Back Exercises

Hey fellow plankers ;)

There is something important that I need to talk about. I should've addressed it a while ago but I got a little carried away.

Working out antagonistic muscles. I'm sure we all do it with biceps/triceps or with quads/hamstrings but I find that the back muscles get ignored. Women work so hard on their abs to show off that sexy tummy that they forget about their back. Don't! Honestly, the lower back is just as important and is a must to have a nice posture. Think about it, the back muscles stabilize your spine! Now that's something you'd like to keep nice and healthy

Plank Update

My body has been screaming once again. It's tired... I developed this annoying itching sensation in my nose on Friday night that has now progressed to a cold. Hence, I tucked into bed with a scarf around my neck and didn't go running in 4C weather this weekend. I was smart to stay at home all of Saturday and just do homework. However, I had a conference to attend that I was organizing on Sunday so I was out of the house for good 8-9 hours. Blah! That made me feel even worse. I came back home on Sunday and slept for 11 hours!!! I usually get 6-7 hours a night! Well I took a day off on Monday and just stayed at home. In the morning I emailed a bunch of profs for nutritional sciences, did a bit of cooking, chilled with family, read, watched a show with my mom, and played Sims 3 for like 2 hours! Uber relaxing and much needed rest day! Oh.. I drank a lot of tea today! Yummy Roobois!

Since I've done an update on barefoot running, I though I'd should give an update on my planking.

Abs are made in the gym and are revealed in the kitchen.

Before I start, I want to raise a concern. Blogger has this feature that allows you to see what google search phrases led to your blog. Well one of them was "I need to be skinny". Seriously?! I felt so embarrassed because I was actually showing a few of my friends from the lab my blog when I discovered this and they were the ones to point it out. I hope my blog is not inspiring ED's or anything :S

Nobody needs to be skinny, that's crazy 0.0 Well I guess it depends on what you define as skinny... I've noticed that nowadays people's definition of skinny is someone of a healthy weight which makes sense since the average person is overweight. However, if the person who searched that is reading this please reconsider that statement. Being stick thin is not healthy nor is attractive. Being healthy and fit is. Period (how ironic... often stick thin girls don't get their periods).  

Anyways, on with the post!

My planks have improved drastically. You have no clue how happy it makes me! I took much fewer breaks during my 5 minute plank workouts and I'm actually starting to extend the workout. What I'm adding in are the Up-Down planks. It's a great way to add a solid arm workout to your plank series. I find them extremely difficult but I'll get there with time. My stomach itself is starting to look a lot more toned which is always a cherry on top :D I had my grandma feel and she gave me a thumbs up, Yay!

Something that I came across is this:

Tracking your workouts

Hey y'all :) Hope you enjoyed the little post about fecal transplants. It still cracks me up, haha!

Anyways, I came across a program called Training Peaks from Heather and decided to give it a try. It's completely free and is basically a workout tracking program. I'm still trying to figure out all of the features but it seems pretty cool at the moment. The interface looks just like a calendar where you can input your workout, run, swim, bike ride or whatever. In terms of running you can put in the distance with duration and it spits out the your pace and the amount of calories you burn. There's a little space where you can add description and comments of the workout which is amazing from tracking how you felt during or after. Then you can include the equipment you used, whether you did any interval training, what route you took, your HR zones and a bunch of other features I don't even understand!

I want to challenge you

As you all probably know I've been on a bit of plank spree. I actually really enjoy planks now. They were intimidating outrageously scary at first but now they just became a part of my routine. Yes... you have read this correctly- planks are really not that bad.

Da Plank

Last week I addressed my need for more strength training. I've never really been afraid of doing weights but I've always been pretty week. Sure I do build some muscle I'm not muscle gifted like my mom -.- Well she can't run like I do :P

Anyways, I needed an exercise that:

1. Did not require the gym/ a ton of equipment
2. Works out most major muscle groups (except legs)
3. Is pretty quick 

The Plank (aka the Whole Grail) is my weapon of choice. It works everything- the core (all of it!), arms, shoulders, and apparently even the butt! Smexy!

Yup the plank works them all (especially if you include side plank)

Skinny Fat?

I would like to start by saying that swimming is amazing. Honestly, it's one of the activities where you get a cardio +full body muscle workout. An amazing way to stay in shape and is uber fun especially if you're doing synchro :P

Well that's the problem, I've stopped doing synchro and switched over to running last year. My legs stayed in amazing shape, however the rest of my body lost muscle tone in a blink of an eye. Here's the deal, doing swimming I never really worried about strength training or doing much "land" exercise. Now with running, all I end up doing is cardio and that's about it.

I have become a scary word... Skinny Fat :S <hide under the desk>