S B Coaches College - Tip of the Month January 2006




		S B Coaches College Tip of the Month January 2006

Getting training sessions in during the winter months can be tough. With the cold weather, lack of motivation, packed gyms, and great sporting events on TV, it can be challenging to get to a gym to get workouts in consistently. With that in mind, we have put together some simple, yet effective workouts that can be done at home with little to no equipment at all. We challenge you to try them and let us know what you think.

Deck of Cards

This is a tried and true workout with hundreds of variations. Simply grab a deck of cards, make sure they are shuffled, and choose four different bodyweight exercises to perform for each suit.
Example:

Hearts – Pushups
Diamonds – Crunches

Clubs – Squat Jumps

Spades – Back Extensions

The number on each card is the number of reps to perform; face cards are ten reps; aces are eleven reps. You are only limited by your imagination of exercises.

8 Minute Old School

Simply do 30 seconds for each of the four exercises and repeat the cycle of four exercises, four times.

Option #1

Jumping Jacks

Shuffle Splits – just like a jumping jack, except feet go front to back instead of out to side.

Squat Jumps – all the way down

Mountain Climbers – in a pushup position, alternate kicking knees into chest, while the other leg stays back. Perform quickly.

Options #2

Burpees/Squat Thrusts – begin standing up, quickly drop to floor, kick legs back into a pushup position, then kick back in and jump straight up in air.

Jumping Jacks

Squat Jumps

Shuffle Splits

On the Hour

Simply perform one exercise all day long, but perform 10-20 reps of the exercise every hour on the hour. For example perform 20 squat jumps every hour on the hour for 10 hours (i.e. 8:00-6:00); that’s 200 reps of squat jumps over an entire day!

Iso Holds

Hold each of the following four movements in the stretched position for a total of five minutes each. The big thing to remember is to actively contract the muscles you are stretching in each of the movements.

Squat – hold in the bottom position with feet 10-12 inches apart. Actively recruit every fiber and try to push through the floor.
Pushup – hold in the bottom position with the elbows over the wrists and the upper arms at 45-degree angle to the torso. Actively recruit every fiber and try to push the floor down.
1-Leg Bench Squat – hold in the bottom position and place the back leg up on a chair. Make sure the weight is going through the heel of the foot that is on the floor and actively trying to push the ground down. Maintain upright posture.
Forearm Bridge – hold a bridge position between the forearms and toes, keeping back flat and abs drawn-in.

There you go: a number of simple at-home workouts that require no equipment whatsoever. For more ideas, be sure to pick up SB Coaches College Workout in a Bag CD-ROM!