It’s still February, but spring break is just around the corner. After squaring away the details of my impending trip to Hawaii in five weeks, a horrible realization dawned on me; I haven’t bothered working out in months (years is more accurate), and I was going to be spending most of my time in a swimsuit. Between wrestling with my own body image issues and being scared shitless by the exercise and nutrition classes I’m taking for my degree, I knew that my sedentary lifestyle has to change. If not for the Instagram pictures, then at least for my health. I’ve always run into one major problem when it comes to working out: it never seems to be efficient. I have to put on workout clothes, use gas to drive to the gym, workout for at least forty-five minutes to make the drive feel worth it, and then drive back home and shower. It just takes too much time out of my day to get a decent workout in. While surfing the all-knowing internet for better ideas, I came across Alexis Ren’s 10-minute ab workout video. Intrigued, I watched it because I will absolutely be the first person to admit that I want to be her. Unrealistically beautiful by society’s standards, constantly traveling throughout the world, and Sport’s Illustrated’s ‘Rookie of the Year’? Sign me up. I decided to test out her ab workout for seven straight days to see how challenging it is, if I liked it, and if it’s something that I can start incorporating into my routine every once in a while. Here are my thoughts after trying to become a model after seven days (To watch the video, click here).
The first thing I want to note about this workout is that you don’t need to go to a gym or use any equipment to do it. The moves are challenging, but they’re all floor work, which means that I can do the whole thing in my pajamas at home. The workout includes some familiar moves such as sit-ups, crunches, and planks, but also included other simple moves like flutter kicks and spider climbers that I hadn’t tried out before. Simple does not mean easy though, some of the moves (and by some I mean mostly the plank dips) were a mental challenge to finish as well as a physical one. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never worked out before or you’re a seasoned pro, the moves are simple to understand and challenging enough to make anyone sweat.
The other thing that’s great about this workout is that it’s easy to follow along. The video is simple and simply shows Alexis doing each move set with a timer in the corner counting down until the next move. This is a great workout for beginners because it isn’t rep-based, meaning that you do as much as you can in the time you have for that move. If you can only do four sit-ups in twenty seconds, it’s great because you did the most you could do and eventually you’ll get better at it. Rep-based workouts are not good for beginners because it might be too high of an intensity to start out with and can be discouraging when you aren’t able to finish. This workout is great for any fitness level because you can control the level of intensity of your workout.
If you’re going to be doing this workout every day, I feel the need to warn you that the delayed onset muscle soreness is REAL. I wanted to puke and cry the second day because I was so sore from day one. That’s being a little dramatic, but it did affect my performance on the second day. After day two, however, I got less and less sore the following days after. After a full seven days, I realized just how easy it was to complete this workout because I would do it right before I would take a shower. Overall, I think this workout is great for someone from any fitness level and is efficient enough to be incorporated into regular routine in even the busiest lives.
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