Day 2 of our 30 day commitment to cardio! In today’s session we will use the stairs. If you don’t have a staircase you can run up and down, you can do step runs on an aerobic step or any single stair you may have in the house. If you don’t have that, run in place.
Keep in mind a few things before you start:
- Any uninjured/reasonably healthy person should be able to do this. Remember to listen to your body. If it feels like you can work harder, you probably can. If it feels like it’s too hard or something is causing pain, you probably should not be doing it. Be aware of your fitness level when starting this program (not where you once were 10 yrs ago or where you think you should be). Work hard enough to challenge yourself, but not so hard you injure yourself.
- Burpees and mountain climbers become easier when you place your hands onto a step or sturdy chair instead of all the way down on the the ground, or if you simply slow down the movement. Plank variations can be done on elbows and/or knees until you build up the strength to do them from hands and feet. I will post more modifications alongside each exercise.
- To make an exercise harder you can hold onto a medicine ball or any kind of weight you have around the house (water jug works well). Hold it at chest level or overhead. You can also increase the speed with which you move to increase the difficulty. To ensure you are not slacking in your 15 min session, count your reps for each exercise and match or exceed them on subsequent sets.
- To make an exercise easier, slow it down. We use timed intervals to avoid having to do a certain number of reps. Beginners will get 5 reps out in 40s while advanced will be able to bang out 15 but everyone is working hard for their own level…right?! So slow the movement down, step or shuffle instead of jump or hop, walk instead of jog, jog instead of run, remain stationary instead of travelling or jumping.
- If you are doing your session first thing in the morning, like straight outta bed, do yourself a favour and add an extra 5 minutes at the start to do some leg and arm swings and some light dynamic stretching before you get started. This is a good idea regardless of the time of day…so you prevent injury and can actually train hard during the 15 minute session…but it’s super important if it’s the first thing you do in the day.
- If you are going to share this to a friends wall, or pin it, please link back to the page and not just the image so that they have the benefit of these modification tips just like you do.
If you are using a staircase, you will run up and down 3 times. And by run down I mean safely walk and do not trip down the stairs! If you are doing the alternatives of a step run or on the spot running, set your timer to 30 seconds.
Set your kitchen timer to beep at 15 minutes. Move through this sequence continuously until your timer goes off. You are done when your timer is done. Rest only when you need to and for as little time as you can manage.
Run up and walk down 3x
- 30 squat jacks
Run up and walk down 3x
- 5 burpees (no pushup)
Run up and walk down 3x
- 20 soldier planks
Run up and walk down 3x
- 5 burpees (no pushup)
Run up and walk down 3x
- 30 squat jacks
—->>>Check the comments to this on facebook!< <<----
~~~
Alternatives to the burpee if you can’t do it: Stand-up Sit-up or a Med Ball Slam
Alternative if you don’t have a staircase: step run
What’s a solider plank: AKA up/down plank (make sure you do not do the pushup in the video.
Lastly, how to do a squat jack.
