Hello All … welcome to Workout #3 … today is all about glutes and obliques! The obliques are such an under-worked and under-appreciated muscle … nothing will help whittle your waist, and give you functional strength for any activities that involve twisting or turning, than a good oblique workout. And glutes are one of the largest muscles in your body … they do a lot of work everyday, so it’s important to keep them strong.
Okay, lets get to it … here’s the details for your workout:
- Do each exercise for 45 seconds, and then immediately move on to the following exercise. Once you complete the entire circuit, rest for 30 seconds. Complete the circuit 1-4 times, depending on your fitness level and time commitment for the day.
- For exercises that include a full rotation plus pulses or other moves, do 45 seconds of each. For example, Exercise #6 is a leg lift into pulses into a high knee swing — do 45 seconds of the full left lift, 45 seconds of the pulses, and 45 seconds of the knee swing. Then repeat on the other leg.
- Proper form is really important for all exercises, but particularly so for glute work. You want to be sure you’re engaging your core throughout each of these exercises — please do not let your lower back take over, that’s how you injure yourself. Keep your core engaged, and your spine neutral.
- And a special note for Exercise #1 (Supermans) — you should focus less on lifting and pulsing “up”, and instead focus on stretching your limbs “out” — reach for the corners of the room with your hands and feet. The only upward movement should be the natural result of your glutes and shoulders engaging. So it’s not a lift, it’s just a squeezing and engagement of the muscles (which will naturally cause your limbs to lift slightly). But please do not view this movement as a “crunch” upward. That type of movement is extremely damaging to your lower back.
Happy sweating my friends … and if there’s a particular workout you’d like to see, please leave a comment or feel free to shoot me an email!
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