Variation, the Amazing Stickie knows, is good for the soul. She is doing Reverse Burpees today to experience this.
She begins lying on her back on the floor with her arms over her head. From there, she rocks herself forward to a squatting position and then jumps up in the air. She reverses the process, going back through the squat to lying down.
Ten is a great number of reps.
The Amazing Stickie knows how important it is to have good hip function. She does hip rotations to help ensure that her hips keep working well.
To begin, she sits on the floor with her knees bent and her feet flat on the floor. She puts her hands behind her and leans back slightly. Then she tilts both knees to one side before returning to the start position. She can alternate sides or do a set on one side and then the other.
The Amazing Stickie is working her abdominals today with Side Banana (which also reminds her to eat her fruits and vegetables).
She begins lying on her side. From there, she lifts her head and her legs up toward the ceiling. Then she lowers them back down. A set of ten on one side and then the other is good.
Today the Amazing Stickie is working her amazing abdominals by doing Captain’s Chair.
She begins sitting on the edge of a box, leaning back slightly, hands behind her. From there, she lifts her knees toward her chest and then lowers them back to the starting position.
Ten reps is a good set.
The Amazing Stickie loves using a pullup bar. Today she’s using it with an exercise band to do dead hangs.
She uses a looped exercise band, pulling one end through the loop to secure it to the pullup bar. Then she puts her feet in the band, holding on to the bar with her arms bent and her chin over the bar. She slowly lowers herself until her arms are fully extended and then pulls herself back up.
A set of ten is great.
The Amazing Stickie loves step ups, but sometimes she wants a bit more challenge. Today she’s doing power step ups.
She begins with one foot up on a strong box, step, or bench. She pushes herself up onto that foot and lifts her other knee high, hopping up above the box. After landing back on the box, she returns her foot to the floor. Her arms swing as she moves for extra bonus calorie-burning points. She usually does a set of 15 or so on one leg and then switches to the other side.
The Amazing Stickie knows that a great way to power up her workouts is to add plyometrics. Today she’s doing plyometric pushups from her knees. (It is also ok to do these from regular pushup position, but it’s harder!)
She begins in modified pushup position, a straight line from her knees to the top of her head. She bends her elbows as she would for a regular pushup, but then explodes upward so that her hands leave the floor at the top of the pushup. That’s one rep. Sets of ten are good.
The Amazing Stickie knows how important it is to work in all planes, even though she herself is two-dimensional. Today she is doing a medicine ball rotational toss.
To begin, she kneels in the proposal position, holding a medicine ball next to her back hip with both hands (i.e., twisting toward the back leg). From there, she tosses the ball across her body. (It is helpful if she has a partner to fetch the ball back for her between reps.) When she has done a set on one side, she repeats on the other side.
The Amazing Stickie is working her amazing abdominals today with the plank saw. She begins in elbow plank position, her body resting on her elbows (forearms straight in front of her, hands not touching) and the balls of her feet, a nice straight line from her heels to the top of her head. From there, she rocks her body back toward her feet and then forward again.
A set of ten is good.
The Amazing Stickie loves different ways to work her body. Today she is doing the frog reverse hyperextension on the bench.
To begin, she puts her torso on a bench, holding on with her hands, knees bent and feet together hanging off the end. Then she extends her legs straight back behind her until she is a straight line from head to heels. She lowers back to the starting postion to complete the repetition. Sets of five are good.
Sometimes the Amazing Stickie wants to use All The Things. Today she’s doing dumbbell knee-banded hip thrusts, for which she needs a bench, a dumbbell, and an exercise band.
She secures the exercise band around her thighs just above her knees. She holds a dumbbell by the ends with both hands at her waist. She sits on the floor next to the side of a bench with her shoulder blades against the bench. From there, she lifts her hips until she herself is bench-shaped, keeping the exercise band taut around her legs. Then she lowers back toward the floor without actually putting her behind down on the floor. A set of ten is good.
The Amazing Stickie loves a challenge. Today she’s working on squat pop-ups. She would like everyone to know that this exercise is kind of like the bottom half of a burpee.
To begin, she gets into plank position. From there, she jumps her feet forward toward her hands while lifting her torso up. She ends up in a squat position with her arms in front of her. From there, she puts her hands on the floor and jumps her feet back to plank position. A set of five is good.
The Amazing Stickie, as we know, loves her planks. Today, she is taking her plank for a little lateral walk. We are looking down at her from above in the drawing.
She begins in plank position. Then she takes one arm out to the side. The leg on the same side moves out next. Then she shifts her weight to that arm and leg, bringing the former still arm and leg in to return to regular plank position, one body width to the side.
