My birthday is rolling around and in celebration I have challenged myself to step up my core routine for the next 100 days. Starting August 1st I will do 100 reps of core exercise every day for 100 days (last day will be November 9th). For me the core is an area in constant need of strengthening as I am naturally weaker there than I am in my arms and legs (this is a common pattern that a lot of people - but not all - exhibit). I am excited to do this extra bit of work to help protect my back and hips and to see where it gets me in a 3 months! If this is something you think would benefit you and you are inspired I hope you will join me! Cheers to another year around the sun and 10,000 more abdominal exercises!

Here is the sequence of exercises I will be doing to get started (I will update as I add more):

- 1 set of 50 "bicycles" (hands clasped behind head, alternately bring opposite elbow to opposite knee, each touch counts as 1)

- 3 sets of 10 straight leg raises (back flat to floor, alternately lower one straight leg toward floor ad then the other)

- 1 set of 20 sit ups (or crunches if a full sit up is not an option... feet can not be held in place by anything)