Today’s 44 was fun because it is primarily an arm move but it also  works the core!  This move is from Allie @ VitaTrain4Life.  She did an awesome arm workout for us yesterday and I borrowed one of the moves for my 44.

The move is a bicep curl with your legs lifted (that’s why your abs get involved!!).

I think the hardest part of this move was to try and keep my arm movements controlled.

I pulled out a DVD that I tend to forget about today  – Exhale Core Fusion Body Sculpt.  I forgot how great this workout is.  It is 5 10-minute sections (although a couple are a little longer) of slow moving work.  
     Upper body
     Thighs
     Butt
     Abdominal
     Stretching

I’m not sure which of the sections was the hardest – they all seem like they should be easy and innocent but they really work the designated areas!!!

The final section – stretch – is one that I tend to skip in lots of workouts.  However, today I decided to spend the 10ish minutes and tried to completely relax into it.

Usually I will spend about 10 seconds in the corpse pose and decide I don’t have time for that.  Today, I don’t know if my body was telling me it needed the time to relax and prepare for the day or what but the stretching was awesome!!!  I enjoyed the entire time both physically and mentally!!!

Lately I’ve read several posts about stretching – Kris on Fitness had a great one yesterday talking about stretching to help prevent injury and how as we age it is a vital part of fitness.    Abby @ Change of Pace wrote a  post about the “torture tools” that are available (foam rollers, sticks, balls, etc.) to help with preventing injuries and the value of taking the time to use them.

Even knowing about the importance of stretching to help prevent injuries has rarely been enough to make me stop and do it.  

However, today I discovered that being willing to spend a few minutes calming my mind after working out can be very enjoyable – who knows maybe next time I will do 15 minutes!!!

Do you enjoy stretching?

Happy Thursday!

Kim