Workouts should challenge you but they should also make you smile.
Having fun with your workouts doesn’t mean you aren’t working hard enough. You can get great results while having fun!
Below are three partner exercises that are sure to make you smile, but will also challenge your entire body.
In every day life, we move forward and backward. We move side to side. We move up and down. We rotate.
We move in EVERY DIRECTION.
Yet all too often our workouts don’t force us to move in all the different planes of motion.
And how functional is it really to train only one plane of motion?
NOT FUNCTIONAL AT ALL!
Our workouts should make us feel and move better, which means we need to move in every plane of motion like we do in every day life.
Crunches, planks and sit ups are usually our go to core exercises.
And all of them are core moves done on the ground.
BUT some of the best core moves can actually be done hanging from a pull up bar.
Want to blast those lower abs and work your back and lower body at the same time?
Then you need to try these 10 Hanging Core Exercises!
Most of these moves are more advanced and will require you to engage your lats (which is great if you are working on pull ups!) Beginners will want to start with moves one, two or even six before mixing it up!
When we think of pushing exercises we often turn to the push up or the bench press. But dips and even overhead presses are also great PUSH exercises.
However, unlike the bench press or push up, which are HORIZONTAL push exercises, they are VERTICAL PUSH EXERCISES.
When you want to work your chest, triceps and shoulders from a different angle and strength your push up, add in dips to your workout routine!
Crawling – Once we learned how to walk, we thought we would never go back.
We’d found a much easier more efficient way to get around and we could run, which got us places faster.
So why on earth would we go back to crawling?!?
Because it is a great full body cardio exercise! And it’s a really hard one at that! (Plus you can do it anywhere even if you don’t have a ton of space!)
It’s so hard that many of us can’t really remember how to get our bodies to do the movement. We lack the coordination we once had.
Once we learn how to crawl again, not only can we improve our coordination, but we can also strengthen our core and improve our cardiovascular conditioning.
Here’s how to do a basic crawl and some regressions and fun variations to get you started!
You don’t have to buy a ton of fancy exercise equipment to get in a great workout at home.
Actually you can use a ton of things you already have around the house and even make a few simple, cheap pieces of equipment and have everything you need to get in a great home workout.
For instance, towels make great sliders for a full body workout. And a larger bath towel or moving blanket can help you get in a great cardio workout without having much room. Just check out the Towel Taz.
And if you want to make a great functional weight to use to load down your exercises, you can easily make a slosh pipe.
Slosh Pipes are an awkward and functional weight that cost about $10 to make.
They are easy to make and are a great uneven weight to challenge your core and work on your stabilization and strength.
The traditional slosh pipe is about 6-8 feet long and filled about 1/2 to 2/3 full with water or sand to really challenge your core.
However, if you want to use the slosh pipe in your house, you may find this length doesn’t really work. That is why I started using a 2 ft slosh pipe.
With the shorter slosh pipe there are exercises you can do that you can’t do with the longer pipe; however, the longer pipe can be a great option to really work your core if you have the space.
Below is a guide to help you make your own slosh pipe (I’ll show you how to make the shorter one, but the same directions can also be applied to make a longer one). Also, below are some great exercises to do with your 2ft Slosh Pipe!
