Published: Thursday, March 11, 2010

By Jennifer Few
Madison Magazine

It has been two months since I started my “Keisha Kicked My Booty” workout. While this is usually the time when I have given up on New Year’s resolutions in the past, this time it is different.

One of the reasons has been the variation of techniques used through the series of workouts and increased challenges.

For anyone reading my column for the first time, I have been chronicling my journey towards a healthier body. While most of us make New Year Resolutions with the best of intentions, we seldom carry it through to completion.

This column is meant as an encouragement to continue striving towards a healthier body and to share the techniques that areworking for me.

My total progress thus far is a loss of nearly 10 pounds and 14.5 inches. My clothes are now too big for me (which is a good problem to have).

I am currently in my second round of boot camp at Fitness Fusion with trainers Keisha Nelson and Collin Richards.

This round is totally different from the last round.

I spend about 45 minutes each morning at Fitness Fusion. This week some of us have opted to go outside and run/walk a mile for our warm up while others stay inside and run/walk laps around the studio. I have also added endurance training once a week with Collin. This involves an entire 45 minutes with lots of jumping jacks, planks, high knees, push-ups, a variety of crunches and more.

I have also been working hard on my abs once a week with Keisha using a small core ball (35mm) that can be found at any fitness store. I place it at the bottom of my back and do crunches, sometimes I put it between my knees and do reverse crunches, between the ankles and twist the ball, lay on my side with knees bent and the ball under my waist and do side crunches.

It succeeds in working my abs more, which need a lot of attention right now. Using this simple aid creates an intense workout that is felt immediately.

The benefits of exercising with a fitness ball are that a great many more muscles are engaged because of the unstable nature of balancing your body weight on the ball. Doing a workout on a hard surface does not encourage the muscles to respond as much, especially the deeper core muscles.

The core muscles are predominantly the back and the abdominal muscles, and exercising these greatly assists in supporting the skeleton.

My blog will now appear in the Health and Fitness section featured in the second and fourth issues of the month.

For further information, visit MadisonFitnessFusion.com or stop by her studio at: 8760 Madison Blvd. Suite R.