Stickie does about 5 shifts to one side and then works back the other way for 5.
The Amazing Stickie loves exercises that do a lot at once. So today she is demonstrating the plank with foot touch.
She begins in plank position, a nice straight line from her head to her heels. From there, she lifts her hips toward the ceiling, making herself into an inverted V as if she were doing downward dog in yoga. She reaches one hand back and touches her foot with it before putting it back on the floor and coming back down into plank position. She repeats the whole thing, using her other hand to touch her foot. That’s one rep. Five reps should do it.
The Amazing Stickie loves a good chest press. When she goes to the gym with the fancy stuff, she can do decline presses on a bench, but sometimes she wants to work her lower body at the same time as her upper body, so she gets all the benefits of decline presses plus a bunch of glute and leg work by doing bridge chest presses.
To get into bridge position, Stickie lies on her back, knees bent, feet flat on the floor, with her heels in line with her sit bones. She inhales. On her exhale, she tilts her pelvis toward her belly button and peels her spine up until her body is a straight line from her chest to her knees. (People with osteoporosis should not peel up, but rather lift the hips straight up in the air to keep the spine from flexing as much as possible.)
For this exercise, Stickie gets into bridge position while holding a pair of dumbbells. She holds them over her chest with straight arms. Then she lowers the dumbbells until they are close to but not quite touching her chest. She lifts them back up over her chest by straightening her elbows. That is one rep. Sets of ten are good.
The Amazing Stickie knows that small variations can make a familiar exercise seem new. Today she is changing up her usual bent over row by switching her grip.
As usual, she stands with her feet about hip-distance apart with her knees slightly bent. She hinges forward at the hips being careful to keep her spine straight or even slightly extended (not curved over. The Amazing Stickie will never have a little old lady hump in her back.). She holds her dumbbells with an underhand grip and rows them up toward her armpits. She feels her shoulder blades come together on her back as she does this. Then she lowers the dumbbells back down.
Sets of ten to twenty are good, depending on the weight of the dumbbells.
The Amazing Stickie, being two-dimensional, occasionally has to remind herself that most people live in three dimensions. Today, she is demonstrating an exercise for those of us who also need to be reminded. Sometimes life does not just go forward and backward or even just side to side; sometimes we have to twist. The skater jump is a great way to tap into our twisty nature.
Stickie begins by crossing one leg back behind the other, bending both knees, as if she is curtsying. From that starting position, she hops the back foot to the side and crosses the former front foot behind, curtsying on the other side. She uses her arms to pump up the movement.
People who do not enjoy jumping can certainly do the motion without the jump.
The Amazing Stickie would like to remind everyone that we want to keep an eye on our knees to ensure that we are keeping them aligned with our toes to reduce strain on the joints.
A set of thirty should get everyone’s heart rate nicely elevated.
Chest presses, the Amazing Stickie knows, are a classic exercise. There are, of course, many variations. Today, Stickie is doing the dumbbell floor chest press. She doesn’t do this variation that often because she likes to be able to lower her elbows farther, but this is fun once in a while.
To begin, she lies on the floor with her legs in tabletop position, holding a pair of dumbbells directly above her shoulders. The dumbbells are close together, but Stickie knows that if they touch each other it makes the exercise easier and cheats her of some of her work. Stickie does not like to cheat. Maintaining a neutral spine, Stickie bends her elbows to lower the weights toward her chest and then raises them up again to the starting point.
Depending on the weight, ten to twenty reps should do it.
The Amazing Stickie has amazing posture. One way she maintains this level of amazingness is by working the back of her body. Gorilla rows are a great way to do that.
She begins by squatting down with her legs fairly wide apart. She hinges at her hips so that her back is nice and straight and parallel to the floor, her hands holding dumbbells between her feet. From there, she lifts one dumbbell up toward her armpit (stopping before she runs into her own body!) and then lowers it back toward the floor. She repeats on the other side. Letting the dumbbell rest on the floor is easier than keeping it hanging, but both ways of doing the exercise are good. Sets of ten to twenty are good, depending on how heavy the weights are.
The Amazing Stickie, while having an amazing attention span, occasionally wants to change things up just a little to keep herself sharp. This means she loves variations on classic exercises, like this one for pushups. It’s called a shoulder tap pushup.
She begins in classic plank position (the modified pushup position would also work!). from there, she lifts one hand and taps the opposite shoulder and then repeats with the other hand. Then she does her regular pushup. The whole time she uses her abdominals to keep her balance. A set of ten is plenty.
