As soon as I started taking Restore the Core at Karna Fitness I quickly realized I had a lot of work to do! I haven’t paid any attention to my core for quite a while, except for what’s required to get through a yoga class. (Which really isn’t much in the grand scheme of things.)
So lets go over a couple CORE STRENGTHS and WEAKNESSES that I’ve recently discovered:
STRENGTH: I can do planks like a champ! No, I can’t hold them for any crazy amount of time like 5 minutes…but I can keep my back straight & don’t need to drop down onto my elbows.
Yeah, that’s not me, and my back might not be THAT straight but you get the point…
WEAKNESS: I tend to over arch my back when I’m in tabletop position with extensions.
Again, not me, but that’s the “right” way. I let my belly sag if I don’t concentrate enough.
The instructor has to constantly remind me to keep my tummy up & in “as though there is an arrow shooting up from your mat & you don’t want to poke your belly”. Picturing that imaginary arrow really helps me get it right!
STRENGTH
: I like to try new things (like triathlons, group running, Zumba and Restore the Core) and meet new people while I’m at it!
That’s me with Meghann, Callie, Meredith and Carolyn at Central Café & Organics this weekend! I was a bad blogger & didn’t pull out my camera until after we finished eating – so thanks Carolyn & Meghann, I pilfered these group shots from you!
We met up for a quick lunch and a trip around the Saturday Market in St. Petersburg.
We spent the afternoon talking about local races, doggie antics and lots more, all while sampling some treats at the market and taking in some entertainment.
It was super fun to meet some of the bloggers I’ve been following since before AE even started!
Good food, good produce & great company – what better way to spend a Saturday!?
WEAKNESS: I don’t always pay attention to signs next to parking spaces…and therefore sometimes get parking tickets! Don’t judge – I was already running late after Restore the Core & had to high-tail it from downtown Sarasota to St. Pete in only 45 minutes. Of course I also got lost trying to find the place…so I parked in the first spot I saw…which just happened to have a 15 minute limit. Oopsie!
Wanna play a fun game? Guess how much the ticket is for!
A) $15.00 B) $25.00 C) $35.00 D) $40.00
If you guessed B you are correct!
Sorry, but there’s no prize for winning. I have to spend the entire prize fund on settling-up my tab with the City of St. Pete. Maybe next time you’ll actually win something!
(Did you catch what I just did there? I seamlessly transitioned from physical strengths and weaknesses right to metaphorical strengths and weaknesses…all without missing a beat! Awesome!)
WHAT ABOUT YOU: Is core work part of your regular fitness routine? Now that I’m seeing just how bad my core strength has gotten, I really should make it a more than once-a-week thing!
Years ago I had a sit up & plank routine I would do before bed. Then I stopped. Now that I’ve been back on my yoga mat for a year or so, my core is getting better. And my teachers have recently begun to add more purposeful core work to classes, which I like. Even when it’s plank to forearm plank and back again, over and over. I know that more core strength will help me in all my poses, and when I start biking again, and swimming.
Those plank to forearm & back reps are HARD! That’s great that your instructors include some core work to class-the class I take doesn’t include anything specifically for it (but I still love the class & the instructor). Once this 6 week Restore the Core session is over I might do at-home sessions each week!
I do various crunches during my strength routine, but I could definitely do more. I’m terrible at side planks. Good for you for making it part of your regular routine!
I’m bad a side planks too & usually have to put one leg down to stabilize myself.
I am really inconsistent with core training, except when I do the shred but that’s only 3 minutes of abs all together. After my half marathon I want to focus on core/flexibility/strength training a lot more!
Back in the day I would do 20+ min of core work after every.single.run! But that was in my single days when I had nothing better to do than hang out at the gym and flirt with boys, so the 20 extra minutes was more of a “priority” for me! Hehe!
After months off of weight training and core strengthening, I’m lifting again today. Every time I get injured the doc says, ‘work on core strength’ but the last go around, I was the strongest I’ve been in a long while. Go figure.
As bad as it sounds, I think it’s really a crap-shoot when it comes to who gets injured and who doesn’t, regardless of what we try to avoid!
I work my core pretty consistently, but I need to focus more on it if I want to see a difference. 5 minutes a day isn’t cutting it!
Heck, at this point 5 minutes a day would be awesome for me! I really should make the effort.
I try to work on my core and abs quite a bit and have been incorporating 5-10 minutes into my fitness routine on most days. I find that core strength really helps with running which is key!!
Core has never been my focus but w/ Body for Life and blog reading in general, I’ve really tried to be on top of it. So far, I can feel some killer muscles under the baby pouch!