10 Minute Core and Leg Workout | Trainer of the Month Club | Well+Good

Hi, I’m Charlie Atkins, and this is the Well+Good Trainer of the Month Club. For today’s workout, I have a 10-minute core and legs workout where all you’re gonna need is yourself. This entire workout is body-weight. All of the exercises are gonna be done for 45 seconds each with a 15-second recovery. Should we go ahead and get started? I think yes. For our first exercise, we’re gonna work on activating the core and opening up the hips. Coming to a standing position, we’re just gonna start by bracing the core. You can keep your hands on your core, ensuring that it’s stable, and you’re just gonna pull the knee up towards the chest. Now, it’s not coming all the way up; you’re just bringing the knee so it’s right in line with the hip. Once you’re ready for a little bit more action, you’re gonna pull the knee up and then open it up out to the side, tap the foot behind you, and bring it back up and around. So we’ll just keep switching sides. Now, if this rotation is a little bit too much for you, you can always stay right here with the knee lifts, but I’m gonna tell you it feels pretty good on the hips. It is a balancing exercise, so if you lose your balance, totally okay. Let’s do one more on each leg, switching legs.

Last one, and then we’ll come into exercise number two, standing oblique crunch. So feet are gonna go a little bit wider than hip distance apart, hands are gonna be behind the head. All we’re gonna do is come down into a squat, and then you’re gonna lift your knee up towards your elbow, crunching the side of your body. So squatting down brings me up to a crunch. Now, when you squat, make sure that the chest stays up, the knees press out, and the tailbone reaches back. When you’re pulling the knee up towards the elbow, you want to think about flexing or crunching that side body. Oh, this is definitely gonna warm us up. So again, you’re just doing a squat plus an oblique crunch. The knee comes up towards the elbow, chest stays up, right? Few more seconds here. Let’s get five, four, three, two more, and one. Now we’re gonna come down onto the mat for our next exercise, called plank climbers. Well, this one is a doozy. So coming to the plank position, go ahead and grab the opposite elbow so that you know how wide your arm should be. Palms are down on the ground, coming to plank position, shoulders are right in line with the hips, pulling the knee in towards the chest, and then switching feet. Forty-five seconds here total, knee comes to the chest. Now, you don’t want to keep your hips up towards the ceiling. You want to definitely make sure you’re using that hip motion to pull the knee in towards the chest, but then to also reset the body. Depth means switching sides. Now, if this plank climber is too challenging, you can always just hold a plank for forty-five seconds or as long as you can hold. If you do need to take a break, all you got to do is drop your knees and reset. But let’s get five, four, three, two, I do one more, so, and rest. Every time, next exercise, we’re moving into our glute bridge plus a crunch. So coming down onto your back, knees are gonna be bent, feet are flat on the ground, laying down, take a breath, lift hips up towards the ceiling, keeping the core engaged, slowly lower down, hands go behind the head, and you just crunch up. So you do a hip raise or a glute bridge plus a crunch. Now, if you want to make this a little bit more challenging, do three crunches followed by one hip raise coming up. Cool. Now, in your crunches, make sure that your chin isn’t too far into your chest. You want to open up the chest towards the ceiling, lifting the heart up to the sky. Glute bridge, three crunches. Let’s see if we can get one more round of those. One glute bridge followed by three. The next exercise of the set will be doing a hollow hold. So you’re gonna be down here on the back again. This one is not an easy one. Take a breath. Alright, so laying down on your back, feet are gonna be flat, you’re gonna lift the hips up so that the lower back presses into the mat, shoulder blades come up, arms come up over your head, and you just hold. You got to focus on this one. So if this is too challenging, I could lower my feet down, I could just lift my shoulder blades up, keeping my core engaged by pressing my lower back into the mat, and then if I want to lift one leg up and then the other. Otherwise, if you’re still holding the initial hollow hold, you’re just hanging out here for another 20 seconds. Again, modification if I need it, I’ll