I did not work out on Thursday. Crazy, I know! But I felt like I needed that hour to get my brain organized – so I caught up on some house reorganizing, blog reading, etc. It was quite rejuvenating. Wish I could say I was having hot sex for an hour – but cleaning out closets is good too, eh?! 
Today I hit the gym. I did 14 mins on the elliptical machine. Still not ready for that level 7 yet. Walked on the treadmill for 10 mins. Stretched and did pushups. Then Core Conditioning class. We had a different teacher today. She set up stations around the room. Most had NO equipment, save for a mat, so you can do all of these at HOME or on the ROAD! We did each exercise for 1 min but went through the circuit twice.
1. The first exercise used the big inflatable ball. Lie on your back. Hold the ball between your feet. Raise your feet and upper body. Grab it with your hands and bring it over your head while lowering. Then raise your feet and upper body, pass it back to your ankles. Upper body has to come up!
2. We held a small inflatable ball for this. You can use a tiny hand weight or can of food or nothing. Lie on your back. Raise your right leg about 1.5 ‘ off the ground. At the same time reach with your right hand to touch the raised leg, weight/can/ball in hand. Lower your leg while lowering your arm. Move the weight/can/ball to your other hand. Raise the other leg, and touch with opposite arm.
3. Bridge with a booty squeeze at the top.
4. Lie with your legs straight up, reach for your toes – upper body lifts off mat. Lower body goes back to mat. Reach for toes again, etc…
5. Plank. I’m so planked out, so I did 10 seconds of plank, then raised my right leg for 10 seconds, then switched legs for 10 seconds. Then 30 seconds of plank. When I came back around to this station I did 10 seconds of plank, then raised my right leg and left arm for 10 seconds, then switched legs and opposite arm for 10 seconds. There is usually a way to increase intensity!
6. Side plank. Lowest intensity is lower leg bent with knee on floor. Next level up is both legs extended, one in front of the other. Next level is both legs extended but one stacked on top of the other. Next level is both legs extended, but one is on the floor and the top leg is up in the air. Keep the upper arm straight up with palm facing the same direction as your chest. If you can, start to tilt the extended arm – not in front of you but closer to your head.
7. The Bug. I never did this before. Put a BOSU ball flat side to the floor and lie on the rounded side on your back. Try to balance with all 4 appendages extended to the ceiling.
It was a 30 min class and it felt good!
