To help get you pumped for all the great things you’ll be doing this month with the Feb Friendzy activities, Nikki Boswell, Fitness Expert has put together a super easy and quick workout to focus on your abs, butt and thighs.
One of the best ways to lose weight is having motivation from a partner and working together to reach both of your weight loss goals. So grab your friend and get going with this routine.
This lower intensity partner workout is great when you are short on time or want to end a high intensity session with great burn.
For this workout, apart from a partner you will need a Swiss ball, medicine ball and a resistance band. As always be sure to spend 2 -3 minutes warming up if you aren’t already warmed up and end the session with a 2 -3 minute cool down.
Exercise 1: Back-to-Back Medicine Ball Pass
- To start this workout sit back-to-back with your partner passing a medicine ball with a core rotation. Continue to pass for 1 minute, then pass back the other way for a further minute.
Exercise 2: Assisted Plank and Deadlift
- Partner 1 takes a plank position with arms extended. Be sure to engage abs and keep your back flat. Partner 2 will stand with their feet about shoulder width apart, knees soft (not locked straight, but not bent either), and hips tipped slightly under to engage their glutes and hamstrings.
- Partner 2 will use their glutes and hamstrings to lift up Partner 1’s feet, while Partner 1 maintains their plank, being sure not to bend through their back by keeping their abs engaged.
- Don’t move through this exercise too quickly, raising and lowering again, being sure to concentrate on engaging the glutes. Complete 12 reps then swap over. Repeat 2 times.
Exercise 3: Dual Swiss Ball Sit Ups
- Work as a team on this one to complete 30 sit ups – give your partner a little high 5 at the top of each sit up.
- Take a short rest between sets to perform a few yoga poses and release any tension in your back. Try the child’s pose and cat pose.
- Repeat the dual Swiss ball sit up again, but this time instead of reaching up and over the Swiss ball, reach around the sides of the Swiss ball to tap your partners hand, working your obliques.
- Repeat your stretches before moving to the next exercise.
Exercise 4: Seated Row with Resistance Band and Static Squat
- In this exercise, one person anchors the resistance band providing tension for their partner to perform a seated row while sitting on a Swiss ball.
- While performing the seated row, ensure you have correct posture, with feet about hip width apart, knees and hips bent at 90 degree angles.
- As they pull their arms back through the row, they need to keep their elbows high and squeeze their shoulder blades together, being sure not to hunch or pull through their traps.
- For the partner anchoring the resistance band, they will be performing a static squat. Their feet will be nice and wide to provide a stable and secure base, their torso is tall and knees bent into a half squat, being sure to keep their knees behind their toes and weight back. Each partner performs 12 reps, changing over after each set. Complete 3 sets.
Exercise 5: Side Crunch
- Perform a side crunch on a Swiss ball as per usual, but build that team spirit by high-5ing on each crunch. Perform 2 sets of 12 crunches on each side.
Exercise 6: Front Raise with Resistance Band and Sumo Squat
- For the final exercise in this workout, partners will use a resistance band to complete 3 sets of 10 squats. Partners will work alternating their positions at the top or the bottom of the squat to maintain the tension in the resistance band. Both partners need to stand with their feet shoulder width apart, weight focused in the heels and squat down as far as they can with their toes behind the knees and their torso tall.
