12 Days of Christmas

Merry Christmas, everyone!  I am home alone Christmas Eve morning.  I really wanted to still be sleeping right now, but my body decided it's time to wake up.  And it's not listening to me when I tell it to go back to sleep.  So I decided I would send out this little Christmas present to everyone.

As this is a blog about fitness, my Christmas gift to you is a "12 Days of Christmas" style workout.  This is what we did at boot camp Thursday morning, and then I adapted it a little for all my personal training clients.  Below, you will find a list of twelve exercises.  For some, you will need a pair of dumbbells.  The way you want to do this workout is to do one rep of the first exercise, followed by two reps of the second and one rep of the first.  Then you'll do 3 reps of the third, 2 reps of the second, and one of the first.  Follow that up with 4 reps of the fourth, 3 reps of the third, 2 reps of the second, and one rep of the first.  Keep adding exercises, with the number of the exercise corresponding to how many reps you will do of that exercise, until you have done 12 reps of the twelfth exercise, 11 of the eleventh, 10 reps of the tenth, 9 of the ninth, 8 of the eighth, 7 reps of the seventh, 6 of the sixth, 5 of the fifth, 4 of the fourth, 3 reps of the third, 2 of the second, and one rep of the first exercise.  Just like the song, but a lot less annoying... and a lot better for your health and pocket book, too! Enjoy!

1. Ladder Run (or 30 seconds of Mountain Climbers, if you don't have a marked basketball court for ladders)

2. Stupids (Start on your hands and toes.  Keeping your body flat and your feet still, walk your hands out as far as you can, and then walk your feet back in to the starting position.)

3. Single leg Squats (3 per leg)

4. Alternating Push-Up Planks (Start on your hands and toes again, in a push-up position. Walk your arms down so you're now resting on your forearms, in a plank position.  And then walk back up into a push-up position.  That is one rep.)

5. Burpees  (start standing. Drop down to a crouching position with your hands on the ground.  Using your hands for support, kick your feet out behind you, do a quick push-up, then bring your feet forward again, and jump as high as you can in the air, extending your arms up above your head.)

6. Russian Twists (Sit on the floor with feet elevated so that your balancing on your tailbone.  Grab a dumbbell in your hands and twist side to side, letting the dumbbell touch the ground on each side.  For this exercise, touch the dumbbell to each side 6 times.)

7. Lunges with a Hammer Curl (This one will also be 7 lunges per leg.  Each time you lunge forward, do one hammer curl, which is simply a bicep curl but with palms rotated inward so that they are facing each other.  Of course, you'll need your set of dumbbells for this one, too.)

8. Leg Lifts (Lay on the ground with legs fully extended.  Keeping your legs as straight as possible, raise them up off the ground as high as you can, and then lower them again without letting your feet touch the ground before starting the next lift.)

9. Single Leg Hip Raises (Again, while lying on the ground, bend your knees so that your feet are flat on the ground.  Now lift one leg up in the air.  Keeping that leg up in the air, raise your hips up towards the ceiling as high as you can, and then lower your hips without letting them touch the ground before starting the next lift.  Do 9 on these, and then switch which leg is in the air and do 9 more.)

10. Squats with Shoulder Press (You'll need your dumbbells for this one again.  Holding the dumbbells by your ears (palms facing forward), squat down as far as you can go, pushing your butt back so that your knees don't go out past your toes. As you stand back up, make sure you're pushing up through your heels, and fully extend your arms up over your head.  Lower your arms back to the starting position, and begin your next squat.)

11. Single Leg Calf Raises (Stand on one leg and raise up on that toe as high as you can.  Do this next to a wall if you need help with balance.  You can hold your dumbbells in your hands to increase resistance.  Or, to increase the range of motion, do this on a stair and--as you come down--let your heel drop below level; just make sure you have a wall or railing to hold on to.)

12. Jumping Jacks (Yup, just like when you were in Third grade!)

Merry Christmas!!!