Side Planks are a variant of the Plank, but they target more of the obliques than the normal plank. From my experience, Side Planks also help train the stabilizer muscles in the shoulder. Here's how to do them: 1. Start by placing your elbow on the ground, similar to how you would brace your body with your elbow while leaning against the wall 2. Straighten your legs 3. Activate/engage your obliques that are towards the floor/ground 4. Brace the rest of your core to feel like you are stiff as a board 5. Maintain the hold for a duration of time to complete a set, then complete the exercise to the other side If holding the Side Plank is too boring, you can do a type of oblique dips like this: 1. Set yourself into holding the Side Plank 2. Slowly, allow your hip to drop and touch the floor/ground 3. After touch down, brace again and return to Side Plank We can call these Side Plank Dips. Work hard. Improve yourself. Be the Hero. You got this.

Battle Ropes are a great way to do upper body based cardio, as well as being able to do full body High Intensity Training. You can buy some Battle Ropes for around $50, and I have seen them online for upwards of $160. When you have access to them, you want to make sure you have a good anchor point that will keep the ropes secure when you start aggressively trying to slam them. You can use a heavy rock or a metal pole for example. Here's how you can use them: - While in a shallow squat, you can alternate whipping the rope up and down, like left arm going up while right arm comes down, and vice versa, kind of like beating some drums - While in a shallow squat, you can whip both ends of the rope up and down at the same time - While doing squats, you can whip both ends at the same time - You can do jumping squats while whipping the ropes - You can whip the ropes in alternating diagonal movements. Bring ropes up, then slam to the left or right, then slam to the opposite side. These movements I have implemented and have really felt that all the above got my heart rate up and kept it up for the conditioning session. Work hard. Improve yourself. Be the Hero. You got this.

The Russian Twist is an awesome exercise that hits the Abs and the Obliques. If you aren't sure what obliques are, they look like abs on the side of abs, or bars of muscle that point toward the Abs. To start the Russian Twist, you will need to sit down with your knees bent about 90 degrees, and you might need to anchor your feet under something stable and heavy. With your lower body in position, lean your upper body halfway between fully upright and laying on the floor. I like to start my repetitions while I am facing forward. From here, rotate just your ribs, shoulders, arms and head to the one side of you body, then rotate fully to the opposite side, then come back to start. While you are doing this twisting motion, you need to keep you core engaged, so you don't fall back. For your Russian twists, you can: - Tap the floor near your hips before rotating to the other side or back to start - Keep your arms crossed over your chest to make it easier for you - Hold something weighted or heavy to increase the challenge - Hold your hands/fists up as if you were fighting/boxing, then punch with the fist that is opposite the side of your rotation (basically, if you twist left, you will punch with your right, and vice versa) Work hard. Improve yourself. Be the Hero. You got this.

Crunches are a basic abdominal exercise that is great for beginners to start training their core. They help hit the "6-pack" region of the core. To start the exercise, you will lay on your back, with your legs and heels together, and knees bent about 90 degrees with feet on the floor. Your heels can be as close together as possible, which I find helps me focus more on the Abs. Your hand/arm position can adjust to increase or decrease the intensity with these positions: - hands on your hips - arms folded across your chest with hands on the opposite shoulder - hands up as if you were boxing - hands behind the back of your head, with fingers interlaced When you start this exercise, start by activating your abs and lifting your head, shoulders, and arms off the ground with your shoulder blades raised as far above the ground as possible. When you fully contract, or "Crunch", your abs, slowly lower your body back to start position. These can be done for many reps. To further increase the intensity of the Crunch, try these: 1. Just like starting position, except, you will lift your feet and legs off the ground with knees still bent about 90 degrees and leave your legs in this position while you do Crunches 2. Straighten your legs and keep them together, then lift them till your feet are about 6 inches above the ground. Maintain this position while doing Crunches. I call this style, "6-inch Crunches" 3. To increase intensity for the 6-inch Crunches, lift your legs and aim your feet at the sky/ceiling. While doing crunches in this position, you will also straighten your arms in front of your chest, with your hands and fingers pointed to your feet/toes, while attempting to touch your toes with each rep. This is what I call "Toe Touchers" 4. For a static hold of the Toe Toucher, you will maintain the Crunch of the Toe Toucher for a duration of time. I call this variant the "Dying Cockroach" Work hard. Improve yourself. Be the Hero. You got this.

The Good Morning is great for hitting the Hamstrings, the Glutes, and the Lower Back. To start this exercise, stand with your heels about shoulder width apart. Placing your hands on your hips makes the exercise easier, while moving your hands more towards your head makes the Good Morning harder. While in position, bend forward at your waist while keeping your back as straight as possible. You will have to push your butt back as you bend forward to get a longer range of motion (which is good for muscular development). While keeping your back straight as possible, squeeze your glutes, while driving your heels into the ground to come back to starting position. You can also do a variant of the Good Morning that I call the Rockies. I based the movement off that scene from when Rocky Balboa was training to beat the Russian Boxer. So, instead of moving your chest down and straight, you bend with a twist, hinging at the hips and moving your chest towards one foot and returning, then doing the same to the other side. You can also spread your heels a little further apart than your shoulder width to help with balance. Work hard. Improve yourself. Be the Hero. You got this.