Training

Bringing Play Back to Fitness

As kids, we all loved to move and play.

Even if you were a total bookworm like I was, no kid can resist a playground, a foam pit where you can flip and jump to your heart’s desire, or really anything involving a ball. Heck, as kids, we even get excited about sprinting across the schoolyard with our friends.

When we’re young, movement comes naturally to us. Anything can be turned into a game, and getting all worn out after a long day of playing (a.k.a. moving) is one of the most satisfying feelings ever.

So why does that have to change as adults?

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5 Gymnast-Inspired Bodyweight Exercises for a Super Strong Core

If you’ve ever watched a gymnast flip, handstand, and crush their routines, you know they need a really strong core.

But you won’t see most gymnasts doing a ton of crunches or even holding a basic plank for minutes on end. Like the rest of us, gymnasts want to get the most out of their workout in the shortest amount of time.

Note: The original version of this article was published on Mindbodygreen. Check it out!

Here are five exercises inspired by gymnasts that will help you build a super strong core in less time:

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5 Superhuman Calisthenics Moves You Can Practice With Bands

Sometimes it can feel like an exercise is so far from your current fitness level that there’s no way to even try to practice it.

This is often the case with a lot of the cool calisthenics moves you see super advanced athletes doing. The exercises are just so dang hard you have no idea how you’d even start, so you don’t even try (I’ve been there!).

But that’s why we’re such huge fans of using bands to help work up to doing many really cool—but really hard—exercises.

Here’s why using bands to help you progress is so awesome:

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7 Workouts to Help You Get Ready for Fun Summer Activities

One of our main goals here at 12 Minute Athlete is to encourage you guys to stay fit and healthy not just for the sake of working out, but to be in the kind of shape that allows you to enjoy your life more.

As summertime approaches, there are even more reasons to maintain a good strength and conditioning level, or improve both of them even more. We really love being out and about, riding our bikes, hiking, stand up paddle boarding, swimming, etc.—basically anything you can do outside as soon as the weather gets warmer.

And if you’re practicing your handstands, pull ups, or pistol squats, getting fit and strong now will make it even more fun to work on them as the nice weather gets more consistent!

The seven following workouts will help you to improve your strength and stamina so you can make the most of your fun summer activities and stay strong for your skill practice as well:

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9 Ways to Substitute Dumbbells in Your Favorite Exercises

We’re big fans of functional pieces of equipment like medicine balls, kettlebells, and sandbags here at 12 Minute Athlete, but we know that not all of you have these at home.

And even if you work out at a conventional gym, they don’t always have kettlebells or medicine balls, and chances are that you won’t find a sandbag there.

In that case, a simple set of dumbbells can successfully replace a medicine ball, kettlebell or even a sandbag in many of the exercises we do. Dumbbells are a great investment for any home gym, and we’ve never been to a gym that didn’t have at least a few sets of dumbbells laying around. Even most hotel gyms these days tend to have a few.

Here are nine exercises that we typically do with other workout equipment, but that you can easily do with dumbbells as well:

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How to Bounce Back Faster from Your Workouts With Self-Massage

Hey athletes! I was asked to participate in the #NotGonnaStop campaign, sponsored by HoMedics®. Although I have been compensated, all opinions are my own.

Although going to the spa for a massage is great every so often, most of us don’t have the time (and just can’t afford) a full massage once or twice a week.

That’s where self-massage can make a huge impact. You can get many of the same benefits as you would with a professional massage by simply spending 10-15 minutes every night rolling out the sore muscles on your body.

Doing so can help you bounce back from your workouts quicker, help reduce the possibility of injury, as well as keep your muscles flexible and knot-free. And that means you can keep being unstoppable and going after all those awesome fitness goals you’ve been working so hard towards.

In partnership with HoMedics®, here are some of my favorite self-massage tools to help you get back to your workouts faster:

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7 Types of Push Ups to Mix Up Your Training

If you guys hadn’t noticed already, push ups are one of my very favorite bodyweight exercises of all time.

You can do them absolutely anywhere, and there are so different variations to keep you from getting bored.

If you’re still building up the strength to do full push ups, keep in mind that all of these variations can be made more beginner-friendly by either dropping to your knees or placing your hands on an elevated surface—the higher the surface, the easier it’ll be.

See seven of my favorite push up variations in the short video above, and work hard!

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7 Exercises You Can Do With a Medicine Ball

You’ve probably noticed we love medicine balls here at 12 Minute Athlete.

A simple medicine ball can help to make your workouts incredibly versatile. Wall balls are one of our favorite exercises you can do with it, but there are so many more!

If you don’t have a medicine ball, we really recommend you get one. They’re not super expensive, are easy to store at home, and once you get one you’ll have it for life. Of course, you can also substitute medicine balls for any ball-like object you have around like a basketball or soccer ball, but make sure to work even faster so that the overall intensity of the workout stays high.

Here are 7 of our favorite exercises you can do with a medicine ball:

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Tutorial Roundup: Advanced Bodyweight Exercises

This post is part two of our Tutorial Roundup series. We’re bringing you a collection of exercise tutorials that we do a lot in our 12 Minute Athlete workouts to help you challenge yourself and unlock your potential. 

In part one, we talked about why it’s important to build a solid base with the basic bodyweight exercises and went over the proper technique of some of the most important exercises and ones we do a lot here on the site. We covered squats, side lunges, push ups, V ups, burpees, dips, jump rope exercises, and box jumps. If you’re a beginner, haven’t worked out in a while, or if you just want to double-check your form, check out the last post before reading this one.

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Tutorial Roundup: Basic Bodyweight Exercises

We always encourage you to work as hard and as fast as you can in your workouts, because that’s what HIIT training is about.

But it’s important to also keep in mind that these reps should also be performed with proper technique.

In this post, we’re teaching you how to do the most basic bodyweight exercises. In part two of this series, you’ll find tutorials for advanced bodyweight exercises.

If you have the 12 Minute Athlete app or you’ve done any workouts from the website, you probably know that a majority of the exercises are actually basic bodyweight exercises. That’s why we want to be sure you have the right technique down for doing them.

If you haven’t done any of our workouts yet, just take our word for it—you’re going to find the following tips useful.

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