Day 4: 5 Day Home Workout Challenge – Total Core Domination

Format: Perform 3 rounds for 0:30-1:00 each move. Rest as needed.

Move 1: Full Body Extension to Alternating Knee Cross

• Stand with feet slightly wider than hip distance apart.
• Engage your core and shoot your booty back behind you and squat down, bringing your hands down near your feet.
• Pop up to standing, extending your hands up over your head.
• Make sure to keep your core tight, and engage your booty at the top as you extend your arms overhead.
• Then drive your right knee up and across your midline, rotating your torso as you bring your left elbow to meet your knee. Repeat on the other leg, then back to the squat.

Move 2: Squat Thrust Twist Punch

• Stand tall with your feet slightly wider than hip distance apart, core engaged.
• Bend your knees and plant your hands just below shoulders. Step or jump back to a tall plank, keeping your core tight and back flat, gaze about 6 inches in front of you for a neutral spine.
• Jump or step your feet back to your hands.  Load your weight in your heels and use your momentum to power up to standing.
• At the top of the movement, engage your core and twist to the left and punch with your right arm, then twist to the right and punch with your left arm.
• MOD: Perform this movement with your hands on an inclined surface, like a chair, couch or ottoman. You can also take the impact out entirely by stepping back and forth rather than jumping, and coming up to a body squat rather than a jump.

Move 3: Superwoman Hold with Arm Circles

• Position yourself on the mat on your stomach. Extend your arms and legs.
• Lift up smoothly, bringing your arms and legs off the floor and lower down with control. Bringing the feet out wide will make it easier to lift as you build strength, and feet in close together adds additional challenge.
• Keeping the arms extended, perform circles clockwise, then counterclockwise.
• MOD: Take out the circles. You can also break the move up into two parts. Practice lifting your upper body by itself, then lifting your legs while keeping your upper body isolated. Work on these individually before putting them together.

Move 4: Prisoner Squat with Knee Outs

• Begin in a kneeling position on your mat with your hands behind your head and chest up tall.
• One at a time step each foot up and as you come to standing, bring your right knee up to your right elbow.
• Come back down to a kneeling position and repeat on your left side.
• MOD: Hold on to an object to assist you in getting up and down. 

Move 5: Push Up to Cross Under Crunch

• Begin in a tall plank position with your hands and toes on the floor or mat, hands stacked directly below shoulders.
• Holding your belly button in and up to keep your core engaged, slowly let yourself come down to the ground for a pushup (elbows shooting backward at a 45 degree angle and shoulders away from your ears).
• Engage your core and press into the ground to come back up to a tall plank position.
• Keeping your core engaged, extend your right arm. Bring your left knee across to your right elbow, crunching your abs and return your left foot back to starting position. Repeat on the other side.
• MOD: Come down to your knees into a plank or put one knee down or do this on an elevated surface by placing your hands on the edge of a couch or table.

Move 6: Reverse Burpees

• Sit down and roll back and use your momentum to come forward, bring your feet in close to your glutes creating a strong base to support you as you stand and jump.
• MOD 1: When you’re learning this move, keep your hands down at your sides to support you on the jump to stand.
• MOD 2: If you start to get winded but want to finish that set, take the jump out and roll back to stand or just roll back and sit back up. Either way you are getting a great core workout!