Your alarm goes off and you unknowingly turn it off, turn over, and go straight back to sleep. Perhaps an hour or two later you wake up in a flat panic, realising what has happened. Not only will you most likely be late for work, your gym time has been completely obliterated, and you spend the next 30 minutes cursing your stupidity.
This is of course only one example of how a plan to go to gym can go awry and some people no matter how hard they try simply can’t find the time to go to gym between personal, social, and work responsibilities. However, just because you can’t find the time to go to gym doesn’t mean you can’t get ripped!
These 5 exercises use your own body weight to help you get fit and ripped and can be done anywhere, anytime.
1. Reverse Crunch
Often people do traditional crunches incorrectly which leads to neck pain rather than working the abdominal muscles. The reverse crunch stabilises your upper back and neck, protecting them from possible injury.
- Lie on your back on the floor with your legs fully extended in front of you, and your arms straight in the air
- Roll your knees into your chest and then quickly press them up straight in the air
- Use the same motion but in reverse to bring your legs back down to the starting position
- You have completed one rep
2. Split Drops
This exercise is great for hamstrings, glutes, and quads, and will give you a better stretch reflex in your hamstring. You could even do these while playing on Gaming Club NZ!
- Start with your feet together
- Jump into a split squat with one leg in front of the other
- You should not be doing a single leg lunge, but rather moving both legs simultaneously
- Jump back to the starting position
- Repeat for a total of 20 reps, alternating which leg drops in front
3. Stork Stance
- Balance on one leg with your knee slightly bent, and your hips slightly flexed
- Your other leg should ideally be extended slightly behind you at about a 45-degree angle from the ground, parallel to your torso
- Extend your arms fully down towards the ground with your hands open and your thumbs pointed up
- Lift your arms towards the ceiling and focus on squeezing your shoulder blades together to make the movement happen
- Lift your arms as high as you can without extending your hips or falling over
- Hold the same leg position and do reps by extending your arms
4. Monkey Push-Up
- Start in a traditional push-up position
- Press up and when your arms are fully extended, rotate and kick your left leg underneath your body and out to the right side, twisting your right leg over, and lifting your right hand to the ceiling
- Repeat this motion with the right leg
- Alternate sides for a total of 20 reps
5. Power Burpee
- As with a traditional burpee, drop into the push-up position
- From there jump into a squat position
- Follow with a jump of about 6” into the air
- Drop into a squat and immediately do an explosive tuck jump – jump as high as you can, pulling your knees up as high as possible
- One rep has been completed
