I don’t know about you but when the weather is nice, the last thing I want to do is spend time inside in a gym. On really nice days, I usually take my fitness outside. There is just something so much more enjoyable about exercising outdoors in the sun. I’m going to share some of my favorite at home movements with you and how I pair them up – because the possibilities are endless!
We chose to perform this workout in our backyard, but you can do this anywhere like your backyard, a park, the beach, your driveway etc.
Let’s start with the movements:
1. Lunge
If you’ve never done a lunge before: start out standing with your feet about shoulder width, take one leg and step back and place your knee on the ground, bring the leg back up, switch and repeat. Each of your legs should form a 90 degree angle. You don’t want your knees to go over your toes! If regular bodyweight lunges are too easy for you, you can add some weights if you have them available or you can do jumping lunges. Jumping lunges will really get your legs and heart rate going.
2. Push-Ups
Pushups are probably one of my favorite exercises. Pushups can be done by laying flat on the ground with your hands right outside your chest and your elbows facing up towards the sky. Once in position, lift yourself up and lower yourself right back down. There are plenty of modifications for this exercise if you have yet to master regular pushups such as doing them on your knees.
3. Tuck-Ups
Tuck ups are a great core strengthener. Lay flat on your back and hold your feet slightly up off of the ground. Keep your shoulder blades and head elevated as well. Tuck your knees into your chest and lean up with your upper body. Extend back out and repeat. There are plenty of modifications for this exercise as well such as keeping your legs on the ground rather than having them elevated.
The Workout Structure:
Why these movements?
We chose to do these movements because of the focus on three different major areas of the body. We chose lunges to focus on our legs, pushups to focus on our arms, shoulders, chest and core and the tuck-ups to really focus on our core area. Combining three different movements together gives you a great total body workout.
How many sets and reps?
This is where you can get really creative based off your current fitness level. When I performed this workout I started with a buy in and buy out of an 800m run. What’s that mean? Before I started performing the movements, I ran a half mile and after I was done performing the movements I ran another half mile. I performed 30 total lunges (15 on each leg), 15 pushups and 15 tuck-ups for each round.
If you are just starting out you aim to do ten total reps of each exercise. You can aim to do 3 rounds of it or you can set a clock for 10 minutes and do your best to perform as many rounds as you can within that allotted time frame. For example, you could be doing 3 rounds of 10 lunges (5 on each leg) 10 pushups, and 10 tuck-ups or you can set a clock for 10 minutes and aim to perform as many rounds as possible of 10 lunges, 10 pushups, and 10 tuck-ups.
If you have any further questions about these exercises, modifications or how to structure it together in a workout please let us know in the comments below!
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