Today is a rest day on my marathon training plan, and usually I would do just that. But this is Janathon and I can't blog about lounging on the sofa. (I probably could do, but only if I also did a plank on the sofa, in my PJs perhaps...)
Short of ideas, and being too stubborn to just do some squats and be done with it, I searched my blog for the
Tabata workout I did last year at circuit training. This session consists of eight exercises:
- bicycle crunches
- skipping
- press ups
- jogging on the spot
- squats
- ab curls
- star jumps
- lunges
Each exercise is done eight times, for 20 sec, with 10 sec rest in between. After every exercise I get a minute rest before the next exercise. Finally, a use for the interval timer app on my phone.
The largest area in my house to exercise is my front room. Blinds closed, big glass of water, ready to go. First exercise starts; I'm doing bicycle crunches in my jeans and t-shirt. By the end of the eight I'm sweating and definitely feeling my abs. Ouch!
Next up is skipping (I used an imaginary rope). I removed my jeans and double-checked the blinds one more time. And then I regretted removing my jeans, as my Christmas podge started to jiggle and flop around. Holy moly, now I know why I clad myself in Lycra to exercise. It's not for speed or efficiency, it's to protect my face. I'm grabbing onto everything until the first 20 sec is over. At this point my daughter arrives. "What are you doing mummy?" I DON'T KNOW!
Time for press ups. I can do these. I managed 5 full press ups before my arms decided they were not cooperating. I got onto my knees for 3/4 press ups and managed about 5 sets of them. I then fell back to the wall and did the remaining sets against it. My arms were screaming!
Jogging on the spot was similar to skipping except I was trying hard to pull everything in (and I was wearing my jeans again). Plus my daughter had decided to join in at this point, so we had the giggles. She joined in with squats too, but I made her count my ab curls because she's too little for sit ups. I managed 29 in one 20 sec interval, which I'm really pleased with.
By the time we reached star jumps, I was feeling OK about the jiggling (jeans were back off), although I wasn't noticing it as much, so perhaps the ab work had had some minor effect. Who knows, maybe I've done some nerve damage and I just couldn't feel anything.
Lunges at the end were rather sedate, I was attempting to teach my daughter the correct way to lunge, while concentrating on making sure my legs were lunging equally and my knees were behaving themselves. At the end, my daughter asked me to do "one more exercise', which turned out to be side leg lifts. Very elegant indeed, her ballet lessons must be paying off.
And that was it for day 3, 45 minutes of circuits. And I'm knackered. Tomorrow will be interesting, I'm running (Lycra-clad) in the rain. I'll probably moan a bit.
