So I finished the 30-Day Ab Challenge and, boy, was it a challenge!

And I finished on time too! I did miss a few days but I made up for them when I was supposed to be having my rest days.

Half way through Challenge, the ab mat took the skin off between my butt cheeks. Right at the top of the crack. I’m not sure how it did that, but it was, literally, a pain in the ass to do the sit-ups, until I figured out that the best way to do them was with the ab mat’s skinny side down.

[YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VsolU7dfK0]

And then, of course, the number of reps got so high that I had to cheat and do CrossFit-style sit-ups.

[YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhG_x1bLHwE]

I realize these use the momentum from the arms, but it was either that or nothing. Although I could do the sit-ups the way the guy in the first video demonstrated (arms between the legs, chin curled in), I really just didn’t – and don’t! – have the strength to do them all that way. (My body is made of jello. I seriously question its ability to form muscles.)

With the increased reps, everything got more and more difficult, including the leg raises and the planks. I found myself having to take quick breaks between counts of ten of the leg raises (- mostly to scream), and I tried doing my Scrabble turns while in plank position to distract myself from wanting to give up. Two minutes can be a very long time! Oh, and I found that it was easier for me to do the plank with one leg raised on top of the other. I wonder if that’s cheating…

Anyway, so now I’ve joined the July challenge (- the page has links to the different workouts):

Those V-ups and push-ups are going to be nasty.