running

For the past few weekes I have been running 10km once a week. I have been running on a near daily basis since 2013. Then until last April it was 1.6km most days a week.  Since last April I have been running 4km per day most week days and on weekends I ran 8km per day.  Now I have upped it to 10km once a week.  Even though the increase from 8 to 10km is slight it still represented a great physical and even greater mental challenge.  The first time I tried 10km, I hit the "wall" at 8km when my body was telling my mind to call it a day. However I persevered and completed the full 10km.  I still hit this mental wall every time I run 10km but the effects are getting less and less.

Planking

In the last 2 to 2 1/2 years I have been doing a daily exercise - planking.  This is where you rest on your forearms and tips of your toes only.  It is very good for toning the abdominal and to a lesser extent the lower back muscles.

I was introduced to this exercise by my tae kwon do instructor back in the early 2000s but I did not take it up.  However, since starting boxing in 2013, my instructor re-introduced it to me.  I then started practicing it daily, starting from 1 minute and building up to my current limit of 5 minutes.  It has helped my waistline and as a result removed my mid section middle age spread or spare tyre after doing it for just 6 months.