For the second day in a row I was in the gym bright and early (well, to me). Still being a little sore from yesterday and not wanting to overdo it I decided to take it a little easy on myself. Easy on myself consisted of twenty-five minutes doing cardio on a seated bike and then doing about twenty minutes of core exercises; not a terribly difficult workout. However, as I was headed down to the shower I was feeling definitive tightness in my abdominal muscles.
In doing the core exercises I learned some new exercises, and some new ways to do old exercises. The first new exercise I learned is called a
plank. Basically you lay out as though you were going to do a push-up except with your forearms flat on the floor/mat. Once in that position you squeeze your core muscles tight and hold the position. It sounds relatively simple and not terribly taxing, I certainly felt it though. The second I learned is called a canoodle (at least thats what the guy told me it was called). In order to do this sit and lean back on your palms with your arms straight, then lift your legs off the ground against one another at about a thirty degree angle. Once in position you pull your knees up to your chin while tightening your abdominal muscles and rocking your upper body towards your knees without lifting your palms. I found this exercise to be difficult because I felt off-balance for much of the change in position.
As an aside, while looking for confirmation on the name canoodle (I didn't find it) I found an
article by Paige Waehner which contains the ten 'best' abdominal exercises with the bicycle exercise coming in at number one.
