Round 5: Day 12: Core Ball Sandwich

I'm feeling all loose and limber today, thanks to yesterday's yoga practice. I've still got some lingering soreness in my left bicep from Tuesday's workout, but that's dissipating, and overall, I'm feeling pretty well right now. I'm optimistic that the current workout schedule is helping to create muscle confusion and preventing plateaus from occurring. Actually, I think that my body is experiencing some changes (of the good kind) and that positive developments are in progress. I'm already looking forward to my next round of photos.

Today's workout was another first: Core Ball Sandwich from the One on One with Tony Horton series. I've had this workout for some time, but, due to a deflated stability ball, had never done it. Last night I picked up a pump for $6.99, pumped up the stability ball and a basketball, and I was in business.

This workout is a circuit, consisting of 10 moves, done twice. The moves are designed to target the core. Some of the exercises are quite difficult: pushups on the stability ball with legs on a chair; plyo pushups on a basketball, and V-ups, a variant on VF roll-ups from Ab Ripper X. During the first round, I actually rolled off the stability ball whilst attempting to do pushups on it. Hint: tighten the core, and focus! Plyo pushups on the basketball require a strong core, focus and good hand-eye coordination. The V-ups are all about form: move slowly, make it more of an isometric exercise, and try to get your hands and feet to meet in the air as your body forms a V. Easy to do quickly with poor form (either head too high, or legs too high, or the opposite, making you look more like a C than a V), and difficult to do with good form.

The workout moves fairly quickly, and is a good core workout. I'll probably do this 3 times during a Round, once each Phase.