Don’t let the title fool you: I am active; however, I am not someone who has an exercise regime.
That is about to change.
I set out before Christmas to challenge myself to do 100 squats and 100 crunches everyday for four weeks. I thought this would be a great way to build up my gluten, and help me to begin to manage the lose skins I’m beginning to develop from weight loss. I really thought this would be manageable. I have a variety of couch exercises I’ve learned over the years, and squats aren’t that hard to do.
Boy, was I WRONG!
I was 100% overly ambitious. I was not able to do 100 squats and crunches for 28 days straight. I did do the hundred squats the very first day, and I could barely walk for three days following, and wasn’t able to do down farther than a chair which disqualified the crunches while my legs were killing me.
So, lest you think this is going to be a blog where I tell you how many inches I gained across my glutes or how many inches I lost from my waist – this isn’t that blog.
Instead,I’m going to share what I learned from these two different exercises and how I am going to use what I learned going forward.
The Crunches
Like I said, there are a variety of different crunchesbyou can find and do. I basically scrolled through pintrest and found some that I thought I’d (relatively ) enjoy doing.
Here are the types of crunches I chose to do.
- Traditional crunch (20) – this targets the core through the middle of the stomach around the front.
- Heel taps (20) – this works on the sides of the abs and up around the natural waist.
- Leg raises (single leg and two leg – 20 for each leg) – this works on the lower abs on each side. If I did both legs, I would then do scissor kicks. By the way, I hate scissor kicks – they do nothing for me – so I did single raises most of the time.
- Reverse crunches (20) – these work the back around the waist.
Now doing crunches isn’t that hard for me. I’m very capable of busting out 100 crunches without any issues. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t beneficial, I basically means I didn’t push myself as far as I should have.
Some things I learned from the crunches:
1. I really should have done more crunches.
2. Variety is a necessity for me as it helps me keep interest in what I’m doing and worked multiple places through my core.
3. The rest helped. Since I wasn’t able to manage the squats everyday, I was able to give my muscles a break.
4. As I got to the endnof the four weeks, I was able to feel the muscles more from their use.
The Squats
Oh, the squats. I learned so much from the squats.
A bit of what lead to this: I wanted to build my glutes. Most of that is for aestetic reasons, I’m not ashamed to admit that, but I also want to work on building more of the muscles in my legs, and because your core contracts during squats I wants to work on that – building my core. Squats also force me to be conscious of my posture and stand, and I want to maintain good posture since I work at a desk most of the day.
However, I learned something very important from the squats: stance matters. As I said earlier, I did 100 squats only the first day and then I had a difficult time walking. As a result of that experience, I decided to build up to the hundred: a wise move on my part and what I should have done from the start. The importance of stance came into play when I found out that my legs werenhurting because I was squating with my legs shoulder-width apart. They shouldnhave been farther apart to do what I was wanting to have happen. Instead, because of my stance I was building the muscles in the top of my thighs only.
I had this issue the first three weeks and corrected it the final week.
What did I learn from the squats?
1. Stance matters
2. Build up to a higher number – don’t try for it out of the gate.
3. Make sure to have a rest day as you increase the number of squats. Your muscles do need a break.
What Am I Going to Do With What I Learned?
I am goi.g to keep this a part of my daily routine. I’m current in the middle of actively losing weight and working to become more healthy. My reasons for wanting to do squats and crunches are stil valid and as I’ve been doing the crunches I’ve felt the muscles in my legs and glutes getting stronger. I’m going to be keeping this a part if my daily routine and build on the habits to become an overall more healthy individual.
This wasn’t the blog I wanted to post, but this is real life, and we can’t go forward without a few screw ups along the way. And, as I said in the beginning I learned something, which makes the experience worth it.
Road Trippin With Rachael 
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