Resisted Sprints and Core Workout

Resisted Sprints and Core Workout

WARM UP
Stretch and Roll Out:
Calves
Hamstrings
Quads
Groin
Hips/Glutes
Chest/Shoulders/Traps

WORKOUT

Perform 3 rounds of each of the circuits below. Rest half the time to the same amount of time it took you to complete each round. Rest 2-3 minutes between circuits.

CIRCUIT #1:
20 seconds Resisted Sprint
20-50ft each way Forward/Backward Bear Crawl
5-15 reps each side Oblique V-ups

CIRCUIT #2:
20 seconds Resisted Sprint
20-50ft each way Lateral Bear Crawl
10-15 reps per side Alternating Leg V-ups

CIRCUIT #3:
20 seconds Resisted Sprint
3-5 reps each side Circle Crawls
5-15 reps V ups

COOL DOWN
Stretch and Roll Out:
Calves
Hamstrings
Quads
Groin
Hips/Glutes
Chest/Shoulders/Traps

NOTES:

This is a great small group or partner workouts because one or two people can work as their partners hold the bands to do the resisted sprints and then they can rest as their partners go.

Beginners can also do unresisted sprints or you can add resistance by dragging a chain or sled if you don’t have a partner.

EXERCISE DESCRIPTIONS:

Resisted Sprint – A resisted sprint is a sprint for time not for distance. Your goal is to do as much work as possible in the 20 seconds. If you are doing a resisted sprint with a band and a partner, you are going to do almost like a high knees sprint in place. You will be moving forward while your partner is pulling back. You want to focus on driving your knees up and down as quickly as possible not on moving forward quickly. Beginners may want to do this unresisted and work on form while advanced exercisers or people doing this workout without a partner can drag a chain or sled for time.
Forward/Backward Bear Crawl – Set up on your hands and knees with your knees under your hips and your hands under your shoulders. Then flex your feet and lift up onto your toes. Take a step forward with your left foot and right hand, keeping your knees close to the ground and your back flat. Then step forward with your right foot and left hand. Keep alternating moving the opposite arm and opposite leg together. Once you’ve crawled forward the 20-50ft, you will then reverse the crawl. Take a small step back with your right foot as you step back with your left hand. Take small steps, especially moving backward. If you reach too much with your leg, you are going to put more strain on your shoulders and your movement will get off. The opposite arm and leg need to move together. Keep your knees close to the ground as you move backward. Beginners may need to perform a baby crawl from their knees and hands.

basic crawl
Oblique V-ups – Lie on your side with your bottom arm out in front of you just below shoulder height. Angle your straight legs a bit out in front of you, stacked one on top of the other. Keep your legs together. V up on your side reaching your top hand toward your toes. Lift your legs up as high as you can as you sort of prop yourself up on your bottom arm. Relax back down and repeat.

oblique-v-up
Lateral Bear Crawl – Set up on your hands and knees with your knees under your hips and your hands under your shoulders. Then flex your feet and lift up onto your toes. Place your hands close together and your feet about shoulder-width apart. Then step your left hand to the left so your hands are apart as you step your right foot together with your left. Then step your right hand to meet your left hand as you move your left foot to the left. Keep moving the opposite arm and leg laterally until you’ve completed your 20-50ft then crawl laterally back.

lateral-crawl
Alternating Leg V-ups – Lie flat on your back with your legs out straight in front of you. Beginners will rest the leg not being raised up on the ground while advanced exercisers will keep both feet off the ground at all times. Lift one leg up toward the ceiling. Crunch the upper body up and reach the opposite arm up toward the toes of the raised leg. Then lower that leg and lower your upper body down. Raise the other leg and the opposite arm to touch it as you crunch up. Keep alternating sides.

alternating-leg-v-up
Circle Crawls – Set up on your hands and knees. Flex your feet and lift up onto your hands and toes. Your knees should be under your hips and your hands should be under your shoulders. Pretend their is a string attaching your belly button to the ground. You may even want to put something on the ground under your belly button to keep you centered. Then begin to circle over that spot. Do one full circle one direction then switch and do a complete circle the other way. To move in a circle, you will take a step with the opposite hand and leg. Make sure to move both your hands and feet. You do not just want to move your feet and circle around your hands! Beginners may need to do a baby crawl on their hands and knees to start.

