Friday 23 December 2011

Christmas holidays - bodyweight workouts

Hey everyone,

We are in Winnipeg for the holidays, to celebrate Christmas with Tannys' family.  It can be tricky to stick to your fitness routine while travelling and even more-so over the holidays, where there are constant temptations and distractions.  However, this is a critical time of year to maintain your fitness, which can help offset some of the (unavoidable) extra eating!


Aaaack!  Holiday weight gain!!!  Fight back with exercise!

When we arrived in Winnipeg, we took a few minutes to plan out 2 bodyweight workouts.  We did workout 'A' on Thursday and 'B' on Friday.  We adapted our workouts to the space and equipment (or lack thereof) available.  By creating these two circuit-based bodyweight workouts, we were able to fit in two back-to-back exercise sessions.  Here's what we did:

Workout A - 3 Timed circuits (1 minute sets with no rest between, performing max reps):

  • Hand stand pushups
  • Speed squats
  • Reverse pushups
  • 'Airplane' toe touches
  • Pushups
  • Jumping lunges
Video demonstration 1 (showing a few reps of each exercise)


Video demonstration 2 (showing a few reps of each exercise)

Workout B - Not timed, completing a challenging number of reps in each set before moving onto the next, without resting in between.  Again, 3 circuits of:
  • Close-grip pushups
  • Burpees
  • Reverse pushups
  • Sleeping crabs
  • Plyometric bulgarian split squats
  • Dynamic planks
  • Plyometric pushups
Video demonstration 1 (showing a few reps of each exercise)


Video demonstration 2 (showing a few reps of each exercise)


These workouts were a great challenge and were both accomplished in less than half an hour each.  Even though they were bodyweight movements, they can still be challenging as you perform more reps and decrease/eliminate rest periods.

These workouts are also adaptable for beginners.  We did them with Tannys' parents, who typically do not weightlift.  By adapting the exercises (e.g. doing pushups from your knees), you can make each of these exercises easier (or harder) to suit your physical capacity and goals.

We hope that everyone has a great holiday season.  Stay strong and keep active!

- Alex & Tannys

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