Healthy Living in Connecticut Blog

I met with my personal trainer on Monday. He measured my body fat with the 3 site skin fold caliper test. This was the best reading yet, close to 11 percent! My weight has been holding steady for a few months now, which is what I want. I weigh on average between 191 to 195 pounds... just trying to build muscle!

My trainer gave me a new workout that focuses on building bigger muscles for my legs, exercises that should target the lower abs and other exercises that will continue to build muscle for my arms, chest and back. The areas that have the most fat on my body are my abdominal area (obviously) and my back. My chest, arms and legs have the least amount of fat.

I'm back in my workout routine completely, after suffering from tendinitis last month. It really slowed progression as my body fat remained virtually the same as the previous time it was checked.

But after a few weeks of working out my arms again, I notice that I am getting stronger again. When I had the tendinitis, I avoided any kind of arm exercise, and I couldn't do any chest press, etc. I am happy I waited until I was completely healed before I returned to my normal workout routine.

I am on the 6th day of a new challenge... 30 days of ab exercises. I saw a 30 day challenge posted at the Waterbury YMCA and thought I would give it a try.

The challenge includes crunches, leg raises and planks. Leg raises are my least favorite exercise but I'm doing them anyway! The number of exercises increases everyday, until the last day of the challenge, when I would need to do 160 crunches, 64 leg raises and 255 second plank. I'll take it one day at a time as it's too overwhelming to think of how many I'll need to do by then.

There's a little more than a week left to the Plank Challenge I'm doing. Recently, I've held a 4 minute plank but I'm planning to get to 5 minutes by the end of the month.

I know I already have strong abs... you just can't see the muscle through the skin. I do a lot of sit ups, crunches, side planks, mountain climbers, etc. I do think my abs are noticably better, but I know it takes time.