Super Ab H@$#!!!!

Oh my, that is all I can say. I got up for a nice workout, and received Ab punishment instead!

I walked into the gym and started stretching, but didn't really pay attention to the board. We were all talking, meaning everyone was complaining about how tired they were. Then Jason stepped aside and giggled. It's never a good sign when your trainer giggles.

Here was the workout:
TRX Three Ab Combo—30-30-30 (reps)
Power Wheel Three Ab Combo—30-30-30
Three Ab Combo—50-50-20
Swiss Ball Combo—20-20-20
Swiss Ball Passovers—20
Bosu 4 Point—30
One Leg Plan—45 Seconds Per Side
Crunches—100
Bicycle Crunches—100
Exercise Band Jackknifes—30
Heavy Bag 4 Point—40
Medicine Ball Jackknifes—30
Band Side Lunge—20 Each Side
Dumbbell Side Plank—30 Each Side
Tire Sit & Slam—40

As of right now, my abs don't hurt. I can tell they will hurt, but I have officially reached the "numb" stage. Tomorrow I do not think I will be able to straighten my spine.

I've documented most of these exercises before, but there are a couple new ones, so here we go.

The Swiss Ball Combo (by the way, a Swiss Ball is just a big exercise ball that you can sit on) involves holding the exercise ball between your ankles and doing leg lifts. After that, you sit on the exercise ball, roll down onto your back, and then roll as far back as you can (basically you want the ball as close to your behind as possible while you can still support yourself.) You then do crunches. After completing those, you put your feet on the ball, with your hands in push-up position and do pikes. By the time I got to these, my pikes weren't stellar.

The Swiss Ball Passover involves the Swiss Ball (surprise!) You lay on your back, with your arms extended over your head, holding the Swiss Ball. You then jackknife your body upward, and pass the ball to your feet. You then return to laying down. Each time you pass the ball counts as one. The key to this exercise is to not bring your legs to far up, they should be just short of vertical. If you go too far, you pin your crunch down, so you don't get enough of a crunch.

I've discussed Bosu Four Points before, but I'll quickly revisit them. You place the platform on the ground, so the exercise ball portion is facing up. You position your lower back on the top of the Bosu. You then spread your arms and legs, and then crunch up. This is an amazing ab exercise. Love it!

Exercise Bank Jackknifes are pretty good, but I can't get the timing right yet. You lay down, and place a light weight exercise band under your feet. You then cross the bands, so the handles are on the opposite side of your body. You then bring do a jackknife, and bring your chest and legs up, while pulling the exercise band handles straight out to the side. I end up doing a situp, or leg lift, instead of a jackknife. The key to this exercise is similar to the Swiss Ball Passover, don't bring your legs up to high, or you can pin your crunch to the ground.

Heavy Bag Four Points are just like the Bosu, except laying on a heavy bag.

Medicine Ball Jackknifes are a newer exercise for us. Similar to other exercises, you lay on your back with your arms extended above your head. You hold a medicine ball in your hands, then bring your legs and chest up and touch the ball to your legs.

Band side lunges are like starting a lawnmower or snowmobile. You hook a heavy exercise band around a punching bag. You hold both of the handles together in both hands (grab them both in your right hand, then grab your right hand with your left hand.) You step straight to the side and twist your body while holding your arms straight out. It's almost like a row, but your focusing on the twist.

Dumbbell side planks involve getting in a side plank position up on your hand. You then take a light dumbbell (like a 15 pounder) and put it in front of you. You use your top hand, hold the dumbbell and extend your hand straight up. You have to focus on twisting your core as you go.

The tire sit & slam was pretty cool. We have a bunch of regular size tires at the gym. You put one against the wall, preferably a brick wall. You put your feet inside the tire against the wall. You lay outside the tire and hold a medicine ball. You then do a situp and throw the medicine ball against the wall and catch it at the top of the situp. It's a very "Rocky" kind of exercise, but it was good.

Well, as I rely on my chair back to support myself, I will think fondly of not doing this exercise routine again today. I wont say I will never do it again, or Jason will bring it back on Monday. Have a good weekend!

Ab h@#!

What you see above is the result of our workout this morning, and before you ask, yes it was that bad.

As I reported yesterday, we did a horrendous workout focusing on our core. My wife did not join me yesterday, so I considered staying home today, but was up anyway, and decided it would be good for me.

We showed up to the gym at the same time as our trainer. We went in the gym, and the previous day's workout was still on the board. No one else in the 8 a.m. class had shown up on Friday, so I was telling them all how bad it was. As I finished my recount, the trainer agreed, and added, "That's why we're doing it again today!"

There was a moan from the group, well at least me. We hit our 12 ab exercises, and before class my abs hadn't felt bad. As soon as we started in on TRX Pikes to Upward Dog (a useful video at the link), my core started to scream at me, and I started mumbling things I shouldn't. The lowest amount of reps for a single ab exercise was 15 (that was for leg raises) up to 40 reps (for things like bicycle crunches.)

Here is the list:

• 20 - TRX Pikes to Upward Dog


• 20 - TRX Pendulum


• 20 - TRX Mt. Climbers (We didn't do the pendulum at the same time.)


• 20 - Crunches holding a Swiss Ball between our feet, about two feet off the ground.


• 20 - Swiss Ball Pikes


• 20 - Swiss Ball Leg Lifts (although we didn't pass the ball to our hands this time, just up and back down.)


• 20 - Power Wheel leg lifts


• 20 - Power Wheel Leg Curls (You lie on your back, lift your hips, and curl the legs back towards your buttocks. Really works the hamstrings with the curl, and the abs by lifting your hips.)


• 20 - Power Wheel Pikes


• 40 - Crunches


• 40 - Bicycle Crunches


• 15 - Leg Lifts

That was the end of abs. We then moved on to a run, which was about a mile.

This moved into the second stage of the workout.

• 15 - Medicine ball "Hop-Touch-Reach" (I know the video is of burpies, which is another difficult workout, but picture the first variation, holding a medicine ball.)


• 50 - Round house kicks per leg


• 100 - Walking lunges


• 30 - Swiss Ball Jumping Squats (I couldn't find a video of this, but you place a swiss ball in your lower back, against a wall. You start with your feet apart, jump up and bring your feet together and go into a narrow stance squat. Then you jump back out and do a wide stance squat. Every two squats counts as one for the rep count.)


• 4 lengths of the gym crawling like a bear. (You get into the upward dog yoga stance, and alternate hands and feet. It looks like Balu in the Jungle Book.)

Then we were supposed to do the ab portion again, but no one got that far.

Good workout, my abs hurt, and now I have to go be comatose somewhere. Enjoy your Saturday!