[Insert Your Favorite Ab Pun Here] -- Fitness Goals 2011

One of my fitness goals for 2011 is to strengthen my core. My arms are strong and pretty, my legs can take me anywhere, but my middle section is weaksauce.

Planks kick my ASS. My trainer will have me do 3 sets of planks at 45 seconds each, usually at the end of a session, when I'm already tired and whiny. Oh, wait, I'm always whiny when I work out. The first 45 seconds I can usually do fine, but the second and third leave me cowering and whimpering, which is sad. And probably annoying.



So, I'd like to be able to hold a plank longer, for gloating factors. Not that I have many friends who would appreciate being able to hold a plank for two minutes, but still. Also, my lower back is weak due to a soccer injury in high school. The stronger my middle muscles are, the less likely it will be for me to re-cripple myself. I think.



Plus, if I ever get crazy and try to drop my body fat, it would be nice to have ripped abs. That's not likely to happen, though. I'll settle for being able to take a swift punch in the stomach without puking. Not that I've ever been punched hard enough in the stomach to induce vomiting, but should the need ever arise, I'd like to be prepared.



So, how am I going to achieve this goal? Because, it's great to have goals, but to achieve them, I need a game plan.

One of the first fitness blogs I ever started reading was I Am The Beholder. She swam in high school and college, trained for a half marathon, and kept herself awesomely fit in general. Plus, her writing style guaranteed her posts to always be interesting. Currently, she's in school and has a job, so her posting has slowed way down, but her archives are still a great read.

Why do you care? Why do I care? Well, she gave to her readers the two greatest ab workouts known to man. Well, known to me.

Back before running took over my every fitness thought, I combined her two ab workouts and created a series of flash cards. I had great ambitions to do 10 minutes a day of kick ass ab workouts. I think it lasted 2 days? I clearly wasn't very dedicated. Oh, and then I lost the flash cards. Yup.

What I'd like to do, for 2011, as part of my fitness goals, is plan on doing home ab workout (because everything listed in the links above you can do on the floor, in your pjs) at least 3 days a week, for at least 10 minutes at a time. I feel like that is a reasonable goal. It won't eat up giant chunks of my day, and I can forget for a few days in a row without totally screwing myself. And, I can bust them out whenever I remember. They won't leave me sweaty, so I won't have to take a shower afterward. They are very portable, which is great if I go on vacation. I even downloaded a program for my Evo that beeps at regular intervals, so I won't have to stare at a clock.

So, yes, a plan, Stan. 30 minutes a week of ab work. Totally feasible. Will very likely be beneficial, too. And I can do it in my pajamas.

I'll post my complete list of 2011 goals tomorrow.