circle-crawl
V-Ups – Lie flat on your back with your legs out straight in front of you. Reach your arms overhead. Keeping your legs out straight, lift your legs a bit off the ground. Pike your legs up toward the ceiling as you crunch your upper body up and reach your hands up toward your toes. Try to crunch your upper body all the wall off the ground so you are basically sitting on your butt. Beginners may not be able to crunch up that far and may need to bend their legs a bit. More advanced exercisers will v up onto their butts and keep their legs straight. They will also not touch their heels to the ground between reps.

v-up

Jump Rope Cardio Workout

Jump Rope Cardio Workout

WARM UP
Stretch and Roll Out:
Calves
Hamstrings
Quads
Groin
Hips/Glutes
Chest
Back/Lats

WORKOUT

Perform 3 rounds of each of the circuits below. Rest half the time to the same amount of time it took you to complete each round. Rest 2-3 minutes between circuits.

CIRCUIT #1:
20 seconds Jump Rope/Double Unders
8-12 reps each side Backward Rotational Lunge
10-15 reps Cherry Bombs

CIRCUIT #2:
20 seconds Jump Rope/Double Unders
8-12 reps each side Side Lunges
3-5 reps each side Circle Crawls

CIRCUIT #3:
20 seconds Jump Rope/Double Unders
8-12 reps each side Curtsy Lunge
10-20 reps each side Side Plank Hip Dips

COOL DOWN
Stretch and Roll Out:
Calves
Hamstrings
Quads
Groin
Hips/Glutes
Chest
Back/Lats

NOTES:

You can add weight to the lunges, but make sure you can still move quickly. This is a cardio workout so your focus is on moving quickly.

EXERCISE DESCRIPTIONS:

Jump Rope/Double Unders – Do either two foot hops or double unders. If you are doing this at home or some place where you don’t have a jump rope, you can just perform the jumps while using a “fake” jump rope (aka just moving your arms as if holding a rope).
Backward Rotational Lunge – To do this backward rotational lunge, you will lunge back toward “5″ on the clock with your right foot. Your right foot, when you step back, will be perpendicular to your left foot, which is pointing toward “12.” Push your butt back and sink into a lunge, bending the right knee while keeping the left leg straight. Do not let the right heel come up. Keep your chest up and sit your butt backward. Driving off your right heel, push back to standing. Make sure that your left toe doesn’t rotate but continues to point toward “12.” Also make sure your left leg does not bend. Alternate sides until all reps are complete.

backward-rotational-lunge
Cherry Bombs – Sit on your butt and draw your knees into your chest. Wrap your arms around your shins and lift your feet off the ground. Then open your arms and straighten your legs out wide and let your upper body go back toward the ground. You should almost look like a big X on the ground with arms and legs out and open. Then come back to seated and draw your knees back in. Your feet should stay off the ground the entire time.

cherry-bombs
Side Lunges – Lunging with the right foot, step the right foot out toward “3″ on the clock. As you lunge out to the side, you are going to bend the right knee and sit your butt back. Keep your let leg straight. Both toes should be pointing straight ahead. Keep your right heel down as you sink into the lunge. Push your butt back and keep your chest up. Then drive back up to standing and lunge on the other side. If you want to make the move harder, add weight.

side-lunges
Circle Crawls – Set up on your hands and knees. Flex your feet and lift up onto your hands and toes. Your knees should be under your hips and your hands should be under your shoulders. Pretend their is a string attaching your belly button to the ground. You may even want to put something on the ground under your belly button to keep you centered. Then begin to circle over that spot. Do one full circle one direction then switch and do a complete circle the other way. To move in a circle, you will take a step with the opposite hand and leg. Make sure to move both your hands and feet. You do not just want to move your feet and circle around your hands! Beginners may need to do a baby crawl on their hands and knees to start.

