Lower back and abs (NEW ab routine!)

It's amazing what a good meal will do for your performance in the gym! I had a good solid breakfast and a healthy snack which resulted in me being a mad-woman during the workout. I was pulling up deadlifts a lot easier than I have been! I am a little worried about measurements tomorrow though. I slacked off pretty bad in the gym so I'm afraid my measurements and weight will reflect that. We'll see!

On a side note, I will now be partnerless in the gym on Thursdays and Fridays. Cory needed more sleep during his work week so I'll be hitting the gym alone on those days. I am using this blog as my motivation to keep going. I hate working out by myself, but I can't exactly stop doing this blog now can I? I have 1 maybe 2 people who possibly read this! The big girl panties are being put on as we speak, and I WILL go to the gym all by myself! Unless someone wants to go with me in which case that is totally cool with me...

10 minute warm-up on treadmill
     - Pace: 4.0  Incline: 7.5
     - That's right ladies and gentlemen! It is go time on the warm-ups. Amp it up and get a really good burn in those legs.

Deadlifts
     - 2 warm-up sets followed by 3 work sets of 8-10 reps
     - Do you hear the hallelujah chorus singing? You should! Now that I am working out alone on lower back day, Cory has cut out deadlifts! Yay! Instead I will be doing kettle bell swings. I'll show you pictures of that next Thursday.

Side Planks
     - 3 sets of 15 (both sides)
     - We are switching up the ab routine a little bit. This painful, yet effective, exercise targets your core and those pesky obliques.

My core is not strong enough to start out doing this so what I do is bring that top foot in front of that bottom knee making a 90 degree angle with my leg. It stablizes you, and you still get the full effect of the exercise. Swap elbows and do the same thing for the other side. You really feel a good burn on your sides when you get done!

Pull-throughs
      - 3 sets of 12-15 reps
      - Once we start doing kettle bell swings instead of deadlifts we will swap out pull-throughs for hyperextensions. The pull-through and kettle bell swing are pretty much the same motion and it will be redudant. However, if you choose to keep doing deadlifts keep doing pull-throughs too.

Leg lifts
      - 3 sets of max reps
      - We can't forget the lower abs either, so we are going to keep doing leg lifts! Try to contain your excitement.


Notes from Courtney: If you are feeling froggy, I recommend throwing in an extra exercise at the end of this workout. Maybe if you did the hyper extensions go ahead and do a set or two of the pull throughs just for an added kick! That's it for today. I should have another workout up tomorrow.