lay out, I breathe, I lift my shoulder blades up, and I lift one leg and then the other. If I want the advanced hold, feet are up, and we’re just hanging out, pressing the lower back into the mat. And rest. That one’s a tough one. The next exercise of the set is a Pike up. So we’re gonna flip back over so that we’re in push-up plank position. Oh, my Yogi’s out there, you will recognize that this is a handstand exercise. So shoulders are right over the wrists. From here, the tailbone goes up to the sky, tiptoeing. I want to move right until my shoulders are over my wrists, and then I’m gonna slowly come right back. So I’m walking up, putting the weight into my hands, and then slowly walking back, coming up, weight into my hands, slowly walking back. So I’m going from a pike position to a plank position, coming up. Now, if you’re on your kitchen floor, you could always slide your feet, but if you’re on your mat, you just tiptoe yourself up and go right back. Let’s do one more. Oh, it’s the IMC. I come back and rest. That one’s like a sneak attack. You don’t realize how challenging it is. The next exercise of the set will be doing a reverse lunge with a single-leg deadlift. So coming up to standing, all you’re gonna do is you’re gonna step back for a reverse lunge, left knee kisses the ground, left foot taps, kicking my left heel back. I’m in the single-leg deadlift, and I come right back to standing. Reverse lunge, single-leg deadlift. Now, we’re gonna be doing the opposite leg. So right now, we’re just focusing on the left leg moving and the right leg balancing. Now, keep your gaze neutral the entire time you’re working through this exercise. Single-leg deadlift targets the glutes and the hamstrings. Reverse lunge targets the quad. So in the single-leg deadlift, make sure the back foot is flexed, meaning the toe is pulled in towards the shin. My head moves in the same line as my heel. One more single-leg deadlift and switch sides. So we’re doing the exact same thing on the right leg this time. My left leg is planted, and my right leg is making a move. So I start with a reverse lunge, my back knee kisses the ground, I step up to standing, I tap my foot, flex my right foot, the head moves in line with the heel, come right back to standing. Now, you don’t want to airplane it. You want to have a nice and controlled single-leg deadlift plus a reverse lunge. Now, again, we’re targeting the entire side. The reverse lunge works on my quads. Single-leg deadlift targets my glutes and my hamstrings. Stepping back, single leg deadlift. Let’s see if we can get three to balance it out. Nice quick recovery. Now, from there, we’re gonna move back to the mat for our plank jacks. This one is gonna get our heart rate up. So for now, take a breath, set up push your plank position. So in the push-up plank position, the shoulders are right over the wrists. If I shift my weight forward, I’m gonna put my shoulders in a better position, and then all I’m gonna do is step one foot out and then the other, or I’m gonna hop it out. So hips have to say low, and the head has to stay neutral, meaning if I take my gaze just above the mat, I’m gonna keep a nice neutral spine, shoulders right in line with the hips, and you’re just hopping in and out. Now, you don’t want your booty to go too high because then it kind of wastes the exercise. So lower your hips down so you have a nice straight body, and then keep hopping the feet in and out. We only had a few seconds left. Sticking through with this one. Two, three, two, and one. Oh, I told you, are the heart rates up for that one? Now, for our next, and by next, I mean our final exercise, we’re gonna be doing the butterfly sit-up. Two options here. Come down onto the mat, soles the feet together, take a breath, and hands are to go behind the head. Option one, I’m just gonna crunch. I’m gonna lift my heart up to the ceiling. I’m gonna take my gaze looking up towards the ceiling, and I’m just crunching. Every time I crunch, my lower back presses into the mat. Alternatively, I’m sitting all the way up, tapping the other side of the mat, and turning it in. Oh, turning it in, do that butterfly sit-up. Oh, remember, this is our last exercise. We’ve been working hard for almost 10 minutes. Final six, let’s get three more together. Three, two, oh, this one’s a doozy. Last one, and rest. So right there was the 10-minute core and legs workout. If you love these Well+Good Trainer of the Month Clubs, make sure that you like and subscribe. I’m Charlie Atkins, and I’ll see you next week with the final Trainer of the Month Club.