Abdominal exercises

To get abs you really need to shred the fat that is covering, then you need to do a variation of exercise to strengthen all the abs

Plank
Get into the press up position, keep your back flat and bum down, hold that position for 30-60 seconds.

There are other variations, such as on your elbows, one leg up, side plank, side plank with one leg and arm up

Plank with oblique twists, plank position and move knee to elbow and back again, then repeat on other side

Swiss ball Jack knife

Begin in a press-up position with your feet resting on a Swiss ball, Your body should form a straight line from feet to head.

Without rounding your lower back, contract your abs and use your feet to pull the ball toward your chest by bending your knees, return to starting position

V ups

Lie on your back with arms and legs outstretched.

Keeping them straight, bring your arms and legs together by crunching up from the abs.

Hands and feet should meet in the middle.

Slowly return to the starting position ensuring there is constant tension on the abs

Reverse crunch
Lie on the floor, lift your legs up in the air, keypads beside you, lift bottom off the floor then back down, keep legs as straight as you can ad when lifting aim for the ceiling

Russian twists
Sit on the floor, for easy version keep feet planted, for harder raise your feet, tilt your back back, then put your arms in front of you, twist your upper body to the side then back to centre than to the other side, to make it harder hold a weight

Leg lifts
Lie on through floor legs straight in front of you, slowly raise your legs off the floor, up to the ceiling then back down again, keep everything else on the floor and contract (pull abs to spine) when lifting legs

Bicycle crunches
When you crunch up, bring opposite knee to elbow and repeat, getting faster as you get more used to it

Scissor kicks
Lie on the floor, raise legs up and the cross es over each other as you lower and raise your legs

Where i started

I wont sit here and tell you I have always been fit and healthy, that would be a lie, I will also not sit here and tell you I loved exercise, I used to try everything to get out of p.e at school, rounder's, netball, not my cup of tea in the slightest.

I have never been fat but maybe a chubby teenager where your puppy fat clings on till your hormones have sorted themselves out then I lost all my puppy fat and became the slim me that I am now, I was skinny back then, maybe to skinny.

I loved football and used to play all the time, the reason I stopped was a foot injury, this was around the time i found my love of theory side of sport, I was still not healthy food wise though, still ate what I wanted.

I fell pregnant in 2010 and carried on eating what I wanted, I was working around 40 hours a week so certainly wasn't exercising, I didn't have the healthiest of pregnancies, with kidney infections and then pre eclampsia and gained 2 stone with Dylan, It did hit me what i was eating was going to him so my eating habits changed.

After he was born i snapped back very quickly, I however then realised how soft I was and that was when I started exercising, I did Zumba, and some exercise DVD's I became a cardio junkie really, my eating habits had long changed, in with healthy meals and healthy snacks.

I fell pregnant in 2013 with my second child and really learnt about how to exercise safely during pregnancy with body temp and heart rate, i carried on eating healthy and had a better pregnancy had complications and kidney infections but i knew that was down to pot luck rather than me.

After she was born I carried on exercising but started to add weights so I could tone up, get stronger and fitter as looking at pictures I realised how skinny I was and that it really wasn't nice and I wanted my children to see me as strong not skinny.

I joined a gym in 2014, and then in 2015 I got a job working in that gym, it has been only recently that I have stopped half heartedly doing things in the gym but started to properly follow a programme which will hopefully change my body and mind set

Cardiovascular v weights

There are loads of posts on this, and it's slowly starting to hit that weights isn't bad especially for women, now I will not sit here and tell you not to do cardio as it is excellent for your heart and a lot of people generally enjoy it, such as going for a long walk, a run, swimming etc..

People are not educated properly about weighs, women think using weights will make them huge, wrong, it is not easy to build muscle as many body builders will tell you, it takes a lot of training and lots of effort.

Women do not have as much testosterone as men and that is needed to build big muscles, using weights will build muscle, it will tone your body and it will speed up your metabolism, it will make you look and feel better about yourself.

Doing cardio will make you burn lots of calories in a session, but the afterburner isn't that amazing, you stop buying calories afterwards, where as weights may not burn that many calories during a session, but the after burn is great, you carry on burning calories after working out and your metabolism is sped up so what you eat will be burnt off quicker.

How to stay motivated

How to stay motivated? Now this is a qood question... For example I joined a gym in September two years ago with all good intentions of going 3-5 times a week and I had my dream body in my head...

Reality hit very quickly... I didn't manage to go 3-5 times every week, I lost focus I couldn't be bothered to leave my house, watching tv on the sofa was a better idea, I then carried on looking at pictures on Instagram and seeing how these people were digging deep and going to the gym..

After Christmas I started going to the gym again, I then got a job in my local gym which then put going to gym on the back seat!

However fast forward to this year and after Christmas I started going to the gym in the evenings when I wasn't working, I have however been ill on and off since Feb which has made it really hard but I have dug deep and carried on going to the gym, I started a programme which has helped me because if I miss a day due to work I then carry on where I left off, so if it takes me two extra weeks to complete so what I will complete this programme

My motivation is my children 

 

I also take pictures of my self so I can see where I am and then I can compare them to where I was so then I can carry on motivating my self,

This is where I was last year, when I look at them to now I can see how I have improved so much and this helps me carry on going.

So my advise to you is to find something that you want and keep going, whe there it is to fit in to clothes that used to fit you or an outfit that is a size smaller or bigger, keep trying it on and keep going.. Remember a few weeks off won't hurt you just need to pick your self up and keep going.

Promise yourself a little reward, take it day by day and to make little changes, keep telling yourself how you are worth it and also do things with people as that way you can motivate each other.

If you don't feel like going to the gym one day then don't go, relax rest and fuel your body, the next day I promis you, you will go to the gym and you will smash it, you will feel amazing because you have listened to your body and feel so much better because you will realise the world didn't end because you didn't go, but also because you managed to go the next day 

Have intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, internal and external, new fitness clothes, new outfit, spa day etc.. Measurements pictures etc have pictures of you before you began and get them out when you feel bad so you can then see how far you have come and why you did it! Write it all down in a journal so you can get it out and re read when you feel down and remember you are changing your life for the better