One thing that has been cramping my style here is that it has been raining.  That makes it very easy for me to blow off any notion that I may have about going outside for a walk.  But regardless of whether I’m out there getting my steps, I still feel like I need a bit more movement in my days and I’ve come to terms with the fact that I need to workout at home.

There are so many options for home workouts these days. I bet we all still have a few workout DVDs laying around (I even found my old favorite, Callanetics on VHS in the garage a while ago – too bad we don’t have a VHS player anymore). I’ve seen a lot of paid content on offer – zoom yoga classes and stuff, but there is also so much free stuff out there, it seems crazy not to take advantage of some of it.

I started just doing yoga on my own a few weeks ago. It’s been good. I have a little routine that I put together for myself. I get to spend more time on poses that focus on my problem areas, I get to move at my own pace, and I get to include poses that aren’t that fashionable these days (like plow and fish). The little series that I have been practicing takes me between 30-40 minutes and afterwards I feel great – taller and aligned and ready for my day.

But the other morning I just WAS NOT IN THE MOOD. I knew that I need to move but I wasn’t feeling the yoga vibe. So, I dug out my Pilates notebook from college and had my own little mat Pilates session. About 15 minutes later, I was a new woman.

Then I was feeling motivated, so I did something that I have been contemplating for quite a while: I took a ballet class! I searched on YouTube and there were a bunch of options. Sure, my barre was my dining table, but it was a real ballet class with an accompanist, and I wore ballet slippers, so it totally counts.

Ever since San Francisco Ballet had to cancel their season, I’ve been seeing their clips of the dancers taking company class at home. If they can do it, I probably can too.

I was so delighted to find this ballet barre class from the Dutch National Ballet that was classic and straightforward enough that I could attempt to replicate the combinations.

My goodness, it sure was fun!  Ernst (the instructor) would demonstrate and then do the first side with you.  For the second side, you were all alone with Rex (the accompanist).  My brain thought that I totally got it, but my body was not so sure (especially my feet).

Somehow, I survived.  And somewhere deep, down, that little ballerina who lives inside of me woke up a little bit. She is excited at the prospect of inhabiting this body of mine again (I am too). Fortunately, there are no mirrors in my dining room to make either of us aware of how far away we are from the body that she used to inhabit.  It’ll be ok, we will just continue to show up for class with Ernst and Rex every other day or so and maybe eventually we will get my feet to start working again.

So that is my story about finding ways to move more at home.  How about you?  What are you doing?  Are you trying something new?  Something old?

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I have lovingly referred to my tummy region as my flabdominals for several years now.  I’m not sure when it happened, but at some point, my daily abdominal exercise habit evaporated and the era of flabdominals began.  Up to that point, I had been used to having a toned middle; it was not one of my problem areas that I needed to dress around.  Quickly, I had to learn to dress around the fluff that had invaded my middle.

Currently, I am feeling that I may be at a point with my fitness that I can conquer the flabdominals and reclaim an at-least moderately toned middle region.

And so, I am going to issue a challenge to myself to do 10 minutes of abdominal exercises everyday (in addition to anything that happens in any workout class at the gym) for 30 days.  I don’t want to turn it into a big thing that is going to become another block of time to schedule; I think that I can fit 10 minutes in either in the morning when I get back from the gym or as part of my bedtime routine.  I know that I will see some difference, I’m interested to see how much.  Also, I’m curious to know if it will stick, if I can get my daily ab exercise habit back.

One of my barriers to re-forming a daily ab habit (cough *lame excuse* cough, cough) was deciding what exercises to do.  So, this time, I’m going to set a series that will be my daily go-to.  Afterall, I do like to eliminate that whole having to think business whenever possible.

I think I’m going to go back to good old-fashioned Pilates mat series.  These are the exercises that I kept up for years after college.  Yes, I took Pilates as a class in college, that’s what dance majors do.  It was two units, we had a text book and tests and everything (of course I got an “A”).  The full series takes more than 10 minutes, I’m going to start with just a few.

10 (ish) Minute Ab Series

• Heel lowers (10 reps)
• Pilates 100s
• Roll Up (3-5 reps)
• Roll Over (3-5 reps)
• The Vacation Special (10 of each):
  • Single Leg Stretch
  • Grand Battement
  • Double Leg Stretch
  • Cross Over (Bicycles)
  • Leg Lowers

Do you already have a daily ab habit?  What are some of your go-to ab exercises?  The one you love and/or the one you hate so much but you know it works.

If you don’t have a daily ab habit, do you want to play flabdominal boot camp with me this month?  We can do a check-in at the end of the month (no measurements!) just to see how we did with doing the work, if we noticed any difference, if we are going to keep doing/do more/do better/do less.

Let me know if you want to play along at home!

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