women’s fitness

Once a week I workout with a personal trainer. He’s actually my coworker and he offered to train the entire staff. Only 4 of us took advantage of his offer and I don’t mind at all. We work out on Tuesdays and each week he targets a different area. This week the main focus besides my triceps was my abs.

I will post an update next week on my results so far but my core was one of the main areas I wanted to focus on. The workout was on Tuesday and two days later I am still feeling the soreness! I guess my pervious ab workouts weren’t intense enough. He told me that one problem that many people have is that when they feel a little pain or burn in their muscles they rest and that is the worst thing to do. You must be consistent with the workout so your muscles can become stronger. If you take too long of a break it’s like you are starting from scratch again. It is ok to pause in between sets but it should not be too long to where your muscles return to their original state. Ok that was this weeks lesson now below you will find a list of the ab activities I did for my workout. I didn’t do all circuits straight through. I would work on my arms, shoulders, and hips in between. He says, “always let one muscle rest while you focus on the other.” So in between my ab circuits I would do other activities to rest my core.

Circuit 1 (3 reps)
1. 20 full sit ups
2. 20 half sit ups
3. 15 knee lifts in the captains chair
4. 20 side ab crunches (10 on each side)

Circuit 2 (2 reps)
1. Squat/Core rotation with 5 lb. weight (go in squat position hold 5 lb weight with both hands center for 2 counts, then to the right for 2 counts, then to the left for 2 counts, then back to the center for 2 counts) Do this 5x
2. 30 second superman
3. 30 second plank

Circuit 3 (2 reps)
1. 30 second plank touching knees simultaneously
2. 30 second superman with shoulder rotations
3. 30 second plank touching knees with alternating hands

Circuit 4 (3 reps)
1. 20 full sit ups
2. 20 half sit ups
3. 15 knee raises in captains chair
4. 20 side ab crunches (10 on each side)

Imagine this in addition to everything else I did. I dread Tuesdays! When it comes to targeting your abs you have to do more than sit-ups to see actual results. If you decide to try this workout let me know how it works out for you.

Hey my loves,

I have finally written down my workout goals and taking the necessary steps to achieve them. I took my measurements and everything. So here are my goals and I want to accomplish all of this by the end of April. I think that’s a fair timeline.

Goal Weight: 130 lbs- I gain most of my weight in my upper body. My face has gotten fatter, my arms are getting bigger and it’s not muscle, and my midsection is not bikini ready.

Target Areas for Toning: Thighs, Arms, Abs– this will require lots of cardio and strength training. I’ve been consistent the last week with my strength training, but I can’t tone muscle if it is covered in fat and so I need to step my cardio game up. I’ve been consistent with my lower body workout as well. The amount of squats and lunges I do is record breaking for me. I also started this ab challenge to tone that area. Dr. Oz says that a waist size over 32 inches means that you are at greater risk for heart disease. So I would like to lose about 3″-5″ off of my waist. I want to make sure that I am below 32. That’s the largest that it should be.

Miscellaneous: Improve my eating habits. I’ve really gotten better with this over the last month or so. I did have a few set backs, like when I went to Philly and one day at work when I was bombarded with every carb you could imagine. Since my small slip ups I’ve been increasing my water intake, my protein intake, and minimizing the amount of bad fat in my diet.

I’m seeing small results, but I am seeing something. I’m surprised at how much my upper body strength has improved. I gain most of my weight in my upper body so cardio is important and also strengthening my core, arms and shoulders.

I’m using my Prabal Gurung for Target dresses as measurements of progress. Both dresses were a little tight in the upper body so hopefully I see results soon because as soon as it gets warm I’m wearing those dresses!

Here is the new cardio circuit that I’m going to try. This is in between workouts that I have at my job’s bootcamp. The trainer said we need to do at lead 2-3 workouts in between our sessions. I had to go on YouTube to figure out how to do some of the moves but I have them down now. So here is the new circuit I’m starting today. I’ll do this 3 times this week in addition to other strengthening and core workouts. I found it on Instagram by the way lol

I’ll report back next week on my progress.