Form Friday | Front Kick

Front Kicks are a standing cardio exercise that increase your heart rate and stretches your hamstrings and glutes. Taken from cardio kickboxing this move provides a low-impact option with cardiovascular benefits. If you are looking for another way to increase your heart rate without all the jumping around, you should learn how to do Front Kicks. How does it work? Your legs are heavy. Lifting them over and over at a fast pace gets your heart rate up. It’s as simple as that!

There are a few things to consider before doing Front Kicks. You should be sure to keep your kicks low until you feel sufficiently warmed up. If you kick too high, too soon, you may pull a hamstring. Once you feel warm, you can begin to move them higher and faster for a higher heart rate. Front Kicks are also a great way to strengthen your core muscles. In order to get your legs to lift you naturally engage your core, but by focusing more intently on pulling the core in you will be able to move your legs more quickly and higher for a better result.

Don’t worry too much about having perfectly straight legs on this move. Most people have tight hamstrings and need a little bit of a bend in the knee. Even if you bend your knee more than a little, this is still a worthwhile move for you to try. Use it as part of any cardio workout for a change of pace to the usual jumping jacks, or insert some front kicks into your weight lifting routine to keep your heart rate up in between sets.



What Muscles Do Front Kicks Work
Front Kicks are an awesome low-impact cardio exercise that work your legs and core while giving you a great cardiovascular move that gets your heart rate up anytime, anywhere.

Benefits of Front Kicks
There are many reasons you should incorporate Front Kicks into your workouts. Here are just a few:

Cardio Boost
You can choose your effort level in front kicks, but no matter how you do them you are going to get a great cardio workout. The best part is that this is low impact. No stress on your joints or connective tissue. Just kick and the harder and faster you move, the more results you will feel (just make sure you don’t kick higher than your body is capable and injure your hamstring).

Work Your Lower Body and Core
Your legs are working and they will feel this move! Same goes for your glutes. But the surprise might be that your core has to tighten up to hold your posture tall while you are kicking.

Hamstring Stretch
While you should be careful not to kick higher than you are able, it is pretty remarkable how great this move is for stretching your hamstrings. While many leg exercises cause tightness, this one actually stretches you out.

reprinted from gethealthyu.com

Form Friday | Jumping Jacks

Jumping Jacks are a simple, easy-to-do move, and a great way to fit in cardio anywhere and anytime! This is a calisthenics workout, which means it’s great for cardiovascular health and boosting your metabolism. Getting your heart rate up is the number one way to burn fat, and learning how to do Jumping Jacks is a great total-body exercise for accomplishing that very thing!

How To Do Jumping Jacks

Start standing up with your legs together, a slight bend in knees, and hands resting on thighs.

Keeping the knees bent, open the arms and legs out to the sides. Arms come above the head and legs wider than shoulders.

Close your arms and legs back to your sides, returning to your start.

What Muscles Do Jumping Jacks Work?

Jumping Jacks is a cardiovascular exercise that engages every large muscle group in your body, especially when you keep your core engaged to fire up the abdominal and back muscles. You won’t just be burning fat—you’ll be toning muscle too! Just be sure to keep a brisk pace to keep your heart rate up and maintain the aerobic benefits of this exercise.

Benefits of Jumping Jacks
There are many reasons you should incorporate jumping jacks into your workouts. Here are just a few:

Cardio Exercise At Home
The cardio benefits of Jumping Jacks are amazing, but even better is the fact that you can do this move right at home. No need to go to a gym or head into bad weather, just find some space and get moving. Some short burst of moves like jumping jacks can be mixed with things like squats and push-ups to get a full workout in right at home.

Warm Up Your Shoulders
It might seem strange to say about a cardio exercise, but the truth is that the movement of your arms during a Jumping Jack provides a great stretch for your shoulders. This is one of the reasons you also find jumping jacks used during a warm up for other workouts.

High Intensity Interval Benefits
No matter how you look at it, jumping jacks are going to get you breathing heavy! Jumping jacks can be done in a variety of ways and even stay low impact, but the harder you push, the higher your heart rate. You can use them to reach your anaerobic state meaning breathing only through your mouth and needing a break after about 20-30 seconds! If regular Jumping Jacks don’t get you working hard enough, just add a few power jacks by lifting your feet up at you open your legs! Need low impact? Bend your knees and step out right and left instead of jumping.

reprinted from gethealthyu.com