Got Conditioning?

Are you looking for a good workout? We condition almost every day at gym, so when I want to work out, I know what to do. I am very grateful for this because, in the future, I will always be able to put together a nice hard workout!

One of my coaches, Amanda, is very serious about conditioning. When she started coaching us, we all thought that she was pushing us too hard in conditioning. Now, we are enjoying the challenge, and we are amazed at how much easier her conditioning is. However, when she is in a bad mood or our head coach tells her to, she conditions us hard. REALLY hard.

This is a workout that we did a few weeks ago that made my whole team sore for a few days. 

First, we did a beam jump circuit, but since most people do not have a beam at home, I will leave out the details.

After everyone was tired from the beam circuit, we were sent to get panel mats. Panel mats are about one and a half feet thick, so any object around that size will work just fine.

This is a panel mat. Any object about this size will work for these exercises.

We used the panel mats to do multiple exercises, each of which we did for a minute. We got about ten seconds to rest between exercises. First, we did jumps with two feet up onto the panel mat and back down. To get the most out of these, push through your toes and try to bend your legs as little as possible. Then, we did the same thing, but only using one leg. After one minute, switch legs. 

Finally, your legs get a break. Putting your hands on the top of the panel mat, do push-ups. The goal is to try to touch your chest to the top of the panel mat, but if you cannot do this, go down as far as you can. 

This is the position to do the first push-up exercise in.

After a minute, put your feet on the top of the panel mat and your hands on the floor and do push-ups this way. 

The position to do the second push-up exercise in.

Finally, as a transitional exercise, we did twenty inchworm pushups. To do these, do a push-up. Then, walk your feet up to your hands, and then walk your hands out until you are back in push-up position. These are easiest to do if you have an open area to do them in. 

These next three pictures show the progression of how to do inchworm push-ups.
Start out in push-up position.

After doing a push-up, walk your feet up to your hands.

Then, walk your hands out until you are in push-up position and do another push-up.

We did this whole block two times, and it was very exhausting.

We weren’t done, though. Block two of exercises started out with dips. To start a dip, get in this position:

How to start a dip.

Then bend your arms and push back up. After these, do push-ups with your feet on the mat again. Then, do two-legged jumps onto the mat again. Next, do two-legged jumps sideways over the mat. After those comes another set of twenty inchworm push-ups. We also did two sets of this exercise block.

All in all, this was a hard workout for my whole team. The thing that helps us get through these is to find something that motivates us. This gives us something to work towards as well as helps to keep our mind off of the aches and pains from conditioning. 

I hope you give this workout a try if you are ever up for a challenge! Good luck!