This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

The Workout: Thirty-Minute Abs at the WCH

An express class just for abs? Yes, please.

The Winnetka Community House is a vital part of my exercise routine, but not a part that I love. It's where I drag myself, reluctantly, to run on the treadmill during cold, dark winter mornings. Don't get me wrong, the staff members are always friendly and helpful, but the treadmill is simply something I'd rather avoid. Recently, however, I was at the WCH for a different kind of exercise, to take advantage of their Group X offerings. I've done classes there in the past, when they were part of Rhonda Gordon Fitness, but have only been there sporadically to check out the new options since WCH Group X has taken over.

When I was looking at the schedule, deciding which class to try, a 30 minute ab class caught my eye. Just 30 minutes? What could be the harm? I arrived early, a rare occurrence for me, so no one else was there, not even the instructor. For a brief moment, I thought “Do I really want to do situps for a half hour? I could leave now and no one has to know.” But, as tempting as that was, I figured I'd gone through all the effort to get there, I might as well get the benefit of the class. A minute later, other participants started arriving, so my escape window had closed. Like it or not.

We began with some basic stretching and warmups, followed by balance moves to wake up our core muscles before heading to the mat. We then did a wide variety of exercises, including planks. Lots of planks. Enough planks to last me about a week. Traditional planks, side planks, planks while raising alternate hands and feet, and then even more side planks. Fortunately, we moved around frequently, so the exercises never felt tedious. As our half-hour session wrapped up, I was pleased to realize that we'd made it through the entire class without doing a single traditional situp.

Find out what's happening in Winnetka-Glencoewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Overall, it was the perfect length workout: at least double what I would do on my own (if and when I ever managed to motivate myself) but over quickly, allowing me to move on with my day. Fun, fast-paced, and a great core workout. What's not to love about that?  

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?