12-minute Upper Body Bodyweight Only Strength and Mobility Session

We're taking an adventure today. Day 26, Restorona. I am so excited. You know why? Because after this little session, not only do I get to move for this 12-minute— that's right, 12-minute. If I've calculated it correct, it'll be about 12 minutes today. But not only do I get to move for 12 minutes and have a bunch of fun doing that, after this I get to cook the family breakfast because it's Saturday morning and I love cooking the family breakfast on Saturday mornings. We take turns for dinner and usually we kind of just sort ourselves out for breakfast, but Saturday, family time. So let's get our movement in and then it's breakfast time. We have a session that is an adventurous session because there are some movements in here that I haven't really practiced, but I'd like to get better. It is an upper body strength and mobility session. So for, for every exercise that we have is going to be a static and a dynamic version. So, let's get into it. We have half cartwheels. We're going to start to the left side. So, every exercise for the first round is to the left. Half cartwheels, pike push-ups, reverse tabletop, bicep push-ups. Yeah, bicep push-ups, right? Child's pose wave. And I just invented that one this morning. I actually practiced it a little bit. And then dive bomber push-ups. So, 6 exercises in total. We're mixing it up again today because we're taking an adventure. 45 seconds of movement, 15 seconds of rest, and we're going to do those 6 movements that I just said for 2 times each. So that's going to be 12 minutes in total. So let's get the timer on, 45 seconds of movement. You're ready to go. The first one we have is cartwheels to the left, so half cartwheels. Come down, and now of course adjust it to whatever you're capable of. So what I'm going to do, I'm going to start in a squat and then come over to the left and just put my hands on the ground and really try to raise my leg up into the sky whilst holding my body with my arms.

And so ideally, this one's a static one, okay?

Now you could go back if you wanted. Feel free to go to the other side too if you want to just mix it up, but I'm going to the left to begin with. And then we're coming back.

Oh yeah, it's going to be like a whole body stretch as well.

Oh, so you ever see little kids just playing around, they're doing cartwheels like it's nothing? That's the stage I'd like to get to. So that's a little bit of a— I just had a little bit of a blood rush. That's a little bit of a progression that we can work towards to being able to do cartwheels. So next, abs. Next we have pike push-ups. So this is the dynamic version of the cut whip.

So come here in a downward dog position, push your head in between both arms.

So it's like a push-up but really inverted.

We'll just go 45 seconds of these. Rest whenever you need, of course.

And if you can't do these, just do a regular push-up or just hold yourself here.

Another great one is a handstand hold against the wall. Keep it up.

Cheers!

Excellent.

I'm sweating already, we're 2 exercises in. See, that's the beautiful thing about, um, mixing dynamic holds with sorry, dynamic movements with static holds is that your body gets a bit of a shock. So now we have a reverse tabletop to the left. So let's come up here, we can hold it like this, we're using our arms to support ourselves here, squeezing glutes at the same time. And now to make it a little bit dynamic, you could go up to the left, reach over, And then again, up and to the left, reach over, up and to the left, single out that left arm, reach up to the sky, come back down, hold it here, and then let's go up and to the left, reach up to the sky, hold it on that left arm.

Rest. Wonderful.

Okay. Now we have a fun one that I've actually never really done before, but I saw it and I thought that'd be fun to try. And because we're taking a little adventure, we're going to try it out together. So this is the bicep push-up. So come down to a normal push-up position. I'll go side on for you, but this time our arms are reversed instead of going like that. So arms reversed, down, up. Oh yeah, right at the top, you're gonna feel— oh, I'm feeling my biceps extend right there. Down, up, beautiful. Up. 45 seconds of these is actually harder than I thought.

Keep it up.

Oh, you ever seen— you ever seen gymnasts just have absolutely ripped massive biceps? It's because they're doing a lot of holds like that that are extending the bicep, not just curling it up like that. So now we have child's pose into wave. So I might do these side on as well. So we come into child's pose, just a little bit of a dynamic.

You could hold it here if you want.

Remember, we're mixing up strength and mobility, and then we're going to come up into a wave, come back up, back down.

We're just—

it's almost like we're going child's pose into cobra into downward dog waving back forward and then coming all the way back down. So when I talk about the wave, that's the, that's the shape you want your spine to be in. You're just waving about.

Rest. Beautiful.

All right, now to finish off, we have some dive bomb push-ups. So this is the, the dynamic version of That really, the one we just did wasn't really a static hold, but this is the real dynamic version. So I'll go side on again, come down. We're going to go push up, back, push up, back. We're diving in, diving in, forearms touch the ground, push back. Beautiful.

