Quote:
Originally Posted by aphil
~Planks: This strengthens the entire core, both the abs and back areas, and also provides some upper body and arm strengthening. The beginner position would be to do the planks on your knees, the advanced position would be to do them on your toes. (Much like the beginner and advanced knee/toe positions for pushups.)
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Also, once you get the hang of the planks, another great exercise is to incoorperate the yoga ball into it. This is what I do for my ab/core work out..
First I start with a regular old plank. I do planks on my arms rather than my hands because it bothers my wrist. This is what it looks like..
And then switch to a side plank...
Once and alternate one side to the other.. I usually hold each one for about 30seconds to a minute, and do each of them three times.. Once you feel comfortable you can dip your hips up and down in the side plank position for a really awesome oblique workout!!
Then, I incoorperate the yoga ball...
When you feel stable on the yoga ball, you can rotate your arms so that you are making a "circle" with the yoga ball. The further from your body you can get the circles to go(and the bigger) the better the ab workout.
I am tellin ya, I thought my stomach would never get tighter, I thought it would always be flabby (like you, child baring as done some damage). But it is getting firmer and flatter. I do these excersies 5 days a week after my cardio and strength training.