When it comes to fitness, most of us aim to have a strong, well-balanced body, and one of the easiest ways to achieve this is by focusing on dynamic, full-body movements that target multiple muscle groups at once.
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If you work out several muscle groups at once, you’ll save time, as well as improve your coordination, blast more fat and get a cardio workout in to boot.
Here’s a full-body workout that consists of just five great combo exercises. These are compound movements that will tone you all over, with a cardio boost as a bonus!
1. Jumping Jacks With Overhead Dumbbell Press
This is a simple exercise to tone up your arms and legs, which also doubles as cardio.
- Get a light pair of dumbbells (between 3 and 5 pounds), and hold one in each hand.
- Move your legs as though you were doing normal jumping jacks.
- However, your arm position will be a little different.
- At the bottom, hold your hands, palms out, just slightly above your shoulders.
- As you jump your feet out to the sides, press your arms up and slightly out so that your limbs make an X-shape.
- Lower the dumbbells as you jump your feet back together.
This is one repetition. Try doing 3 sets of 15 reps. Or for an extra challenge, you can set a Tabata timer and perform this exercise for 8 sets of 20 seconds each, separated by 10 seconds of rest.
2. Squat Thrust And Press
The squat thrust and press is an amazing exercise for your legs, glutes, arms and more.
- To perform this exercise, get a pair of dumbbells (significantly heavier than you would use for the jumping jacks with overhead dumbbell press).
- Hold them in your hands and get into a high plank position, still holding the weights (for this exercise, it will be easier if your weights have edges than if they’re entirely circular).
- Jump or step your feet forward to meet your hands, assuming a deep, squatting position.
- Make sure that your knees remain behind your toes, that your core is tight, and that you keep a flat back.
- Rise to a standing position, curl the weights up to your shoulders, and press them over your head in a shoulder press.
- Return the weights to shoulder-height, then lower the weights the rest of the way by uncurling your arms.
- Squat down, replace the weights on the ground and jump your feet back into a high plank to complete one repetition.
Perform three sets of 15 reps of this exercise before moving on.
3. Walking Lunge And Bicep Curl
- To do this exercise, hold a dumbbell in each hand and stand with your feet at about hip distance apart.
- Step one leg forward and lower into a lunge, bending your legs until your front leg is nearly level with the floor.
- As with the squat, keep your knees behind your toes and in-line with them (not allowing your knees to bow out to either the inside or outside).
- As you lower into the lunge, curl both weights upward by bending your elbows.
- Next, step your other foot through and repeat on the other side. Alternately, if you’re short on space, you can step your front foot back, then step the other foot forward.
For this move, walk across your gym or studio; approximately 10 lunges, with one bicep curl for each lunge, until you reach the other side. Turn around and do 10 more lunges with bicep curls back to starting position. If you want more of a challenge, for each lunge, hold the position and try 3 bicep curls at the bottom of each lunge.
4. Medicine Ball Squat Throw And Catch
- Start with your feet about hip distance apart.
- Hold a medicine ball in your hands at about chest height.
- Do a deep squat, keeping proper form. As you stand up explosively, throw the ball up into the air above your head.
- When you catch the ball, squat down immediately again.
- This completes one repetition.
Try three sets of 20 reps for this exercise before moving on to the bear crawl.
5. Bear Crawl
Doing animal-inspired movements like bear crawls can also be great way to get a core, arms and legs workout.
- Get into a plank-like position, with your back flat but your knees bent and nearly touching the ground.
- Walk slowly back and forth, keeping your movements controlled and your core tight.
- You’ll feel the burn everywhere soon enough.
Walk across the studio, there and back, three times each. And you’re done!
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