6 Fitness Faves

Dust off these Fitness faves, found in almost every gym to help reinvigorate your workouts, along with your motivation to move

YOU WANT TO … Keep up with your cardio while recovering from a lower-body injury.

SO YOU SHOULD … Sit at the rope trainer. You’ll spike your heart rate while keeping your knees, hips, and ankles safe and secure.

LIKE THIS … Maintain a strong core, upright posture, and your chin lifted as you pull the rope down in a hand-over-hand motion. Breathe steadily throughout your set and focus on pulling with your back. Work for 45 seconds, then rest for one minute before repeating again. If you don’t feel fatigued by the end of your interval, crank up that resistance! 

YOU WANT TO … Bring out your inner athlete.

SO YOU SHOULD … Hop your way down (and up) an agility ladder. You’ll feel like you’re in gym class again (but with the added bonus of it actually being fun).

LIKE THIS … Place an agility ladder flat on the ground. Perform 30-second intervals of work followed by 30 seconds of rest. Try high knees (running through the ladder, landing one foot in each square and bringing your knees up to hip height), in-and-outs (jumping your feet inside each square and then out, landing in a squat), and slaloms (moving up one side of the ladder in a skiing motion, keeping your feet together and jumping in and out of each square).

YOU WANT TO … Get a quick full-body workout in while feeling like a badass.

SO YOU SHOULD … Wave the ropes. There’s no better way to raise your heart rate and strengthen your upper
and lower body all at once.

LIKE THIS … Do rope intervals between weight sets to keep your heart rate up. Take a wide athletic stance with your knees slightly bent and your chest leaning slightly forward. Holding one end of the rope in each hand and keeping your elbows tight to your sides, alternate waving each rope up and down. Continue for 30 seconds to one minute.

YOU WANT TO … Target your abs without doing crunches.

SO YOU SHOULD … Swing a kettlebell. Once you get the motion down, you’ll be the master of one of the most effective and fun core exercises out there.

LIKE THIS … Stand with your feet wider than shoulder-width apart, holding a kettlebell with both arms extended toward the floor. Bend your knees slightly and lean forward from your hips, moving the kettlebell between your legs. Explosively extend your knees and hips to come upright, allowing the momentum to swing the kettlebell to shoulder level. Let it fall back to the start, bend your knees, and immediately move into your next rep. Repeat 10 to 15 times.

YOU WANT TO … Add some excitement to your cardio.

SO YOU SHOULD … Strap into a rowing machine, the oft-forgotten apparatus of your gym’s cardio section.

LIKE THIS … Set a distance goal for yourself; with each workout, try to beat the time that it took you to cross the finish line. Explosively push through your feet to extend your legs then, as with the rope trainer, pull with your back, letting your elbows flare out to the sides.

YOU WANT TO … Pump up your push-ups.

SO YOU SHOULD … Place those hands of yours on a BOSU to further engage your body from head to toe.

LIKE THIS … Flip the BOSU upside down so the dome is on the ground and grip either side of the platform with your hands. You can always make it a bit harder by putting the BOSU flat-side down and keeping your hands close together on its peak. Whichever way you choose, aim for three sets of 10 to 15 reps.