches. So now to do my crunches I lay on the girls incline mat (head at the bottom, feet at the top) and I'm feeling it pretty fast! I LOVE this!!!! I can't do as many, but I feel like I'm getting a better workout this way.
Variations
Regular crunches are great for working the upper abs... but there's more to work than that. So I do my crunches in a few different ways. I am NO expert... but this works for me. LOL! At this point I am doing 250 crunches at a time but am increasing weekly (I do not increase EACH set every week, I usually focus on increasing 1 or 2 sets at a time and then the next week increase another set or two).
50: My first 'set' of crunches I do like I mentioned above. Laying flat on my back, arms crossed and crunch up.
25: Second set I do side crunches to work on obliques. I lay on my back like I am going to do a normal crunch and then I drop my bent legs to the side on the floor. Upper body is still facing the ceiling. Then I crunch up just like a normal crunch.
25: Third set is normal.
25: Fourth set is side crunches again but on the other side.
25: Fifth set is normal.
50: Sixth set I move to the floor and do reverse crunches to work the lower abs. Lay on my back and then as I bring my upper body up I bring my knees up. On the way back down my legs go down but my feet don't touch the ground. And then repeat up and down... you get it. Simple, but effective (again, for me).
50: Seventh set... normal (on the floor).
That is the end of me 'counting' my crunches (at least for this challenge). I don't always do them in that order, but that's basically what I do.
At this point I usually move to doing planks. Here's a good tutorial on that: How to do a plank
After this I roll back over onto my back, knees slightly bent and feet spread apart (shoulder width). I crunch up and move "back and forth" tapping my heels with my fingers as I move. At this point I touch each heel 50 times before stopping. I do want to work on increasing this to tapping each heel 100 times but I always do this at the 'end' of my ab workout and I'm ready to be done. LOL!
Then I'm DONE! Roll over on my stomach and stretch out. Push up on my arms to stretch out more, etc....!
I do this 5 - 6 days/week. It doesn't take me long and I definitely feel like I have accomplished something when I'm done.
I am excited to see at what point I am able to reach 30,000 crunches. Based on what I'm doing now I should meet that goal before January 1st... but I wanted to keep the goal reasonable so I would not feel overwhelmed.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Running Schedule: April 4th - April 10th
Every week I will be posting my running plans for the upcoming week. I will not be posting after every run like I did this week (I have just been too excited... lol) but I am sure some runs will be worth writing a post about.
APRIL 4th - APRIL 10th RUNNING SCHEDULE:
Sunday, April 4th ~ REST
Monday, April 5th ~ 4 miles
Tuesday, April 6th ~ 2 miles
Wednesday, April 7th ~ REST
Thursday, April 8th ~ 3 miles
Friday, April 9th ~ 3 miles
Saturday, April 10th ~ 3 miles
My total miles for the week should be 15 miles.
For the next few weeks I plan to keep this plan about the same and not increase my mileage by much to make sure I don't end up with an injury. I am amazed at how fast I have gotten to this point, I don't want to push it to much!
I am really looking forward to this week of running!
APRIL 4th - APRIL 10th RUNNING SCHEDULE:
Sunday, April 4th ~ REST
Monday, April 5th ~ 4 miles
Tuesday, April 6th ~ 2 miles
Wednesday, April 7th ~ REST
Thursday, April 8th ~ 3 miles
Friday, April 9th ~ 3 miles
Saturday, April 10th ~ 3 miles
My total miles for the week should be 15 miles.
For the next few weeks I plan to keep this plan about the same and not increase my mileage by much to make sure I don't end up with an injury. I am amazed at how fast I have gotten to this point, I don't want to push it to much!
I am really looking forward to this week of running!
First week of running... a success!
It is a BEAUTIFUL day here! Perfect for getting out and going for a nice run. And that's what I did! I ran 3 miles :) YEAH!! So this week I ran a total of 10 miles! I am SO happy with that! Especially considering I just started on Thursday. LOL!
I have my running schedule posted up on my fridge now to follow. One day at a time... I will stay focused, I will remember how much I love my running time, I will make it a priority. No excuses, no pushing it off 'until tomorrow'.
The best part of my running is that I really get a chance to clear my head. Put a few thoughts together and thank God for everything He has given me. I am so blessed!
I have my running schedule posted up on my fridge now to follow. One day at a time... I will stay focused, I will remember how much I love my running time, I will make it a priority. No excuses, no pushing it off 'until tomorrow'.
The best part of my running is that I really get a chance to clear my head. Put a few thoughts together and thank God for everything He has given me. I am so blessed!