This time we're taking this one, we're building strength. Last one we worked on mobility. This is gonna—

if you can't do this, of course, regular push-ups are fine, or just rest when you need. So we're back, we're halfway through already. We're doing the cartwheels to the right this time. So again, feel free to just go whichever side you want, but I'm going left for the first round, right for the second round, which is this one. So down in our squat, walk our arms over to the right, and then lift the leg up, supporting ourselves. See, ideally I'd like to be able to get my leg vertical. And then come down over into there. Come down and practice again. Rest when you need.

Oh, hold it. Point that toe towards the roof. This is what's really gonna show you what your mobility is like. Hold it.

Wonderful. That was a long 45 seconds. Feel that blood rush? That's how you know you're alive, when your body's just like, whoa, I got a bit of a little bit of a zap there. Weird things happen when you get a full-blown serious whack of lightning. Now we have pike push-ups again. So again, come down, holding it here.

If you can't do a pike push-up, just hold it here, practice in this position, and come down, head between your arms. The short rest times here mean that we're keeping our heart rate up, so not only are we building strength, are we practicing mobility, but We're also getting a lot of benefits from cardio. Beautiful, keep it up.

Oh yeah, the talk test. We're starting to fail the talk test, which is when your heart rate's getting to that level where you gotta breathe in so much that it prevents you from talking. Real hard thing for me to do. We have reverse tabletop, this time to the right. So come down, tabletop, you can hold it here if you like, elongate those biceps, but I'm going to come up over to the right, extend my arm up like that, back down, push up, throw it over to the right, left arm reaches for the roof, come back down, Stretch out that shoulder, reach over to the right, up towards the roof. Beautiful.

Just feel it out, keep moving up to the right, up to the roof.

Ready to have a rest. Feeling good, feeling real good. You notice Now that we've got the sweat going, you want to keep moving, you want to keep going. Everything, of course, when you first start, everything's a little creaky, a little cracky, but now we've got that blood flowing. We had the bicep push-ups, so let's go. These are quite hard. Down, up, hands backwards, as back as you can go. Wonderful. Suck that belly button into your spine. Biceps are really hard to work with bodyweight only, but these are making it great. Need to readjust.

One more.

Rest. 3 sets of those and you'll be, you'll be rocking some pythons. All right, what do we got left? Child's pose wave, dive bubble push-ups. 2 things left. Let's get into our child's pose.

So down, waving our spine up into a cobra, wave it back into downward dog.

Wonderful. Down all the way into child's pose.

Wave, bring it forward, curl it back.

Now let's wave it back up.

Wonderful. Down, you could hold it here as long as you want, stretch it out, mobilize those shoulders, mobilize that hip. Wave it up, downward dog. Feel it out here. What needs some love? Maybe your lats are a little tight.

Rest.

Maybe your calves need a little pump.

Beautiful. We said at the start this is upper body strength focus, but I mean, anytime there's another part of your body that needs a little bit of attention, it's fine to give it to it. And so, we're gonna finish off with some dive bomber pushups.

Kekse, salam aleikum.

Let's get down, all the way down. Beautiful. Very similar to what we were doing before, but this time we're working on strength.

Keep it going. Imagine yourself as one of the wheels on a steam engine. Keep it up, push back.

Rest. Oh, give yourself a pat on the back. Hopefully you can see this little bead of sweat that's dribbling down. But that is our 12-minute session done. Rest time is about to go off. This is Tabata app on the App Store. A little victory message comes up.

You spent 12 minutes 7 seconds exercising.

There we go. 7 seconds is that bonus with the countdown. But we had an adventurous workout of sorts today. 12 minutes. The theme was take an adventure. Did some things. You know, I was having a— I think this morning, sometimes the movement that you have to do is the one that you're sort of shying away from because you know you're not the best at it. And that for me is anything to do with a handstand hold or a handstand push-up or a cartwheel. So I avoid them because I know that I haven't practiced them. But in order to get better at them, I have to do them. So if I want to progress towards being able to do a proper cartwheel like a little 9-year-old, I've got to practice. So we did half cartwheels— you can go either side— pike push-ups, reverse tabletop, bicep push-ups, child's pose into a wave, and then dive for more push-ups. Of course, you can change it up however you like. Maybe if the 45 seconds was too long, you do 30 seconds. Maybe if it wasn't long enough You do a minute. I've got a great pump already, and I mean, that was only 12 minutes. So I hope you enjoyed. Leave a comment below. What was your favorite movement? I think mine was the, the half cartwheels. But yeah, stay safe, keep moving, and I'll see you tomorrow.