Guest post: Purely Twins
Hi friends! The Pilot, Liv and I are enjoying a vacation in California this week, so in the meantime, I’ve invited some of my blog friends to guest post over here. I hope you enjoy reading them and adding new blogs to your rotation 🙂 Here’s an awesome post from two very close friends of mine: Michelle and Lori from PurelyTwins! I first met the twins when Michelle when we went to 105degrees together. Not only are these girls super fit and fun, they also make some killer desserts and snacks. Hope you enjoy! <3
We are Lori and Michelle from PurelyTwins.
We were so excited when our friend Gina asked us to do a guest post for her while she enjoys the California sun. You may recognize us as we have shared a wonderful easy chocolate biscotti here before.
Today we wanted to quickly talk about another love we have…fitness. Like Gina, we love to workout. At the beginning of this year we made a goal to reach holding plank for 5 minutes. We did it! We held plank just about everyday for a little over 3 months, we used it as our warm-up before our workouts.
We started at 2 minutes and slowly over the weeks months we made it to 5 minutes. Check out our video of us holding our 5 minute plank.
Now that we have reached that goal, we have a new goal.
Our New Fitness Goal for the Summer is a PULL-UP Challenge! We have never done pull-ups because we workout at home and did not have any equipment to do them. Until recently, we got ourselves an equalizer. Now we are able to do pull-ups in the privacy of our home…as we are not good at them…yet. But you have to start somewhere, right?
We are thinking of starting with doing 10 pull-ups everyday. And as we get stronger we will add on 5 reps. Not sure of our ultimate final number we want to reach by the end of the summer, maybe 25-30 reps. The biggest thing for us is to do them everyday.
Goal – pull-ups everyday over the summer.
Why pull-ups? They are a great exercise for the back! Both of us struggle with posture. Planks have helped us get a stronger core, now we want to work the back side. We are hoping with doing pull-ups everyday our posture will improve too.
We plan to share our progress with this pull-up challenge on our NEW blog – purelytwins.com we hope to have strong backs by the end of summer, along with better posture. What is your summer fitness goal? Do you like pull-ups? How many can you do?
Have a great summer!
Lori and Michelle
Purely Twins
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did I read on your blog that you guys live in charlotte NC? I am gonna be there next week! My BFF lives there and I finally get to go see her! I have never been. Cant wait!
Lookin’ fabulous, ladies!
Gina, hope you’re enjoying San Diego (even though it’s been a bit overcast since you got here probably…but at least it’s cool compared to AZ!)
Cool goal, but I’m pretty sure those are body rows and not pull ups.
I LOVE planks!!! I can still hold a minute plank while being 8 months pregnant 🙂 It’s completely safe to do and actually helps with lower back pain that can come along with pregnancy.
That’s excellent! Keep up the good work ladies!
Love reading about woman working on pull ups! It was my biggest fitness triumph to land the pull-up.i’ve worked on them for years and can do 12 strict now.
Planks on the other hand. Uph.
🙂
B
Good job on the planks and pull ups! Posture is so important!
I love these performance goals. They make me much happier than aesthetic goals.
Oh my gosh. I don’t think I could hold a plank for five minutes — I’m going to make it a goal though. Thanks for the inspiration! 🙂
Not to be too technical, but those are not pull ups – they are inverted rows. If you can already do 10 inverted rows, you should be able to do at least one proper pull up. You’re much better off trying to focus on increasing your actual pull ups to 4 or 5, then doing 30 inverted rows.
Why are pull-ups better for the body than inverted rows? I can’t do a proper pull-up and I doubt I could do the inverted row either, so I’m delusional to even ask, but I am trying to expand my repertoire so I am curious. Both exercises look like they target the same muscles. Do both strengthen the back (upper and lower back)? My only big concern with the inverted row is I am a klutz and I could see myself somehow ending up bonking myself in the head with the equalizer as I crash to the ground, but I doubt most people have to worry about such a thing.
Woohoo congrats on doing a 5 minute plank! 😀 And I love your pull up goal because that’s something I’m working on too! I was recently able to do 10 pull ups at the lowest weight on the assisted machine… so I’m hoping I can soon do them with no assistance at all! Good luck to you guys!
You guys are intense! I can’t believe you’re able to hold a plank for 5 minutes gahhhh! As for the pull ups, I’ve never been able to do a full pull up on my own (I always need assistance!). This is a great fitness goal to work toward. I admire your commitment to working toward the goal every day 🙂
SO impressed with what you ladies are doing. Keep it up! Here’s to summer 2012.
This is my current goal too (being able to do a few hanging pull-ups), by the end of summer. I recently reached my goal of 10 push ups (on my feet). For better posture try more pilates. My mother-in-law and I go to pilates reformer and she also has been doing a mat class fopr almost 2 years. She is retired from desk jobs her entire life and her bad posture had her to the point where she couldnt have her back straight if she wanted too. I’ve seen her posture improve by over 50% the past year. It’s very impressive, I’ve never seen anyone improve their posture as they get older!
Nice! I had always thought pull-ups were when you stand up and kinda pull yourself up like a lat pulldown, so I’m glad you posted these photos because I think this one might be a *little* (but only a little!) easier for me to work towards. I have really expanded my plank holding time since reading your guys’ blog post too. I take a 10 second break every 1 minute, because otherwise my lower back starts to kick in and hurt, but my total is up to 4 minutes!
Yay for pull ups! It is one of my favorite exercises. My max is 10 from a dead hang, with palms facing away from my body. It feels empowering to accomplish this!
I just might have to get myself an equalizer! My posture is terrrrible… great post ladies, loving these simple challenges!
that’s a great idea! I’m gonna try the plank challenge too! xxx Nadja
I am so confused. When I worked with a personal trainer I was told not to hold planks longer than 20 seconds at a time.
Chocolate biscotti recipe looks good! Thx!
for core work, you actually shouldn’t hold it longer than 10 seconds at a time. the twins use planks for whole body toning, in which case, you can hold it as long as you want as long as you keep proper form
Thanks for clarifying. I was doing core work so now I understand why I was given different advice. Good thing I could only hold it for 10 seconds anyway! Had no idea it could be used for whole body toning. I don’t think even a 1 or 2 minute plank is in my immediate future, but maybe I’ll make that a goal to reach in the next few months. I’m impressed people can do it for 5 minutes let alone 10!