Fit Tip: At Home Winter Workout

Winter is coming… which means that roads may be icy and gyms might be closed due to Covid-19. Here is a quick full body workout you can do at home that requires nothing more than a jump rope.

This workout has a lot of jumping exercises to get your heart rate up in a short amount of time. The benefits of jumping are manifold: it increases your oxygen capacity, improves our balance, and strengthens your heart. Did you know that you can burn an average of 200 to 300 calories when you jump rope for just 15 minutes? Not bad! This combination of aerobic exercise and resistance work helps you to get a full workout in a short amount of time, so you can get your workout done and get back to shoveling your driveway.

Jump Rope

• Pick up a jump rope and hold the handles loosely. Step it behind you.
• Stand on the balls of your toes with your body erect and your elbows at your sides. (Your wrists are doing the work, not your arms.)
• Turn the jump rope over your head
• As the rope touches the floor jump up so it goes under your toes and heels and is back at the start position.

Walking Lunges with Dumbbells

• Hold a pair of dumbbells at arm’s length next to your sides, your palms facing each other.
• Stand in a staggered stance with your right foot in front and your left foot behind you.
• Slowly lower your body, with your back knee almost touching the ground.
• Pause, then push through your heels back to standing position.
• Move the left foot forward to the front, and now the right foot is behind you and immediately lower yourself down. Continue walking forward in a straight line for the prescribed number of steps.

Planks

• Start in a pushup position, but bend at your elbows and rest on your forearms instead of your hands.
• Your body should form a straight line from your shoulders to your ankles. (Don’t lift your butt up higher!)
• Suck in your stomach and squeeze your glutes.
• Hold this position as long as directed while continuing to breathe.
• Modification—If one minute is too hard when you are starting, hold for five seconds and then rest for five seconds, repeating this process until you reach one minute. Each time you practice this exercise try to hold the position a little longer between rest breaks.
• Variation – You can also rest on your hands instead of your forearms

High Knees

• Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Lift up your right knee to your chest.
• Switch to life your left knee to your chest. Continue the movements, alternating legs at a fast pace.

Pop Squats

• Start in a standing position with your feet together.
• Keeping your lower back arched, lower your body as deep as you can keeping your knees over your toes in a standard squat.
• Push from your heels and explosively jump up, landing with your feet wide and lower into a sumo squat position.
• Keep squat jumping between open and closed leg positions.
• Modification—to make it harder, jump up on a step.

Spiderman Planks

• Start in a push-up position, but bend at your elbows and rest on your forearms instead of your hands.
• Your body should form a straight line from your shoulders to your ankles. (Don’t lift your butt up higher!)
• Suck in your stomach and squeeze your glutes.
• Bring your right knee up and towards the side, about hip height.
• Twist your core to look towards your knee.
• Bring your leg back to start position and repeat on the other side.