Hey y’all! I’m back from Savannah, GA! I had a wonderful time visiting that city and would love to return! While there, I did the New Move Monday, so here you go. You can do this exercise inside or outside!
♥♥♥
Sit on the edge of a bench, sidewalk or ledge. Hold onto the edge and extend the legs out as you lean back.
Bring your knees to your chest and lean back into the center. Repeat!
To make it harder……
Start in the same position as above, but place the arms above your head.
Bring your arms around to the side and towards your knees (as seen above) and lean in as you “crunch”. (Breathe and do with control!) Repeat!
On either variation, you want to balance the whole time and avoid touching anything as you repeat.
Repetitions: Do 2-3 sets of 15-20 reps.
Linking with Women Living Well!
I’ll have to try this one. My tummy is trying to get back to normal after child-birth. I was thinking about you yesterday as I was doing pushups on my girls play structure in our back yard : )
I’d love for you to link up at http://www.lessonsfromivy.com/2012/04/encouragement-in-trials-with-linky.html
Woo hoo! I love it!!
Your new move mondays are such a great idea! The exercise in this one used to be my fave, until I got diagnosed with a diastasis and had to eliminate anything that made my belly pooch out. I’ve also been avoiding full planks and all crunch-like motions for over a year and havent’ missed them at all! My abs are back together and stronger, despite three pregnancies! I can’t believe how much damage I did to myself and maybe others during my career in group fitness, using crunches as a crutch. Shudder! Anyway, I love what you are doing here, and I follow your facebook page. Fellow sister of Christ in the house! Woot! If you want to know more about current research on diastasis, just message me. I’d love to connect with you!
Hi, you have great form in this move. I don’t think I can do this. But I also don’t really want to do it. I quote: ‘ The National Institure for Occupational Safety and Health (1981) has set the action limit for low back compression at 3300N; repetetive loading above this level is linked with higher injury rates in workers, yet this is imposed on the spine with each repetition of the sit-up’. During the exercise in your photo, the same laod is placed on your spine. You might feel the nice burn in your abs but your spine takes the brunt of it. What you really need to work is your deep abdominals and the best abdominal exercise we should all be doing every day can be found here:
http://www.alignedandwell.com/?p=821&option=com_wordpress&Itemid=223
Keep up the spirit. We all need to teach women (and men and children) to exercise! But to exercise safely with maximum benefits.
Hey,
I love your photos! That’s a tough move for a lot of women to do, especially after they’ve had a baby. But, I’ll have to agree with Susanne on this one, I don’t know if they should be doing it. Not only will a move like that put a load on your spine, it’s also pulling apart your abdominal muscles, causing a rift and potentially leading to diastasis (which is really where most belly pooches are coming from). Try staying away from crunching moves and work on deep abdominals (like the Tuppler technique for example). I have a handout that I give my students with info on diastasis. Shoot me an email if you’d like a copy.
Keep up the gret work!
I love your photos! That’s a tough move for a lot of women to do, especially after they’ve had a baby. But, I’ll have to agree with Susanne on this one, I don’t know if they should be doing it. Not only will a move like that put a load on your spine, it’s also pulling apart your abdominal muscles, causing a rift and potentially leading to diastasis (which is really where most belly pooches are coming from). Try staying away from crunching moves and work on deep abdominals (like the Tuppler technique for example). I have a handout that I give my students with info on diastasis. Shoot me an email if you’d like a copy.
Keep up the gret work!
sorry about submitting the comment twice, my computer hiccupped!
Just got back from Savannah and Charleston, too, and it was so amazing and want to go back too! You are so strong! Being a STOTT pilates instructor I used to not only do, but teach this exercise a lot myself until I ran into a client with a diastasis – WOW! Changed my life and practice and lead me on a whole different path of thinking! Learned we have to be really careful about doing anything like these or crunches that might put pressure on the abdominals and actually push them out and weaken them, rather than pulling them in and strengthening them, and keeping the abs together to not cause a separation (diastasis). Had to start thinking a whole different way and modify everything I had learned in four years of studying to become STOTT certified as movements like these can exacerbate an existing problem, and create on that may not exist – tough lessons and rocked my boat, but I’m glad I did so I can now help others. Glad to share my research with you if you’d like – I know you are doing a great job out there, so keep up the good work encouraging women to get up and get going and care for these bodies the Lord’s given us! And I love your sub-title… encouraging women from the inside out – the only way to go in this world!
Wow, you look great! That’s awesome that you do workouts while on the road. That’s something I need to learn to do. I like your detailed and very visual posts. That helps a lot. I can’t do any crunch-like workouts, though, because I have diastasis and crunches will make it worse. I hope that through browsing I’ll find some ab workouts that I can do!