HEALTH

Take a break from your regular exercise routine and celebrate America’s birthday with six sweet moves. They’ll have ya feelin’ patriotic in no time!

March to Your Own Beat
Head over to the stairs in your house, or if you’re dyin’ to get outside, find some stairs at a local park. Run up them, and try to lift your knees as high as you can. Then run back down. Do as many repeats as ya need to get your lungs pumpin’ – should be about ten or twenty times up the stairs.

Cookout Curls
Havin’ a cookout for the Fourth? Well chances are, Mom’s got some baked bean cans layin’ around to go with those burgers and hot dogs later. Sneak into the kitchen and borrow two cans of the same size. Hold one in each hand down at your sides. Lift your right hand up to your right shoulder, and as you go, turn it so that your palm (with the can in it) is facing up. Then lower it slowly back down to the starting position, rotating your hand so that your palm faces your leg again. Next, do all the same motions with your left hand. Repeat the entire series twenty times (so it’ll be forty times if ya count each hand individually).

Pushup to The Pledge of Allegiance
Lay down on your right side. Cross your right arm over your chest, and rest it on your heart like you’re pledging to the flag. Then put your left hand flat on the ground near your right elbow. Straighten your left elbow ‘til your bod is off the ground from the waist up. Hold there for a sec, and then slowly lower yourself back down. That’s one. Do 25 reps, and then switch everything to your other side for 25 reps to work your right arm, too.

Parade Practice
Stand up straight, and then pretend you’re sitting down in your lawn chair street-side to watch the Independence Day parade. Without actually using a chair, bend your knees and stick your butt out. For balance, put your hands straight out if front of you, like you’re wavin’ to that cutie on the Boy Scouts’ float. If ya look down, your knees shouldn’t be any farther forward than the tips of your toes. (If they are, you aren’t stickin’ that booty out far enough.) Then straighten up, and repeat the whole thing 25 times.

Uncle Sam’s Favorite
Jumping jacks work for army men, so why not us gals, too? Here’s a recap on the proper form: Stand up straight with your legs together. Then jump your legs out a little wider than shoulder width, and at the same time, raise your arms out to the sides and above your head in one fluid movement. Jump your legs back together and bring your arms down to complete the exercise. Instead of counting out each jump, set a timer and see how many you can fit in one minute. Too easy? Time yourself for two minutes, and rotate your bod ninety-degrees every thirty seconds for a different view.

Stars, Stripes and Stability
Lay down on your stomach with your arms straight out if front of you. Lift your chest, arms, and legs off the floor simultaneously, so that your bod forms an arc. Hold there for a few seconds, and then raise your right arm and your left leg as high as you comfortably can. Stay in that position for thirty seconds, and then switch so that your opposite arm and leg are raised higher for thirty seconds. Lower all your appendages back to the floor after that minute.

Hey babes, what’re you planning on doing to get active for this holiday?

Photo credit: Under Armour Women

by Carrie Ruppert | 6/26/2018