Save Time & Break a Sweat With This Fall Workout

The next time you’re at the park with your child or watching her sports team practice from the sidelines, squeeze in some fitness for yourself. The toning exercises below will sculpt you from head-to-toe and allow you to make the most of your busy schedule.

Sara Haley’s Daily Sweat Fall Outdoor Fitness Circuit: Pick and choose the exercises you like, or perform the exercises in the following order at least four times through for a fun and intensive workout.

HOP THE LINE: This cardiovascular drill targets the heart, plus the burpee provides some added core work.

• Hit the pavement — literally. Find yourself a long stretch of sidewalk and start at one end with your feet together.

• Step one foot out and over the line between each sidewalk square and the other foot should quickly follow. This way you end-up syncopating a little hop. Make sure to begin and land with your knees soft in a small squat.
• Continue hopping the lines all the way down to one end of the sidewalk and then come back to where you started.  Repeat down and back for one minute. Take this to the next level by adding a burpee after each hop.

FALL IS IN THE AIR: This exercise works your bottom, core, shoulders, and triceps — total body!

• Begin in a squat position. Swing your arms back and push through the heels to jump into the air. Clap your hands and feet together.

• As you land, reach your hands to the ground behind you with your fingertips facing toward your glutes. (By doing this outside in the fresh air, you’ll have the soft grass underneath you in case you fall.) Rock back onto your heels and crab-walk back on your hands eight steps (four walks with each hand). Then push yourself forward to your squat position and repeat the sequence in its entirety. Repeat as many times as you can for one minute.

TREE PLANK CHALLENGE: This challenge works core, shoulders, glutes – another total body exercise! 

• Take your traditional plank to the next level. Find a tree with a trunk thick enough to fit the balls of your feet. Walk your hands out to a push-up position and then walk your feet up the tree.

• Squeeze your abs, bottom, inner thighs, and ankles together. Stop when your body is in a flat back. Hold for one minute or do 3 sets of 20 seconds each. This exercise is advanced. Modification would simply be to keep one foot on the ground.

We hope you worked up a sweat! Tell us how you fit in time to workout. 

Sara Haley is an international fitness expert and creator of The Daily Sweat. She's a certified trainer and instructor by the American Council on Exercise (ACE) and the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America (AFAA), and has traveled the world teaching master classes and educating other fitness instructors and trainers. Sara helped develop programs for JUKARI, the branded workout series between Reebok and Cirque du Soleil, and created and starred in numerous Reebok & Gaiam DVD workout programs. Sara is most well-known for her best-selling pregnancy workout program, Expecting More®. 

This post is solely for informational purposes. It is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for health advice. Before undertaking any course of exercise, you should seek the advice of your physician or other health care provider.