Hey guys!
I hope the week is going great so far 🙂 Wednesdays are great because the week is halfway over (duh!) but there is still time to get all the crap you need to get done done! Yay for Wednesdays.
I’ll tell ya what…this puppy stuff is hard work! I know it will totally be worth it, and Brian and I already love little Bernie so much, but seriously he is so unpredictable!
I love playing with him, training him, and seeing the progress he has made in such a short amount of time. Right now, our biggest struggle is crate training. If anyone has any tips from their own personal experience, Brian and I are open to anything 🙂
In the meantime, I also created a little workout for you guys. This is a super quick bodyweight workout that focuses on the abdominal muscles. This weekend, I wasn’t planning on doing a formal workout but I woke up super early and needed/wanted to do something to get my body moving so I created this little routine.
It’s also a great study break workout. For me, when working or studying at home I could honestly work, work, work with minimal breaks which is SO not good. What I like to do is set an alarm for 50 minutes then take a 10 minute break to get up and move or do something not at the computer. This workout is so quick, I could do it 2 times through on my 10 minute breaks if I wanted to!
Quickie Bodyweight Ab Workout
Equipment Needed:
- Timer (any timer will do, but I love my Gymboss Interval Timer!)
- Mat (optional)
You will complete each exercise for 1 minute before moving on to the next exercise with no rest in between. Of course, listen to your body and rest when needed. If you are feeling good, complete the workout two times through! This will really the entire core (abs, glutes, obliques) in a short amount of time. As always, check with your doctor before making any major changes to your workout routine.
- Alternating Single Leg Extension: Begin lying on your back and pulling your belly button in towards your spine and pulling the ribs in together to brace your core. Bring your legs up to 90° or table top position, making sure that your knees stay right over the hips and your shins are parallel to the ground. Extend one leg, bring it back in to starting position then extend the other leg. Continue to alternate for 1 minute.
- Alternating Single Leg Drops: Maintain the braced core position. Extend your legs up to the ceiling, bending your knees if you have tight hamstring. Drop one leg down in a controlled manner as you maintain a braced core. Bring the leg back to starting position and repeat on the opposite side. Continue to alternate for 1 minute.
- Hip Lifts: Place both feet flat on the ground, hip distance apart. Drive through the heels, squeeze the glutes and lift your hips up toward the ceiling. Lower the hips back down to the ground. You can hover the hips above the ground for an additional challenge. Continue to lift and lower for 1 minute.
- Pelvic Tuck: Position yourself for a forearm plank. Place your elbows underneath your shoulders, feet hip distance apart and extend through the heels and the head. Pull your elbows in towards your toes and tuck your pelvis under to feel the abs engage even deeper. This is a VERY small movement and you may not even see it happening if you were watching someone else do it. Continue to contract and release for 1 minute.
- Spider Plank: Begin in forearm plank position. Bring the right knee to the right elbow while maintaining neutral hip position and spinal alignment. Place the right leg back in the starting position and repeat on the left side. Continue to alternate sides at a pace that feels slightly uncomfortable to you for 1 minute.
Let me know!
- How many times did you get through the workout? 1x? 2x?
- I’d love to hear from ya!
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I’m glad you posted a quick ab workout to take a break from doing work because I am the same way where sometimes I forget to take a break. I need to remember to get up and get moving every now and then!
Glad to know I’m not the only one who needs to be reminded to take breaks!! 🙂
Awesome ab workout! I love squeezing in abs at home as opposed to doing them at the gym when I’m super tired after a long weight workout.
And your puppy is absolutely adorable! Wish I had some crate-training tips for you but Mr. Chow came full grown and house-broken. Training him not to shred my bed sheets though is something we’re currently working on 🙂
I have an eleven month old Velcro lab that we rescued two months ago. Let me say first – it will get better! Consistency is key. Our pup has major separation anxiety and hated the crate, still kind of does. What worked for us: We lure him into the crate with treats. When we don’t, or run out of treats, he usually pees out of nervousness. So treats are important! They give him motivation to go in and he associates the crate with something fun. We also do not make a fuss about him going in or coming out. This has been a game changer in the last few weeks. I think praising him or assuring him make the crate a bigger deal and the goal is to make it a normal part of his day, so we put him in and let him out without saying much other than “time for bed” when we put him in. I don’t know what style crate you have, but we found that the airplane style works much better. He destroyed his wire crate in the first couple weeks to the point that I could not be fixed. I did some research and found that airplane style crates are smaller and give them less visibility – they are more like a den and feel safer. We keep a bed in his crate but only started doing that once we knew he wouldn’t have any accidents. I also like the kong idea but I mostly only use that when I need to crate him while we are home to keep his mind occupied and his whining to a minimum. At first he would bark and yelp if we crated him while we are home, so it took some practice – we kept putting him in for one minute then letting him out, repeating every twenty minutes or so – it will help him learn that you always come back to him. It’s tough to hear them be upset but Bernie is still really young so he will probably adjust pretty quickly with consistency. We do bring his crate into our room at night just so we can sleep through the night but hope to transition him to the living room at night soon. Definitely stick with the crate training! It’s a lot of work but very worth it in the end. Good luck!!
I have a 4 month old Vizsla (Wesley) and crate training was a struggle for him as well. Vizsla’s are definitely called “velcro dogs” for a reason – he never wanted to be left alone! We filled a kong with peanut butter and froze it and gave it to him when he went into the crate while we were at work and that helped a lot.
Good luck! They are the sweetest dogs 🙂
Thanks for the tip, Liane. Like Brian said, the biggest issue is that when he is not physically with us he seems unhappy…like during a shower. He will be ok for about 2 minutes…then he is crying and trying to get in the shower with me!! We love him so much, but I just want him to be ok being alone 🙂
He is definitely getting better with it! It’s the only time he gets that treat so he gets super excited! He also likes to sleep with his head covered by blankets, so we put a big one over the crate (almost completely covered) to block out a lot of light and that seemed to help tons
Good to know!
is he doing better with being alone? That is Bernie’s biggest issue right now, so he definitely does not want to be in the crate. He wasn’t even happy being in the bathroom with me while I was in the shower…tried jumping in with me! We just want him to be ok with being in his crate for small periods of time
Bernie is so cute! Good Luck!
We got a puppy (Golden retriever) last December, and man it was hard (I know I will laugh at that once I have kids).
We had trouble with her whining in the crate, especially at nights – so we actually took turns sleeping on the floor by her crate. It sounds crazy – but I think it helped because it made her feel better about being in it.
Our puppy is now 19 months – and we still put her in the crate during the day and I am sooo happy we crate trained. It makes it so nice when you travel because you can just take her “home” with you.
Have fun!!
I know…I can’t even imagine having a child right now!! 🙂 Because of my early morning workouts, Brian has been sleeping by him at night…tonight we are going to try letting him on his puppy bed in the bedroom. Hopefully that works well!!
Not sure what the issues are with the crate training but we have had 5 dogs all crate trained. Being consistent is the key, only out of the crate for eating, playing, and then back in crate for at least a week. Then you will learn the signals from you adorable pup. As soon as you take Bernie out of the crate each time carry him outside and say “potty” and when he goes have a treat handy to give him. Eventually he will be able to walk out by himself but you want to set him up for success. Follow same routine for after eating and playtime. After he eats put him back in crate for about 30 minutes and do the same routine with potty. Dogs are so rewarding and the hard work at the beginning will pay off ten fold. Good luck
Thanks for the advice, Sue! 🙂