Week 2, Day 8 of our 30 day cardio commitment…so glad everyone is sticking with it. Yesterday we had a rest and recovery day, today we start the week with some good cardio while we’re fresh and again we’ll end the week more stationary to aid recovery and make sure we’re not doing too much jumping.

So we’re doing escalating intervals…starting at 30s, then 45 and finally 60 seconds. You’ve got 20seconds between those intervals so you need to use that to reset your watch. See below for modifications. Going through everything just once.

1. 30s High Knees
2. 30s Butt Kicks
3. 30s Squat Jacks
4. 30s Hop in Squat out
5. 20s Rest

1. 45s 5 plank jacks + 10 Mountain climbers
2. 45s Crossjacks (L)
3. 45s Crossjacks (R)
4. 45s Burpees
5. 20s Rest

1. 60s Med Ball Around the World
2. 60s Single Leg RDL Touchdowns (hops) (30s each leg)
3. 60s High Knees w/ Taps
4. 60s 20 Mountain climbers + 2 burpees

Crossjacks speed version
Crossjacks squat version
High Knees with Side to Side Hops
Plank Jacks to Mountain Climbers
Single Leg Romainian Touchdowns
Med Ball Around the World

Ok modifications…..crossjacks suck on a good day. If you really can’t do these then you can do a stationary off-set squat (one foot up, one foot down). If you’re doing the crossjack make sure you’re crossing in front of yourself and not behind. Behind will potentially kill you. Cross in front…it’s a lot easier and makes more sense…for some reason people over-complicate this movement and cross behind often.

Single Leg RDL Touchdowns…remove the hop and work on balance and hip hinging instead of speed of hopping.

High Knees…switch to a march with a side to side tap

Burpees and mountain climbers…move yourself up, set your hands on a step or chair or table and/or take out the jump.

Hold your plank stationary for 20s if you can’t do the jacks.

Now before we get started, keep these things in mind:

• Any uninjured/reasonably healthy person should be able to do this. Remember to listen to your body. If it feels like you can work harder, you probably can. If it feels like it’s too hard or something is causing pain, you probably should not be doing it. Be aware of your fitness level when starting this program (not where you once were 10 yrs ago or where you think you should be). Work hard enough to challenge yourself, but not so hard you injure yourself.
• If you don’t like, or can’t do, a specific movement, try to think of an alternative before you get started. For instance, I have an injury to my left arm. I can not bend my wrist or put pressure on it. That means all movements like pushups, planks, burpees, mountain climbers, etc need modifications because I can’t put my hands flat on the ground. Holding onto a set of dumbbells or holding onto the side of a step or table allows me to do the exercise without furthering my injury.
• Burpees and mountain climbers become easier when you place your hands onto a step or sturdy chair instead of all the way down on the the ground, or if you simply slow down the movement. Plank variations can be done on elbows and/or knees until you build up the strength to do them from hands and feet. I will post more modifications alongside each exercise.
• To make an exercise harder you can hold onto a medicine ball or any kind of weight you have around the house (water jug works well). Hold it at chest level or overhead. You can also increase the speed with which you move to increase the difficulty. To ensure you are not slacking in your 15 min session, count your reps for each exercise and match or exceed them on subsequent sets.
• To make an exercise easier, slow it down. We use timed intervals to avoid having to do a certain number of reps. Beginners will get 5 reps out in 40s while advanced will be able to bang out 15 but everyone is working hard for their own level…right?! So slow the movement down, step or shuffle instead of jump or hop, walk instead of jog, jog instead of run, remain stationary instead of travelling or jumping.
• If you are doing your session first thing in the morning, like straight outta bed, do yourself a favour and add an extra 5 minutes at the start to do some leg and arm swings and some light dynamic stretching before you get started. This is a good idea regardless of the time of day…so you prevent injury and can actually train hard during the 15 minute session…but it’s super important if it’s the first thing you do in the day.
• Lunges are a great exercise but many people do them wrong and hurt their knees. If you are a beginner, if you have a weak core, if you have bad knees…step BACK into a reverse lunge. And if even that is too hard, keep it stationary, both feet planted, and move yourself up and down. If you are more advanced, and have a good strong core, you can do forward alternating lunges if you have a small space. Walking lunges if you have a hallway or the space to move forward. Make sure the heel of the front foot is planted with each rep…if it doesn’t touch you need to take a longer stride.
• If you can not keep up to the timed interval and need extra rest, that’s ok, take it. Just keep at it, keep challenging yourself and working at it and little by little you will improve. By the end of the 30 days, if you repeat work out #1, I’d bet money you’ll be able to keep up and not need the extra rest.
• If you are going to share this to a friends wall, or pin it, please link back to the page and not just the image so that they have the benefit of these modification tips just like you do.