circle-crawl
Curtsy Lunge – Take your right foot and step your right foot back behind your left leg. You will reach your right foot back to about “7″ on the clock. Make sure you step far enough back (do not keep your right foot too close to your left) that you can bend both knees and sink down into a deep lunge. Keep your left heel down on the ground and your chest up. Then come back to standing. Make sure that you feel this lunge in the outside of your left butt cheek when you lunge back with the right leg. Then lunge on the left. Alternate sides until all reps are complete.

curtsy-lunge
Side Plank Hip Dips – Set up on one forearm and either your knees or the sides of your feet. Start in a basic side plank. Then keeping your body straight and your chest open (aka not rotated toward the ground), drop your hip toward the ground and then press it back up as high as you can. Repeat making sure your body doesn’t collapse forward. Your top hand can be raised toward the ceiling or on your hip. Complete all reps then switch to the other side.

side-plank-hip-dips

Bodyweight Cardio Parfait

Bodyweight Cardio Parfait

WARM UP
Stretch and Roll Out:
Calves
Quads
Hips/Glutes
Chest
Shoulders

WORKOUT

With this workout, you will end up completing 10 rounds. Each round you will start over at the top of the list, adding a new exercise each round until you complete all 10 exercises on the tenth round.

CIRCUIT:
5 reps Super Crunches
10 reps each side Split Squat Jumps
5 reps each side Sit Thrus
10 reps Burpees
5 reps each side Ski Hops
10 reps each side Plank Hip Dips
5 reps 180 Squat Jumps
10 reps Gorilla Crawl
5 reps each side Rocking Chair Abs
10 reps Tuck Jumps

COOL DOWN
Stretch and Roll Out:
Calves
Quads
Hips/Glutes
Chest
Shoulders
Traps

NOTES:

This is a great workout to do at home since it requires no equipment. You can even do it when you travel since not much space is required.

Make sure you move as quickly as possible. Rest only when absolutely necessary. There are no breaks built into this workout so if you need rest, you can take it as needed. Just remember your goal is to do it as quickly as possible with good form. Challenge yourself to also do the hardest variations you can. Record your time and try to beat it next time!

 

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EXERCISE DESCRIPTIONS:

Super Crunches – Lie on your back with your legs out straight. Crunch your upper body up as you draw your knees in. Come up so that you are sitting on your butt. Reach your hands to outside one knee. Then lie back down. Then crunch up and reach through your knees. Lie back down. Then crunch up and reach outside the other knee. Those 3 crunches equal one rep.

super crunches
Split Squat Jumps – Step one foot backward into a lunge. Sink into a deep lunge, bending both knees as if kneeling down to the ground. Then jump up and as you jump, switch into a lunge on the other side. Sink down into the lunge on the other side once you land and then explode back up and while jumping switch back into a lunge on the first side. Beginners may need to do quick step back lunges instead of jumping to switch. The lower you go in the lunge and the quicker you jump and switch, the harder the move will be.

lunge-jumps
Sit Thrus – Start on your hands and knees. Flex your feet and press up onto your hands and toes with your hands under your shoulders and your knees under your hips. You will then rotate open toward the right and bring your left leg under and through toward where your right hand is. As you bring your left leg forward and through, lift your right hand. You should be almost sitting with your left hand down to support you. Then bring the left leg back through so you are back in the starting position. Next rotate to the left and kick your right leg through and forward as you lift your left hand. Move as quickly as you can back and forth. Beginners may need to move slowly or even start in a more spread out position with their legs out straight.

sit-thrus
Burpees –  Start standing with your feet together. Then place your hands on the ground in front of your feet. Jump your feet back so you are in the high plank position. Beginners may need to step their feet back instead of jumping them back. Advanced lifters will then do a push up, dropping their chests to the ground. If you can’t move quickly while including the push up or you can’t do a full push up, you will simply jump your feet back then jump them back in with no push up in between. If you do include the push up, once you press back up, jump your feet back up to your hands. As you stand back up, you are going to jump up off the ground. Beginners may not want to include the jump at the top. After you jump, go right back down and repeat the move.

