Alright, so several days ago, I talked about how during the week, I started to do some stretches before bed, because flexibility is not only important for swimming, but also for your health in general. Well this week, I thought it would be a good idea to start doing some core before bed.
I didn’t mention this during the stretching post, but it would be a good idea to do each stretch for three sets, thirty seconds each. If you’re doing a lot of types of stretches, then your stretch routine should take maybe 10-20 minutes. If you add core to your routine before bed, it could add another 10-20 minutes to your before bed routine. So I will suggest this now, before I get into the core, that it may be a good idea to alternate days you do stretches and core. This way, your core has a chance to recover, and and you don’t overstretch your muscles.
I actually don’t like doing sit ups, because that just works your upper core, and that area of your core is pretty easy to work. That is why I like core exercises that work the lower core, because those areas are harder to work.
The first one I like to do is leg lifts, flutter kicks, or six inch leg raise. I combine all three of these because when I do these exercises, the goal is simply to not let your legs touch the ground for one minute. Alternate exercises during the minute, whatever, just do not let your legs touch the ground. Also, when I do these exercises, I let my head rest on the ground and I squeeze my core, like flex it. When I do this, I feel the burn more in my core. But you should keep your head on the ground because according to this site, you could end up hurting your lower back. What I like to do is three rounds with thirty seconds of rest in between each round. If you don’t feel the burn, then you should obviously do some more rounds.
There is one more core exercise I like to do, and it is side planks. Many people try so hard to get rid of love handles, and I personally think that the best exercise for getting ride of these, is side planks.
It is exactly as it sounds, a plank, but on your side. But there are two ways to do it, on your hand, like the image on the left, or on your forearm/elbow, like the image to the right.
Now it doesn’t really matter which way you do it, but if you’re like me and have an apple watch, then you must know how annoying it is to do it on your hand and have siri go off because the button is being pressed. So personally, I like doing the side plank on my elbow.
So when I do this workout, I do three rounds of forty five seconds with fifteen seconds of rest in between. But that is because I do it a lot. When I first started doing side planks, I struggled to do three rounds of thirty seconds. That is why, for beginners, I recommend starting off with a time limit that causes that burning feeling, but something manageable.
Hopefully, you decide to start doing core workouts before bed because it is great to get one last workout in before bed, and it’ll make that feeling of finally getting into bed at the end of the day feel even better.
Getting Back in the Pool 