Pumping Up with Sai

Article by Sai Gopalan

The 10 Exercise, At-Home Workout

This high intensity workout will have you burning tons of calories in a short amount of time and keep your metabolism burning all day! Perform each exercise for 30 seconds with a 15-second rest, then move straight to the next exercise. The best thing you can do during your rest periods is get as still as possible, as quickly as possible, to maximize this short period of rest time. Go through the entire series 3 times with a 30-second break between each series

  1. Jump Squats
    Place your feet wider than your hips, feet parallel, put your weight and heels evenly distributed. Bend your knees, stick your tush out and lower yourself to the ground. Make sure to keep your back straight and face forward. Then, jump up as explosively as you can, landing softly back into the squat position.1

 

  1. The Bicycle crunch
    Place your hands behind your head, crunch up, draw your knees into your chest, extend one leg, and touch your elbow to the opposite knee (for example, left elbow to right knee). Lower your leg and elbow to the original position, and repeat the movement with the other side.
  2. Burpees
    1. Bend over or squat down and place your hands on the floor in front of you, just outside of your feet.
    2. Jump both feet back so that you’re now in plank position.
    3. Drop to a push-up—your chest should touch the floor. You can also drop to your knees here, which makes the impending push-up easier.
    4. Push up to return to plank position (this can be a strict push-up, a push-up from the knees, or not a push-up at all.
    5. Jump the feet back in toward the hands.
    6. Explosively jump into the air, reaching your arms straight overhead.3
  3. High Knees
    Jump from one foot to the other, keeping your knees as high as possible.

 

  1. Scissor Switch Ab Kicks
    Crunch tightly, keep your legs straight, flex your feet, lower your right leg down, lift your left leg straight up, bringing your right hand to your left foot. Then switch legs, bringing left leg down, right leg straight up with left arm reaching toward right foot. Repeat.5

 

  1. High Plank Hold

Prop yourself up on your forearms, elbows in line with your shoulders, and your toes planted firmly. It should feel a little like a push-up without the push.6

 

  1. Jumping lunges
  • To begin, start standing tall with your feet staggered, your left foot slightly in front of your right. Making sure you’re not too stiff, keep your stance active with your knees bent in a slight but not full lunge.
  • With your core engaged, push off the bottom of both feet into a jump, switching the position of your feet in midair, landing in a basic lunge with your right leg in front.
  • Without rest, repeat this movement alternating which leg is in front. To prevent injury, make sure your back leg is bent directly underneath your body and your front leg is bent at 90 degrees at the knee and hip7

 

  1. Push Up
    Place hands directly below shoulders, walk legs back, bend elbows to lower yourself down, then rise by pressing the ground away from you. If you can’t perform the traditional push up, rest your knees on the ground.

 

 

Ending?