Cardio Core Workout

May 19, 2014 by 15 Comments

Cardio Core Workout

Hope everyone had a great weekend! I taught three classes on Saturday and four on Sunday, so it was a megaformer-filled couple of days for me. I’ve found that I absolutely love instructing group fitness and am actually contemplating getting spinning certified this coming weekend so I can expand into different types of exercise and studios. I’ll keep you posted if that happens!

Cardio Core Workout

Equipment I Used:

You’ll go through 5 rounds of the following circuit as quickly as you can. Try not to rest; but if you do, take no more than a minute in between rounds.

Cardio Core Workout

  • 20 Reverse Toe Touch to Crunch: Start on your back with feet staight up, perpendicular to the ground, holding a medicine ball in outstretched arms over your head. Bring the ball up towards your toes, crunching your upper back and shoulders off the ground. Lower back down, reaching arms overhead (but not letting the ball come to rest on the ground) and do a reverse crunch, lifting your butt and hips off the ground, pushing feet towards ceiling. Lower back down. That’s one rep.
  • 20 Plank Jump Jacks:Start in a plank position. Jump both feet up towards your hands. Jump them back into plank position. Jump feet apart (like a horizontal jumping jack) and then jump them back together into your starting plank position. That’s one rep.
  • 50 Bicycle Crunches:Lay on back, hands behind head. When you crunch up towards your bent left knee, your right leg should be extended out and not touching the ground. Switch sides, crunching over towards the right with your left leg extended. That’s one rep.
  • 20 Side-to-Side Elbow Plank Hops: Start in a plank position. Jump feet to the left, back to the center, to the right, back to the center. That’s one rep.
  • 60 seconds Jump Rope (two-footed)
  • 60 seconds Jump Rope (high knees)

Cardio Core WorkoutWEARING | sneakers, tank, leggings: c/o Puma

Cheers to a productive Monday! Only five more days until the weekend…
signature

Links to exercise equipment and outfit details are affiliate.

Filed Under: Abs, Cardio, Jump Rope, Medicine Ball, Workouts

Plank Workout – Quick Challenge

May 23, 2012 by 46 Comments
Plank Workout - 2 minutes on, 1 minute off plank challenge. This quick workout video makes for a great finisher! #plankchallenge #plankworkout #workoutvideo

Post updated May 2020. This plank workout was the first ever fitness-related post on this blog. Back then, I thought all my pictures needed to have a scenic background, so I’d make my mom come with me to the beach to photograph my workouts (proof at the end of this post). My how times have changed!

When I can, I try to go back to my older workouts and revamp them. I have years and years more training experience and education now, so I find it worthwhile to tweak the sequencing of exercises to make them more effective. And of course filming a video to go along with the old workouts is a major upgrade!

Plank Workout Challenge

This plank workout challenge is two minutes on, one minute off. During the two-minute plank, you’ll go through six plank variations. Do each of the six moves for 20 seconds. Repeat entire two-minute circuit 2-3 times (I do three in the video). Also, depending on your level of fitness, you can decrease or increase the interval length. Maybe start out doing each variation for only 15 seconds.

As with all workouts, you want to make sure you’re properly warmed up before, and always listen to your body, modifying or stopping as needed. I have two guided warm ups:

Plank Workout - 2 minutes on, 1 minute off plank challenge. This quick workout video makes for a great finisher! #plankchallenge #plankworkout #workoutvideo

Workout Breakdown

See 1:24 in the above video for a preview of the exercises.

  • Forearm Plank
  • Alternating Knee Bends
  • Marching Plank
  • High Plank
  • Alternating Elbow to Knee Crunch
  • Plank Jack

The plank jacks at the end are quite the challenge—woof! 😉

Similar Workouts

If you enjoyed this quick plank workout challenge, check these out:

  • Slider Plank Challenge – You’ll use sliders to build plank exercise combos. This one mixes plank and side plank variations.
  • Tabata Plank Challenges – A few years ago I did a series of 4-minute plank tabatas. Four plank variations, 20 seconds on / 10 seconds off x8.

xo Nicole

Filed Under: Abs, Bodyweight, Interval Training, Video, Workouts Tagged With:
« Previous Page