basic-burpee
Skater Hops -To do Skater Hops, make sure you have enough space to hop side to side. To set up, start standing to one side of the space you have to use. If you start to the right side of the space, you will start standing on your right leg. Shift your weight so that you are standing on your right foot as you sink down into a little squat and swing your arms down in front of you and out to the right. As you sink and swing your arms out to the right, you will load your glute so that you can then explode up off the right leg and jump toward the left and land on your left leg. Keep your chest facing straight ahead as you jump and land. Swing your arms slightly up and across your body to help you power the jump. As you land on your left leg, sink right back into a squat, pushing your butt back so that you load your glute to help you jump back to the right. Your arms should also swing out to the left to help you not only balance, but also power the jump back. Then push off your left leg and jump back right, landing on your right foot and sinking back into the slight squat. Try not to touch the other foot down when you land. Only touch the other foot down if you need to for balance. Beginners may need to go slower and not jump as far to each side. It is important that you also work on your balance and don’t simply rush through the movement if you can’t stabilize on each side. If you can balance, try to move as quickly as possible and cover as much ground as possible to really make your legs work.

skater-hops
Plank Hip Dips – Start on your forearms and either your knees (beginner) or toes (advanced). Your elbows should be under your shoulders as you press up into a straight line from your shoulders to your knees or toes. Squeeze your glutes and keep your core tight with your belly button drawn in toward your spine. Do not let your hips sag or go up toward the ceiling. Then you are going to rotate your hips side to side. Drop your hips first toward the right and then to the left, try to touch the ground on each side. Do not let your arms come off the ground. Even as you rotate, don’t let your hips sag or go up in the air toward the ceiling. Alternate hip touches until all reps are complete.

plank-hip-dips
180 Squat Jumps – One rep of the 180 Degree Rotational Squat Jumps is actually two squat jumps. You will start facing forward with your feet about hip-width to shoulder-width apart. Squat down and then as you jump up, rotate all the way around so you are facing the opposite direction. As you land go right back into a squat to load for the next jump. Do not land with your legs straight even if you are a beginner. Beginners may not be able to go right back into the squat, which is ok. Everyone will squat though before jumping back to the front. When you land, squat down and jump again all the way back around. Then load again and jump back front. Remember one rep is jumping 180 then back again. So 5 reps is really 10 jumps.

rotational squat jumps
Gorilla Crawl – Crouch down on the ground with your feet about shoulder-width apart. Place your hands on the ground between your knees. Squat down as low as you can. Do not worry about whether or not your heels are touching the ground. Then reach your hands forward and place them on the ground in front of you. Hop your feet up and outside your hands. Reach again and then hop your feet forward. Repeat as quickly as possible.

crawl exercise
Rocking Chair Abs – Start kneeling on one knee, squeezing your glute to press your hips forward. Then roll onto your back and switch the leg crossed underneath so that when you roll back up you can come to a kneeling position on the other side. Use your arms for momentum only if needed. Less arm swing makes the move tougher.

rocking-chair-abs
Tuck Jumps –  Stand with your feet together. As you jump up, tuck your knees in toward your chest. Then shoot your legs back out to land softly on the ground. You are not squatting with this jump, simply tucking your knees.

tuck jump

Home Cardio Routine

Home Cardio Routine

WARM UP
Stretch and Roll Out:
Calves
Quads
Groin
Hips/Glutes
Back
Chest
Shoulders

WORKOUT

Perform 5-8 rounds of the following circuits. Each exercise will be performed for 10 seconds. Move quickly from one exercise to the next. Rest 20 seconds between rounds and 1-2 minutes between the two circuits.

CIRCUIT #1:
Burpees
Sit Thru
Lateral Crawls
Skater Hops

CIRCUIT #2:
Split Squat Jumps
Circle Crawls
Mt. Climbers
Squat Jacks

COOL DOWN
Make sure to walk around and let your heart rate come down before you stretch and roll out.
Stretch and Roll Out:
Calves
Quads
Groin
Hips/Glutes
Back
Chest
Shoulders

NOTES:

Beginners may need more rest between rounds and circuits. You don’t want to have to rest between exercises so, if necessary, rest longer than a minute between rounds.

