Working (out) from Home

When temperatures fall below freezing in State College, it’s hard to find the will for the White Building. While a gym workout is ideal, Lyndsay Luff converts moves from Penn State fitness classes to short, at-home workouts.

Penn State’s Fitness Department showed us three moves from two of their most popular classes, “Kickboxing Aerobics” and “Butts & Guts.” Do these moves during the commercials of your favorite TV show, and you’ll pack a surprising amount of exercise into your schedule!

Push-ups
1) Lie on your stomach with your palms to the floor and your elbows touching your ribcage.
2) Straighten your arms, keeping your neck and head in line with your spine. Squeeze your buttocks without arching your lower back.
3) Lower your body to the beginning position without your torso touching the ground.
4) Do 10 reps of 10 push-ups each.

Planks
1) Lie on your stomach and begin in step one of the push-up position, with your palms to the floor and elbows touching your ribcage.
2) Instead of placing your palms on the ground, as you did for the push-up, bend your arms and place your elbows on the floor, keeping your hands in fists and arms parallel to each other.
3) Do 10 reps, holding for 10 seconds each.

Wall Sits
1) Keeping your feet shoulder-width apart, stand with your back touching a wall without your legs or heels touching it.
2) Slide your entire back down the wall, as if you were sitting in a chair, bending your knees at a 90 degree angle.
3) Do 10 reps, holding for 10 seconds each.

The original version of this article appeared in the Fall/Winter 2009 issue of Valley magazine.