Welcome to Week 1 of the March Madness Fitness & Wellness Challenge! I’ve got an awesome 10 minute workout at home, and it’s tailor-made for you today. You can use this as an opportunity to jumpstart or resume your health and wellness goals by working out with me. I’ll give you modification and progression options. Plus, each workout will focus on abs, upper body, lower body, and cardio. So it will be a total body workout!
New workouts will drop at the beginning of each week in March (starting March 6th) via email. Wellness tips will drop at the end of each week in March. If you haven’t signed up to receive my emails, please sign up so you don’t miss out on anything! Simply sign up by clicking the link below.
Why a 10 Minute Workout at Home Can Be Effective
This will be like a mini workout or a micro workout. Micro workouts can be extremely beneficial for office workers, students, people with high levels of personal commitments (and little free time), and those of us who tend to sit for long periods of time. The multifaceted benefits include:
- Physiological: improved body composition, improved blood pressure, lower resting heart rate, reduced risk of illness/injury, lower cholesterol, and improved glucose control.
- Psychological: improved mood, reduced risk of psychological illness, improved self-esteem, reduced stress, and improved confidence.
- Social: improved social experiences with your friends, ability to increase your engagement with your community, and more likely to influence others to do the same when they see you exercise.
Compound Exercises
In addition, this 10 minute workout at home will utilize compound exercises. What are compound exercises? I’m so glad you asked! They are exercises that utilize multiple muscle groups simultaneously. Compound exercises help you use your workout time more efficiently because you’ll engage many muscle groups at the same time, burn more calories, raise your heart rate, improve your coordination, and build strength. And in this workout, we’ll focus on strengthening your abs, upper body, and lower body!
Before You Start
First, you’ll want to make sure that you have a clear space to work. It should be free of obstacles as you step side to side or do reaches with your arms and legs. Second, you’ll also need some equipment such as:
- light weights are optional (3-5 lbs)
- a mat
- a towel
- water
- a timer (on your phone or watch) to use for your work/rest intervals
If you don’t have these items, no worries! Weights are always optional, but if you’d like to purchase some and/or any of the other recommended equipment, definitely check out this list of some of my favorite fitness products and my favorite water bottles.
Last, I highly recommend doing a warm-up for 2-3 minutes. A warm-up will help you lubricate your joints, prepare your body mentally & physically for exercise, and help prevent injury. You can do a series of squats, arm/shoulder stretches, marches in place, and jumping jacks. Here’s a video of some of my favorite warm-up exercises.
Week 1: Your 10 Minute Workout at Home
Can’t view the video? Click HERE!
Exercise 1: Tricep Kickback to Shoulder Press
- Targeted Muscles: Triceps, shoulders, glutes, quads, and hamstrings
- Modification: No weights
- Interval: Work for 45 seconds at 80% effort, then rest for 15 seconds
- Form Tips: Keep your spine long as you squat and push your weight into your heels (as if you’re sitting in an imaginary chair behind you). Make sure your knees are not tracking over your big toes as you squat in the kickback. In the kickback, keep your elbows high to isolate the triceps. Keep your elbows by your side body as you bend before extending your arms overhead and standing tall for the shoulder press (shoulders over hips).
Exercise 2: Alternating Reverse Lunges to Bicep Curls
- Targeted Muscles: Biceps, glutes, quads, and hamstrings
- Modification: No weights and/or go slower. You can also add a torso twist over the front knee if you don’t want to use weights.
- Interval: Work for 45 seconds at 80% effort, then rest for 15 seconds
- Form Tips: As you lunge, keep the front knee over the ankle and lower the back knee towards the floor. Keep your shoulders over your hips in the lunge, and your elbows by your side body. Press through your front heel as you rise from the lunge. For the bicep curl, keep your elbows by your side body to isolate the bicep muscles.
Exercise 3: Plank Bird Dog
- Targeted Muscles: Upper body, lower body, core
- Modification: Scale to your knees
- Interval: Work for 45 seconds at 80% effort, then rest for 15 seconds
- Form Tips: To set up the plank, make sure your shoulders are over your wrists, your hips are in line with your shoulders, and you have a wide stance with your feet. Draw your belly towards your spine, then extend one arm out in front of you and extend the opposite leg out behind you. Lower the arm and leg, then switch sides.
Exercise 4: Jump Squats to Toe Taps
- Targeted Muscles: Glutes, quads, and hamstrings (plus your heart!)
- Modification: No jumping
- Interval: Work for 60 seconds at 80% effort, then rest for 60 seconds
- Form Tips: To complete the jump squat, feet should be hips distance apart (or just slightly wider). Squat by pressing your weight into your heels, and elbows tapping the top of your thighs. Jump up and reach up towards the sky. After you land, stay in the squat, then toe tap to the left, then right.
Next Steps for Your 10 Minute Workout at Home
This is a 3 day full body workout, so pick the three days this week when you will do this workout. Keep yourself accountable by scheduling them on your calendar (as if they are crucial meetings because they are). On your workout days, warm-up for 2-3 minutes, then do the 4 exercises above. Repeat the 4 exercises once to complete 1 round. You can repeat the workout several times for a longer workout, but take a 1 minute break between each round.
On workout day 2 or 3, you can spice things up a bit by:
- doing the basic exercise or the progression (if you did the modification previously)
- going faster (but maintain good form!)
- extending your workout by doing more rounds
- reversing the order of the exercises
That’s all for this week’s workout, friends. Stay tuned for the wellness tip later this week. Next week’s 10 minute workout at home will drop next Monday. And, if you haven’t already, sign up to get the wellness tips and blog posts delivered straight to your email box. Just click the link below to sign up.
As always, stay committed, have fun, and I’ll talk to you soon!
Mrs. Traylor is a Fitness Instructor, NASM Certified Personal Trainer &ย Nutrition Coach, AFPA Certified Prenatal and Postnatal Fitness Specialist,ย wife, and momma who provides actionable advice for positive lifestyle changes with fitness, nutrition, and wellness.ย Read about Wendyโs inspiring entrepreneurial journey, and subscribe to Wendy’s newsletter here!
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