How about making your workout so exciting and engaging that you would want to do it every day! And absolutely no celebration or party will dim it down in any way. This is the reason that I am penning down such exercises which you can do anywhere, at home or while at your trip and will enjoy it all the more, especially, the results!
Time is a constraint and variation in exercise is also important to keep the interest and consistency up in your daily workout. To make the most out of a given time and to be able to get the best without weights, yes, it is possible through structured workouts. Here, you can begin with training your legs without weights in less time than usual. Most of them make for a full-body exercise that is the reason they turn out to be the first ones which have been wrapped up in different operational sets by me to give you maximum benefit. Good for agility, core-strength, overall fitness, fat-loss, toning and increasing the strength in leg muscles, it is time to take your workout a notch up!
It is very important to warm-up with 5 to 10 minutes of light cardio then do dynamic stretches like leg swings, arm circles, etc. Warming up before starting the workout gives uniform flow of blood in your body parts, warming them up, minimizing any possible chance of injury or discomfort while exercising later. It is all the more important to give a little longer time to warm up during winters. Warming up exercises connects your mind to your muscles and prepares the body for workouts, lifting up any pressure of stress as well. After workout, cool down with light cardio like walking etc. It brings down the heart rate and then stretch for a while.
- Do the following exercises in 3 Rounds breaking them into seconds as follows. This makes a 14.5 minutes circuit.
Round 1: 60 sec each exercise
Round 2: 45 sec each exercise
Round 3: 30 sec each exercise
Jump Rope: Improve conditioning and foot-speed with this exercise. Faster the better. Almost everyone knows how to do jump rope. Apart from being a full body engaging workout, it is a fun activity too.
Walking Lunges: Stand tall with your feet hip distance apart. Take a large step forward with right foot and lower your body towards the floor. Both legs should be bent at a 90 degree angle at the bottom of the lunge. Push off left foot and land it in the front, this time right foot at the back, same bent knee position. Repeat with the right foot again, continuing your ‘walking’ lunges as far as you can go.
Squats: Stand tall with your feet hip distance apart. Bend your knees and extend your buttocks backwards as if you are going to sit on a chair. Make sure to keep your knees behind your toes and your body weight on your heels. Rise back and repeat.
Hip Bridge/Glute Kickback: For performing hip bridge, lie face up on the floor. Bend your legs on the knees. Push your hips up, squeezing them and lift your middle torso up with it. Do not move shoulders, neck and head which must lie on the floor as it is. Hands on the floor as it is too. Come back to the starting position.
Now for Glute Kickback, get into a kneeling push-up position with arms shoulder length apart. Your head should be looking forward and bend of the knees should be at 90 degrees angle between hamstrings and calves. Now bring your right leg up till it is in line with the back while maintaining the 90 degree angle bend. At the end of the movement the leg should be parallel to the floor. Repeat with the left leg.
Squat Jumps: Perform normal squat and then explode up with your arms raised up and torso in straight line. Come back to the squat position as you land down again. Repeat.
Clamshells: Lie on your side with legs stacked and knees bent at a 45 degree angle. Rest your head on your lower arm and use your upper arm to steady your frame. Be sure that your hip bones are stacked up on each other. Keep your feet touching each other, engage your core by pulling the navel in. Without shifting your hips or pelvis, raise your upper knee as high as you can, don’t move your lower knee off the floor. Hold for a second and then come back again. Repeat with the other leg on the other side.
- Rest for 60 seconds after the above circuit.
- Move to an open space and do the following exercises, 30 seconds each. This mounts up to 2 minutes more.
Jump Rope
Jump Sumo squats: Stand with your feet shoulder length apart, slightly turned outwards. Rest your hands on your waist. Bend your knees and plie. Then jump up explosively. Keep your core engaged and land with control coming back to the squat position to complete one rep.
Walking Lunges
Side Lunges: Take an athletic standing position with knees and hips slightly bent. Head and chest up, feet shoulder-width apart. Stay low and take a slow lateral step to the right. Keep your feed facing forward, extend your left leg to bring your bodyweight to the right side, flexing your knee and hip into a side lunge. Pause at the bottom of the lunge and then come back. Repeat with the left side.
- Take 60 seconds break after this circuit.
- Now comes to the time to take the intensity to higher level. Do the following circuit 2 to 3 times:
10 Burpees with 10 side-kicks each side
Perform side-kick with right leg then do a burpee before doing side-kick with the left leg. This combination completes a rep.
For Burpee: Begin in a standing position, move into a squat position with your hands on the ground, kick your feet back into a plank position while keeping your arms extended. Immediately return your feet into squat position and stand up.
For Side-Kick: Start on all fours with hands in line with shoulders and knees in line with hips. Lift the right leg up until it is parallel to the floor. Keep right thigh still as you straighten your right knee kicking your leg out to the side.
10 Front Kicks into Back Kick (10/side): Keep Your Balance
For Front Kick: Make fists of your hands and bring your hands up in front of your chin as if in defence position. Now shift your bodyweight to your right foot to prepare to kick with your left leg. Lift your left knee towards the ceiling. Extend your knee to straighten your leg (foot flexed). Bend your knee again and return your foot to the floor. Repeat with your right foot. Now change into back kick, bend your right knee and extend your right knee to straighten your leg (foot flexed) to kick an imaginary target behind you. Bring your foot back to the starting position. Repeat the front kick into back kick with alternate legs.
10 Frog Jumps
For Frog Jump: Slowly squat until your thighs are parallel to the ground. Keep your hands out in front of you, try not to use them for your balance. Then explode up in the air, throwing your hands up before landing as quietly as possible.
10 Jump Squats (soft landing)
For Jump Squats: Perform normal squat and then explode up with your arms raised up and torso in straight line. Come back to the squat position as you land down softly without noise.
10 Standing Side Kicks (10/side)
For Side-kick: Stand with your feet hip width apart and your hands up covering your guard. Begin exercise by shifting your weight onto your left foot and kicking your right foot out to the side as high as you can. Switch legs and repeat.
10 Bear Crawls
For Bear Crawl: Crouch down with hands in front of you, shoulder-width apart. Feet should be behind you with hips in the air and eyes looking forward. Crawl forward starting with your right hand and your left foot followed by your left hand and right foot. Take four steps or more depending upon space, turn around and bear-crawl back.
10 Jump Lunges (10/side)
For Jump Lunge: Stand tall with your feet staggered, your left foot slightly in front of your right. Your knees bent in a slight but not full lunge. Engage your core and push off the bottom of both feet into a jump, switching the position of your feet mid-air. Land in basic lunge with right leg in front. Repeat with other leg one by one.
Try out the above exercises the way I have listed and I can almost guarantee that you would want to stick to it forever. Time to kick-start your new fitness schedule.
About The Author
He is an ACE certified personal trainer based in Delhi. He holds many other certifications like FMS Level 1, VIPR movement preparation, TRX suspension L-1 and Bosu balance. He i..
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