Getting In Shape

I've been exercising fairly regularly working on getting healthy.  I've decided Pinterest is the devil. Just as you think you are getting in shape you look up new exercises to try. I've got pretty good at planks. Not side planks, but normal planks. I can do them a couple of minutes at a time.  High Plank or Low Plank either one. I've decided Side Planks are not for short fat people. If you have short arms and you are on your elbow on your side it's hard to get those wide hips off the floor. These have to be easier for tall skinny people. That's my story anyway and I'm sticking to it. So trying to whittle away around the middle so I looked up some different planks. Find the Superman Plank. Doesn't look to hard. Basically you start in a normal high plank position. Then lift up one arm in front of you and the opposite leg behind you. Sounds simple enough. I attempted it. I'm glad there were no witnesses because it was pretty funny. Not only are you using your core to maintain the plank now you also have to balance on 2 limbs instead of 4.  I think I'm pretty coordinated. I can do jumping jacks and not be out of sync. I can jump rope and not hit myself with the rope but balancing on one hand and one foot while in a plank was a little more than I could do. What's odd is I could do it better (not well, just better) with my right arm and left leg up than the opposite way. What's odd about that is that means my 2 "bad" limbs my left arm which I had elbow surgery on 2 years ago and my right leg which I just had knee surgery on 6 weeks ago are apparently stronger than my 2 "good" limbs.  How does that happen?

Ok so scrap the Superman Plank. Maybe not scrap it all together. I'll keep working on it until I can accomplish it because I don't like not being able to do something. Next thing I attempted are V ups. I can do sit ups and crunches. I can do leg lifts, scissors and windshield wipers so I should be able to do a V up. Basically you go from laying flat on your back, lift you legs up and your upper body up (at the same time) and form a V with your body.  I've seen videos on Facebook of the little gymnasts and their workout routines which is comprised of a lot of these. They make it look simple. For the life of me I can't even do 1 of these. I'm not sure if I'm not trying to use the right muscles or maybe I don't have the right muscles to accomplish this exercise. I can do one half of it or the other half. Either my legs can come up or my upper body can come up but not both. So I guess I do L ups instead of V ups. It's still a letter of the alphabet so that works, right?

So moral to this story is, yes I'm getting healthier but healthier has to be kept in perspective. I'm still a middle aged, overweight person who is getting better. But I'm not equal to these little muscled up people making exercising look easy on Facebook and Pinterest.  If I don't push myself though I won't keep progressing. One day I'll be a middle aged healthy person that hopefully can make a few exercises look easy. There are a few exercises however that probably won't be on that list.