Do It Better – Week 1 Day 2
Today we work your legs:
Forward lunges
The bodyweight lunge strengths the muscles of the legs including the quads, hamstrings, glutes, and calves. Lunges are classified as “unilateral training” and help you work your legs independently. This is the reason why you get to develop your coordination and body’s ability to balance compared to squats where you have to use your legs at the same time. One of the most awesome benefits that you get from doing bodyweight lunges is you get to stabilize your core.
- Starting position: Start with your feet shoulder-width apart. Keep your shoulders relaxed and chin up.
- Inhale as you take a big step forward with your right foot (carefully shift your weight forward so your heel hits the floor first) while keeping your left foot planted. Smoothly lower your body by bending both knees simultaneously. Descend until your right thigh is in line with your knee and parallel to the floor, and the left knee touches the floor.
- Exhale and press into the right heel to be able to get you back up to your starting position.
- Switch legs and repeat.
Bodyweight Calf Raise
Calf raises work primarily the gastrocnemius, one of the two primary calf muscles. Strong calf muscles result in better stability and balance, decreased risk of ankle and knee injuries, and better agility when running and jumping. For this exercise, all you need is a block or a step and something to help keep your balance.
NOTE: You can use a box instead of the step, or if you don´t have any of them, do the calf raises on the flat floor.
Stand with the balls of your feet on the edge of the step/block and let your heels drop down as far as possible.
- Starting position: Bring your feet to be hip-distance apart. Stand straight with a tight core and flat back. Keep your hands at your sides or hold on to a wall for balance.
- Exhale and focusing the tension in your calf muscles, slowly raise yourself up onto the balls of your feet as high as possible.
- Pause at the top of the movement, inhale and slowly return to the starting position.
- Do not rest at the bottom, and immediately start the next rep.
Tips to get the most out of this workout
- Read the instructions on how to do the exercises. If you skipped it, scroll up. It´s important to keep the technique in mind to perform the exercises correctly.
- Watch the first two sets before you start and visualize yourself performing the exercises.
- Grab the equipment you need (step), put it in position, and keep close your bottle of water.
- Mute your phone. Next 10 minutes you´ll be unavailable.
- We aim for a total of 10 sets (5 sets each exercise), with no rest in between. However, if you need to rest, press pause and take your time.
- Each set is 1 minute long. If it´s too much for you right now, do as many repetitions as possible.
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