Fitness Post One

So, the first workout. In yesterdays workout I did what has become a firm favourite of mine in terms of circuits. I did 4 rounds of 16 reps of Hanging Leg Raises, Tricep Dips, Push Ups and then 3 minutes of skipping. I chose these exercises as for me they target a whole host of muscles from the abdominals, lats and hamstrings during the hanging leg raises to triceps, biceps and the upper chest area during the dips and push ups. I decided to throw in the skipping as a cardiovascular exercise to help ramp up the calories burnt. This is a technique often practiced in boxing gyms. You will often do series of bodyweight exercises mixed in with 2 or 3 minute bursts of skipping.

With regards to technique, as you can see here my right leg is slightly bent when my left is perfectly straight. This is down to muscle tightness and a need to stretch out my hamstrings. This, I will say, is not a beginner exercise so if you have access to a frame like the one pictured start off by doing Knee Raises and focus on really engaging your core and latissimus dorsi muscles (the muscles running down the side of your back). By engaging these you will build up the strength required to hold yourself up and prevent rocking which not only negates the movement by bringing in momentum but is also just annoying!

With the Tricep Dips it is important to dip down until your arms are at a 90 degree angle and the slower you go down the more you will feel the exercise and the more benefit you will get from it as it increases time under tension which maximises hypertrophy and aids muscle growth.

Push Ups are fairly self explanatory, I will be posting different variations of push ups over the coming weeks but for now you can just do a standard push up starting almost in the plank position then coming down until your chest touches the floor, or you can do it from the knees if you prefer (this is simply a slightly easier variation as it reduces load and stress on the upper body).

Skipping was the biggest surprise for me in terms of difficulty as before I took up boxing I had never done it before. Thankfully the coaches I had were great and I found a brilliant YouTube channel called the Jump Rope Dudes who have a brilliant video on the basics of skipping which I will link below. As I said above I aimed for between 2-3 minutes of continuous skipping with intermittent periods of high knee sprints. These are a slightly more advanced manoeuvre but they only take a bit of practice to get the hang of like everything.

I hope this was a helpful little read and be sure to check back in each Monday, Wednesday and Friday for more workouts and fitness tips.

The link to the Jump Rope Dudes video if you want to have a look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz96SdflS9A