EXERCISE DESCRIPTIONS:

Burpees – Start standing with your feet together. Then place your hands on the ground in front of your feet. Jump your feet back so you are in the high plank position. Beginners may need to step their feet back instead of jumping them back. Advanced lifters will then do a push up, dropping their chests to the ground. If you can’t move quickly while including the push up or you can’t do a full push up, you will simply jump your feet back then jump them back in with no push up in between. If you do include the push up, once you press back up, jump your feet back up to your hands. As you stand back up, you are going to jump up off the ground. Beginners may not want to include the jump at the top. After you jump, go right back down and repeat the move.

basic-burpee
Sit Thru – Start on your hands and knees. Flex your feet and press up onto your hands and toes with your hands under your shoulders and your knees under your hips. You will then rotate open toward the right and bring your left leg under and through toward where your right hand is. As you bring your left leg forward and through, lift your right hand. You should be almost sitting with your left hand down to support you. Then bring the left leg back through so you are back in the starting position. Next rotate to the left and kick your right leg through and forward as you lift your left hand. Move as quickly as you can back and forth. Beginners may need to move slowly or even start in a more spread out position with their legs out straight.

sit-thrus
Lateral Crawls – Set up on your hands and knees with your knees under your hips and your hands under your shoulders. Flex your feet and press up onto your hands and toes, keeping your knees and hands in the same position. You will then move laterally, keeping your knees close to the ground and your back flat. As you move sideways, your hands will come together as you step your feet apart and then your hands will move apart as you step your feet together. Beginners may do a baby crawl to start from their hands and knees if they can’t maintain the table top crawl.

lateral-crawl
Skater Hops –  Start to one side of the space you have to use. You are going to jump lateral, hopping from one foot to the other while trying to move as quickly and cover as much distance as possible. If you start to the right, you are going to push off your right leg and push yourself laterally as far as you can. When you land, you will land on your left leg. Keep your chest facing straight ahead. As you land, sink into a variation of the skater lunge. Then push off your left leg and jump back right, landing on your right foot. Try not to touch the other foot down when you land. Only touch if you need to. Beginners may need to go slower and not jump as far. As you advance, do not pause on either side of the jump to balance. Also, make sure you are jumping as far as quickly as possible.

skater-hops
Split Squat Jumps
– Step one foot backward into a lunge. Sink into a deep lunge, bending both knees as if kneeling down to the ground. Then jump up and as you jump, switch into a lunge on the other side. Sink down into the lunge on the other side once you land and then explode back up and while jumping switch back into a lunge on the first side. Beginners may need to do quick step back lunges instead of jumping to switch. The lower you go in the lunge and the quicker you jump and switch, the harder the move will be.

lunge-jumps
Circle Crawls – Set up on your hands and knees. Flex your feet and lift up onto your hands and toes. Your knees should be under your hips and your hands should be under your shoulders. Pretend their is a string attaching your belly button to the ground. You may even want to put something on the ground under your belly button to keep you centered. Then begin to circle over that spot. Do one full circle one direction then switch and do a complete circle the other way. To move in a circle, you will take a step with the opposite hand and leg. Make sure to move both your hands and feet. You do not just want to move your feet and circle around your hands! Beginners may need to do a baby crawl on their hands and knees to start.

circle-crawl
Mt. Climbers – Set up in a high plank from your hands and toes. Bring your right knee in toward your chest. Then drive the foot back out and bring your left knee in toward your chest. As you bring each knee in, you will just lightly tap the toe of that leg on the ground. Do not put weight on that front leg. Go as fast as you can, alternating knee drives. Mountain Climbers should look like you are “running” with your hands on the ground. Beginners may need to go slowly to start or even put their hands up on a low table or bar to perform incline mountain climbers. Advanced exercisers will want to “run” as quickly as possible or even add sliders or a towel under their feet.

mountain-climbers
Squat Jacks – Squat jacks are a variation of the basic jumping jack. Start with your hands by your side and your feet together. Then squat down with your feet together. Get as low as you can. Then jump your feet out to between about hip-width and shoulder-width apart. Stay low in the squat even as you jump out. As you jump out, also bring your hands up and together overhead. When you jump back in, bring your hands back down to your sides. Stay low in the squat the entire time.

jumping-jack-variation