Exercise Addition—Sit Ups with Leg Extended

Friday, October 17, 2014

Exercise Addition—Sit Ups with Leg Extended (photo by LivligaHome).
There is a great camaraderie at a gym, or should I say the “Y”?  I am hardly in the league of most of the other regulars you see there, especially using the free weights. What I have found though, is it is not an exclusive club. In fact, the hard-core jocks are eager to share and challenge everyone to achieving the next level of ability.

This happened to me recently. I was doing my regular sit up routine on the exercise ball when I observed one of the regular “jocks” lifting one of his legs up straight on a bosu ball while lifting his weights. I uttered appreciation for his ability and he smiled back. The next thing I knew he came over and started telling me that it was a great exercise for muscle toning as well as balance. Then he proceeded to show me how I could do the same sort of thing with my sit-ups by keeping one leg raised while doing my usual number of crunches.

I was a complete klutz for the first few times I tried to keep my leg raised. It is actually pretty challenging to keep your balance on a ball with one leg raised while doing crunches. The goal, of course, is to alternate legs with each cycle of crunches. What I found was that it was easier on one side to keep my leg raised compared to the other. Something else to work on!

After a few weeks of working on my crunches with alternating legs raised I have become better and better at it. I have also increased the number of crunches I do per cycle. I start with doing my regular crunches. Then I raise my right leg and keep it up through the next cycle of crunches. Next I raise the left leg and do the same number of crunches. Sometimes I lose my balance and have to steady myself before continuing. I never stop until I achieve the current number of crunches per rotation. Currently I do 40 crunches each cycle.

It feels good and has added a level of challenge that requires me to pay attention. My stomach muscles have definitely felt the change. This is a good thing. Now to keep on increasing the number of crunches until the next challenge!

Enjoy! And Live Vibrant!

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