Starting Slow And Building From There

Last night while putting one of the boys to bed, an article in a magazine jumped out at me. The topic was in regards to the misnomer about core strength and exercises. This hit home being that is what my focus is on now. The misnomer comes from the idea that in order to strengthen the core, dynamic exercises are needed, these being crunches, leg raises and twists. One of the biggest eye openers was that these are the same things that researchers do to a cadaver when they are trying to damage the spine. Ouch… So, if working the muscles with dynamic exercises is bad, what is the correct way to strengthen the core? The suggestion is for static exercises or those that require the stabilization of the core during movement of major muscle groups. Being able to hold the core rigid under stress is the key. Bridges, planks and the hunting dog poses where among those suggested.

To update, my progress, I've been doing crunches in the am. Because of the years of neglect, I've been able to get two sets of 50 in before my back aches to the point that I cannot continue. That changed this morning. My goal was to hold a plank pose for 30 seconds and do 3 sets, then move to the hunting dog for 3 sets of 30 seconds also. Well, I was only able to make it to 2 sets of 30 for the plank before my back went on me. Hopefully, after a couple session, I can get to 3 of 30 and add the next pose.

Generally, I feel a dull ache in my abs now but my back has been fine all day. I am going to change to 3 set of 20 seconds every other day and hopefully I can hold the pose and form for the entire time.

Nutritionally, I was able to also read an article in a running magazine regarding a philosophy on running nutrition. I am going to look of a book that was referenced and hopefully start preparing a meal a week if not two along that philosophy. In the mean time, I have started to limit my portion sizes and am consuming an adequate amount of water. My next step will be to have nutritional snacks available at work. No more energy bars, but switch to fruits and nuts.

So far the scale is still at 0 and not climbing. I consider that progress over the scale climbing. Tomorrow I will get into better defining my goals for the coming year and maybe even breaking them down into shorter term goals. But for now, I need to lose weight and gain core stability.