HI everyone, I have for you 4 minute workout for awesome arms and strong lower back just like I promised to Ms.Tanya when I was going through your comments on my Facebook page. She wanted a workout that would focus on these two areas and because she was the first one to really reply to my question “what should be the next short workout” and left a really nice and long comment, I made my promise and today I dedicate this workout to her.

This is a really short routine that you can do in 4 minutes when you have a busy day and can’t do a full workout. You’d be surprised what a difference it makes to do a short maintenance workout instead of taking a day off just because you are too busy to take care of your body with proper training. I am not saying that you should never take a day off of high intensity workouts, not at all. I think it’s really important to have active rest days. That said notice the word “active” which means some form of exercise that brings you joy and makes you move or at least stretch.

This particular workout is a combination of  4 different variations of push ups and horizontal  lower back exercises. Each of these combos should take you about a minute. You shouldn’t be taking any longer breaks in between each set however you can do a short stretch as shown in the video after each combo.

Push Ups

You can do a regular push up from a high plank position which means on your hands and toes, or you can do the easier variation off of your knees. Either way, I want you to make sure that you are not arching your back and that you are keeping your body in one straight line. Your body should move as a unit towards the ground and then back up. Make sure that you have your hands right below your shoulders and keep your shoulders nicely packed and always away from your ears. It’s the same as if you were standing and keeping your shoulders packed back and down except that you are now in a horizontal position with your hands pushing against the floor. Also pay attention to what your hips are doing, when you are raising one arm and tapping your shoulder, or your butt. Your hips should not rotate sideways. You can keep them steady in that parallel position by digging your toes firmly into the ground. It’s going to be a lot easier if you are doing the push ups off of your knees.

Lower Back Exercise

There are two important things to pay attention to when you are doing the horizontal lower back exercises on your mat. One is to keep your glutes engaged – remember that glutes play a major role in supporting your lower back so it’s always important to work both of them. As a matter of fact you should be working your butt a LOT if you want to have a healthy, pain free spine and lower back. That is something that the kettlebell training will help us with. Once we start including the kettlebells into our workouts, you’ll be working your butt and back all the time which is super important. The other thing that needs to be addressed is the position of your neck during these exercises. Do not keep your chin up to kink the neck. Your neck has to be in a neutral position just like a natural extension of your spine.

Best,

Zuzka.