Grab Your Tuna!

[stevienickstophat]

This is a thread about reclaiming exercise for those of us who never felt it was for us, or who lost our confidence after childbirth or illness or injury, or just lost our way a little bit regarding looking after ourselves.

This thread is about realising that getting up off the sofa and moving about a bit can be enjoyable, can be done in our pyjamas and can be fitted into lives that are too often lived for the benefit of other people.

This is a thread about firming up our wobbly bits, strengthening our bones, making our joints flexible and lifting our moods, so that the rest of our lives are that little bit easier and more enjoyable.

So, grab your tuna, wrestle yourself into your sports bra and watch out for the Little Differences!

I can't do abs, I'm just crap at it. I know I use my neck to lift me up when I try to do sit ups - can anyone give me a way to build myself up to do proper sit ups?

Can you not just do crunches (not Crunchies) instead Paradise? They are effective as my stomach muscles were telling me Friday. Have had the weekend off as don't want to excercise in front of crytical DH. Need a kick up the bum to do them now he is at work.

Hope you feel better soon Moody. How about some gentle yoga?

Ive just realised that my title is quite specific and it could out me, therefore im going to ask for that post to be deleted.

Just puffed through tone and sculpt, box fit and stretch.

Stevie, have you managed to get started again yet?

In spite of very interrupted sleep last night (DS woke me at 2am with a temperature and sore throat and I had to go hunt for cough mixture, paracetamol and lozenges) I just about managed to lug my still-recovering-from-yesterday's-time-change-and-a-late-Saturday-night body through a warm up, fat buster and a (me thinks) a well earned stretch at the end. No idea how! However, if I leave everything lined up the night before, I can usually convince myself that I can do 7 mins. I'll try for more tomorrow, but every 7 mins is a bonus as far as I'm concerned. Stevie are you back on board yet? This is all your fault!!

paradise

Crunches
bicycle crunches
rowing machine at gym
Toe touches
planks (including side planks, T planks, reverse planks etc).
Some weight lifting movements help
V lifts
russion twists (with feet off floor)

When doing situps, try lying on a bench with your feet hanging off or someone sitting on your feet/hohooking yiur feet under something. It is ok to use your hands to support the weight of your head, so do that, look up/tilt head back and relax it into your hands. Work on using your abs to do the work. Have a go as if you were in the army and the rest of your platoon will be punished if you don't! (Helps me with a push up!)

Oops, sorry, velma - my degree was in English Lit (decades ago) so I just wondered what sort of period/genre you were focussing on. Apologies if that led to you accidentally outing yourself.

Brought Davina to Barcelona for a token effort at fitness before tucking into the jamon and morcilla for the rest of the day .

Buzzard - I half took your advice! Did day 7 of the 30 days of yoga. Definitely not gentle! In fact, bloody hard! Loved it though and now feeling great! Thanks!

Evening everyone ... you're all brilliant! I haven't exercised since last Tuesday ... am feeling awful with a cold and cough that leaves me unable to speak and has exercised my abdominals without me having to bother! Also very busy IRL with lambing so my me time has gone out the window. Will get back to it, somehow, once I get over this cough. Meantime, I shall keep popping in so as to stay motivated.

Morning!

Bah to the bloody wind, kept me up most of the night, it's pretty rough out there!

So, I nearly cried off this morning but I've started the week with a warm up and legs without! Might to another sesh tonight as I'm possibly not going to have time in the morning!

Think today might be a bad hair day! Enjoy!

The bloody clocks changing has really thrown me. I had my alarm on as normal, and I just couldn't get out of bed to motivate myself, so I slept until 7.30. DD got up at 8! This has resulted in me not getting any Davina done this morning.

I've had a few hours sorting some stuff out for my dissertation (I got my introduction written yesterday, so I'm quite pleased). I'm now eating lunch and then I'm going to see somebody who is going to help me organise my focus groups.

lala don't apologise, it wasn't you with the verbal diarrhoea of a gob! I don't know if you saw my message before it got deleted, but my dissertation is for my MSc (I've been studying it distance learning for 3 years and this is the last thing to do). The crux of my research is about change and the effect on employee engagement.

Seeing as I haven't done any Davina this morning I'm writing it out now as a sort of contract, but I will either Davina or swim before I go to bed tonight. I am really focused on the goal of me wearing my bikini in mid July!

[ paradise, this is good for abs]]

I took Saturday off, and have done at least 20 minutes per day since that. Feel quite sluggish and seem to have woken up with a lot of extra water weight wobbling around, so I'm trying to fit in a bit extra around all the jobs.

Got the Davina 7 minute on my iPad, didn't do any exercise (apart from walking) Sunday and yesterday. This morning I did the ten minute warm up, the fat burner and ultimate fat burner.

My legs hurt!

I did a 30 minute swim with the majority done by doing front crawl. I will try and get up tomorrow and do the dvd.

velma when you said a literature review, I imagined you would be picking out the relevant bits from Mrs Gaskell or Edmund Spenser... Doing an MSc by distance learning is a fantastic achievement (as is fitting in a 30-minute swim after a hard day of working through a dissertation).

I did warm up, ultimate fat burner, fitness challenge and advanced abs and some stretch. Themadvanced abs wasn't too bad actually although my right leg started quivering when I was doing the cruches with my legs straight up whichnwas a bit odd.

Have a nice day everyone!

Hi everyone, slightly envious that you are all exercising and I am struggling to get motivated.

My knees have been killing me so I've decided to give the cardio and jogging a break. Today I did warm up, tone and sculpt, advanced abs And stretch.

I also fitted a Jillian Michaels tricep work out in the middle of it. That bloody killed!

I don't think I will be doing Davina today, but I will hopefully get a swim done. I'm then on holiday for the Easter weekend and won't be back until early evening on Easter Monday, so in all honesty I probably won't get any 'proper' exercise done other than walking around etc.

We are off to a Haven sight and DD is really excited because we have picked a park that has an 'exciting' pool with a long slide and jets etc. I can see that I'll probably be in the water the majority of the weekend, getting pissed off at other kids nearly jumping on me!

I will report back later today to say what exercise I ended up doing.

We're off abroad for a bit, staying in the place DH rents for work. I've ordered a workout mat and hope to just carry on with using the online videos I have been. (Only managed 5 minutes yesterday, and 20 today.) There's wifi there, but it's a bit patchy. Should be doing lots of walking around though. :)

Happy holidays to all!

Had two days off as physio and her thumbs on steel rendered my knee unuable. Still very bruised but (with the help of heir DD) managed warm up, fat burner, tone and sculpt and stretch. It was a killer after having just two days off, Tesco delivery woman turned up half way through and must have wondered what the hell was wrong with me .

Waves to everyone, you all seem to be doing so well.

I am wondering if Steve snuck into Davina's suitcase and is living it up in Vegas. Or she could be busy with rehearsals for the next DVD!

Hope you're well, stevie, and having a great Easter break!

Happy holidays everyone!

stevie - hope you are ok?

Hello all!

I've had a few days off, been out and about in the evenings and just been too tired in the morning to do anything, damn clock change still affecting me. Hopefully will get my mojo back over the weekend, going to have to do something, have lots of Easter Eggs to 'help' ds eat

Happy Easter, I'll update when I do my next sessions, hopefully tomorrow morning.