Workout of the week: 12-min endurance workout
ALL LEVELS / endurance workout / 12 minutes
Equipment: Barbell, gym box & pull-up bar
Muscular endurance plays an important role in athletic activities but it’s also great for your health. For example, it has been linked to a lower risk of multiple health issues, including cardiovascular disease. That’s the conclusion of a 2014 study, that found that high muscular endurance was associated with lower levels of blood pressure. Later, in 2017, a clinical review showed that lower levels of muscular endurance were linked to a higher risk of injury.
With all these benefits in mind, we decided it was a good idea to bring you this endurance workout. It consists of 5 exercises, each performed for 2 minutes with a 30-second rest in between. In total, this workout should take you 12 minutes to complete.
- Squat
- Push-up
- Barbell row
- Box jumps
- Hanging knee raise
Ready? Let’s test your endurance!
WORKOUT SETUP
- 5 exercises
- 2-min each exercise
- 30-sec rest between exercises
- 12 minutes total
- Equipment: Barbell, gym box & pull-up bar
WORKOUT EXERCISE LIST
1 – SQUAT
2 minutes
- Stand on your feet, placing them at the same distance as that of your shoulder lines.
- Engage the core and go down to the floor, maintaining your knees on the line of your feet. Maintain the abs and glutes tight to control your hip and stabilize the movement. Use your arms to help you with your balance.
- Keep your feet attached to the floor and squat as down as possible without lifting the heels or feeling pain in your lower back.
- Repeat.
2 – PUSH-UP
2 minutes
- Start in a plank position with arms straight, shoulders above wrists, and body in a straight line.
- Engage the core and glutes.
- Keeping the shoulders over the wrists, lower the whole body towards the floor, dropping comfortably as low as you can.
- Push the body upwards and return to the start position. Repeat.
3 – BARBELL ROW
2 minutes
- Grab a suitably loaded barbell with a shoulder-width grip. Engage the core and set the shoulders. Lift the bar to assume a standing position – this is your start position.
- Keeping the core engaged and the shoulders set, hinge at the hips until the bar is just below the knees. Row the bar towards your belly button and lower again. Immediately deadlift the bar to a standing position – this combination movement completes one repetition.
- Return under control and repeat.
4 – BOX JUMPS
2 minutes
- Stand in front of the box.
- Swing the arms back and rapidly drop into the squat.
- As soon as you hit the bottom of the squat, quickly swing the arms arm and extend the hips as you jump onto the box.
- Land into a squat with control.
- Step down and repeat.
5 – HANGING KNEE RAISE
2 minutes
- Begin by hanging on a bar.
- Set the shoulders and engage the abdominals to form a ‘hollow’ or ‘dish’ shape.
- Keeping the arms straight, lift the knees towards the chest.
- As the knees cross the hips, use the abdominal muscles to ‘tuck’ the hips, bringing the knees closer to the chest.
- Return and repeat.
Endurance workout: done. Time to find your next challenge:
- 15-min AMRAP metabolic strength workout
- 10-min AMRAP core workout
- 30-min chest and triceps workout
- 20-min superset workout
- 10-min no-equipment cardio workout
- 12-min kettlebell Tabata workout
- 20-min full-body functional workout
- 20-min metabolic strength workout
- 20-min upper body strength workout
- 9-min cardio AMRAP workout
- 30-min New Year’s strength workout
- 12-min EMOM Christmas workout
- 12-min full-body strength workout
