The workout below is for Day 13 of the SELF 2022 Spring Challenge. Check out the full four-week workout program right here. Or go to the workout calendar here. If you’d like to sign up to receive daily emails for this challenge, you can do that here.
It’s your last workout of the second week of the challenge—you’re almost halfway done! And we have a sweat-fest on tap to close out the week strong: an agility and abs HIIT routine that’ll really leave you breathless.
In this workout, you’ll alternate between traditional cardio moves and traditional abs moves, with a hidden goal in place: These moves will be honing your agility. Both of the cardio exercises here, the skater hop and the crab walk to jump, have you moving laterally. Lateral movement takes place in what’s called the frontal plane of motion. It’s different from the sagittal plane of motion (moving forward and backwards), where many of us tend to spend much of our workout time and much of our daily life, doing moves like pressing, squatting, deadlifting, or even walking. But adding frontal plane exercises are vital because they mimic more of the movements you’ll do in everyday life—say, moving to the side to get into a car or shuffle down a row of movie theater seats. This helps hone our agility and allow us to change directions quickly.
This workout is also heavy on core work thanks to the bicycle crunch, which narrows in on your obliques, and the plank shoulder tap, which really fires up your stabilizing transverse abdominis muscles as you raise one hand off the floor and reduce your level of support. By alternating between cardio moves and core exercises, you’ll keep your heart rate up and your core firing continuously.
Reminder: Because there is jumping on the docket for today in this abs HIIT routine, a good warm-up before the workout is crucial—this is definitely not one where you want to enter cold! Set aside a few minutes to get your blood flowing by walking and performing some bodyweight exercises, like high-knee marches, leg swings, and glute bridges, or try this dynamic warm-up instead! On that note, if jumping isn’t on your schedule for today, it’s perfectly fine to modify. You can take out the hop in the skater and do the exercise as a shuffle, and remove the jump in the crab walk to jump, simply squatting down and reaching toward the sky with momentum in its place.
WORKOUT DIRECTIONS
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Complete each exercise for the chosen work/rest interval:
I = 30 seconds work, 30 seconds rest
II = 40 seconds work, 20 seconds rest
III = 50 seconds work, 10 seconds rest
Rest 60 seconds between rounds. Complete 2 to 5 rounds.
EXERCISES
- Skater Hop
- Bicycle Crunch
- Crab Walk to Jump
- Plank Shoulder Tap
BONUS MOVE
After your last circuit, try the bonus move for 60 seconds.
- Mountain Climber
Source: https://www.self.com
