Monday, January 7, 2013

Quad Shaking Bodyweight Blast



A Parkour-Garnished Outdoor Bodyweight Workout

Maybe it's just me, but my bodyweight workout routine this morning had my quadriceps a quakin'. I started off with an easy jog to the park, about a half mile; continued to warm up with joint rotations, and proceeded to do the following cluster (no rest between exercises:)



  • Bodyweight squats: x 20 (toes pointed slightly out and legs shoulder width or a little farther apart, arms in front and behind head, lowering body below parallel.)



  • Extended (superman) plank x 10 seconds



  • Pushups: x20 (alternating between close and wide grip)



  • Burpee Snatch Squat: From a pushup position, pop-up into a squat while simultaneously throwing both arms up and back, as if you were snatching a barbell. Keep pulling shoulders back and down as you rise up. Then shoot your legs back and drop into pushup position. Drive hard off the ground and repeat.

The first two sets I hit my goal reps, but by the third they were almost cut in half! Start off with 2-3 rounds and see how your body fares. Add more reps or rounds if necessary. I rested 30-45 seconds between rounds, and about 3 minutes before finishing off the workout with jumping wall-ups.

I finished this workout off with: 

Jumping Wall-ups: Using the back railing of the bleachers at the baseball diamond, I held the rail and pounced up (a la Parkour,) pulling hard and extending my arms at the top like a muscle-up. 


My goal was 20 reps straight through. Instead I got 10, 6 and 2. But it felt good and I was pushing myself to do even that, so I'm happy :-)

Now go out and put this little routine to the test.

Be sure to keep the pace up and get past your comfort zone!

***Here is a good tutorial on the Cat Leap. The second part after the leap is what I call the "wall-up," but you have to Cat Leap to get there. You don't need to leap from another wall to practice this. Try finding an obstacle that you can reach the top of with extended arms, then "cat leap" onto it and muscle-up.




Like Parkour? Get this amazing DVD by Julie Angel, filming Parkour Generations. Click here to see more.

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