Friday, April 2, 2010
Another great running day!
This morning I got up early, laced up my shoes and headed out. I ran 3 miles! YEAH! I had planned on only doing 2 since I had done 4 yesterday, but I was really feeling great so I threw in 1 more mile. I am just SO excited to be back out there.
It was VERY windy though. It wasn't so bad when the wind was behind me but when I was running into the wind I felt like I wasn't getting anywhere. It was okay though.... and it did keep me cool which is always nice! LOL!
More running tomorrow :)
It was VERY windy though. It wasn't so bad when the wind was behind me but when I was running into the wind I felt like I wasn't getting anywhere. It was okay though.... and it did keep me cool which is always nice! LOL!
More running tomorrow :)
Thursday, April 1, 2010
A confession... and a beginning
So it's kind of depressing to think about... but for really no reason I basically gave up running. One day turned into two days which turned into a week which turned into a month and before I knew it... I hadn't ran for a few months. I LOVE to run. Why did I quit? UGH! I'm really upset with myself for quitting. And to make it worse I KNOW the only way to do it again is start... but where do I start? Start over with C25K? The thought of that really disappoints me... I worked SO hard to get where I was. And now I have to start over? Just thinking about it makes me NOT want to do it. What if I quit again? What if I never get back to where I was? What if I head out to run and I can't make it 2 steps?
And then there's the goals I had set. Obviously, not happening. And it upsets me so much. I should be just a month away from running my first half marathon. I'm not. Why did I quit?
Okay, enough of that. LOL! I have finally decided to stop thinking about it SO much and just do it! I mean, I think about how disappointed I am in myself so much that it literally keeps me from getting back out there and running.
Today I headed out and I did 4 miles. I LOVED it!!! I have missed running SO much!! It is such a good time for me to just clear my head for a little bit and THINK! LOL! Sure, it took me like 48 minutes so I'm not as fast... but I did it. I DID IT!! And I'll keep working on it and I'm sure in no time I'll be running under 10 minute miles again (and working towards 8 minute miles).
I am now going to stop being so disappointed with myself and just run! I'm going to stop thinking about where I should be and where I'm not.
So, 4 miles today!!! WOOHOO!!! Now... I'm off to work on a plan to get posted up on the fridge (this was what really motivated me last time... SEEING what I had done and where I was headed. About the time that plan came down because a new one needed to go up is when I stopped running... I NEED that visual)!
More running tomorrow.....
And then there's the goals I had set. Obviously, not happening. And it upsets me so much. I should be just a month away from running my first half marathon. I'm not. Why did I quit?
Okay, enough of that. LOL! I have finally decided to stop thinking about it SO much and just do it! I mean, I think about how disappointed I am in myself so much that it literally keeps me from getting back out there and running.
Today I headed out and I did 4 miles. I LOVED it!!! I have missed running SO much!! It is such a good time for me to just clear my head for a little bit and THINK! LOL! Sure, it took me like 48 minutes so I'm not as fast... but I did it. I DID IT!! And I'll keep working on it and I'm sure in no time I'll be running under 10 minute miles again (and working towards 8 minute miles).
I am now going to stop being so disappointed with myself and just run! I'm going to stop thinking about where I should be and where I'm not.
So, 4 miles today!!! WOOHOO!!! Now... I'm off to work on a plan to get posted up on the fridge (this was what really motivated me last time... SEEING what I had done and where I was headed. About the time that plan came down because a new one needed to go up is when I stopped running... I NEED that visual)!
More running tomorrow.....
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Disappointed.... Congrats Saints!
Oh, those words pain me. LOL! "Congrats Saints"!
Tonights Superbowl game was a good one. But totally disappointing for us. We've been Colts fans for years and we were looking forward to watching Peyton and the Colts win another Superbowl. That didn't happen ... but I must say that the Saints really have played awesome this year. So congratulations to them on a great season.
Of course, we'll be rooting for the Colts again next year and we're proud of them for making it to the Superbowl this year.
I'm looking forward to the 2010 - 2011 NFL Season!!!
My little Colts fans....
Tonights Superbowl game was a good one. But totally disappointing for us. We've been Colts fans for years and we were looking forward to watching Peyton and the Colts win another Superbowl. That didn't happen ... but I must say that the Saints really have played awesome this year. So congratulations to them on a great season.
Of course, we'll be rooting for the Colts again next year and we're proud of them for making it to the Superbowl this year.
I'm looking forward to the 2010 - 2011 NFL Season!!!
My little Colts fans....
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