2 New Workouts and 5 Minute Workouts Explained

Why 5 minute workouts? Truth be told, we need a little bit more than just 5 minutes of exercise each day; however, 5 minute workouts are a great starting point to start getting used to (and enjoying) how working out feels without doing too much too fast. Also on days when you feel like you can't possibly workout and want to take the day off, try doing a 5 minute workout instead. Doing something is always better than doing nothing. And this way you don't lose momentum and get off track by taking too many days off in a row. Keep your healthy habits going!

Note: You will see me struggling in both of these videos. I've been working for years on my upper body strength and pushups are still difficult for me. But I'm getting stronger every day and you will too. We have to keep pushing ourselves. It's not about being perfect, it's about doing your best and putting effort forth. If you challenge yourself, you change yourself. You get stronger and fitter with every single workout. Every workout counts. Try these with me.

The first workout is...

2 rounds of:
5 pushups
10 second plank
5 pushups
20 second plank
5 pushups
10 second plank 

If you can't do regular pushups, or can't do 5 in a row, do as many as you can and then do the rest on your knees. Pushups are tough, don't feel discouraged if you can't stay up for all 5. But challenge yourself if you can! This is obviously very upper body heavy, I got a request for upper body workouts, so here they come. But these are also exercises that challenge me and that I want to get better at doing. Basically win win for everyone. ​

I did this workout in just over 3 and a half minutes (while rocking my Dora the Explorer outfit). Some things I don't like about this though: my pushups don't look right, my shoulders shouldn't be out past my wrists like that, so make sure yours aren't either; and for my plank I think my hips should be a hair lower, but that isn't too bad because you don't want your hips to be too low either. See? Nobody's perfect, we all have room for improvement.

Now the second workout is a bonus challenge upper body workout, and it's 2 rounds of:
10 plank rows
5 pushups
10 lunges (left leg)
5 pushups
10 lunges (right leg)
5 pushups
20 tricep dips

For the plank rows you will need dumbbells. I used 10 pound dumbbells, but if you don't have them you can just skip this exercise and start with the 5 pushups. No sweat. Dumbbells are awesome though and really help to not just add an extra challenge, but to sculpt lean muscles. Totally worth investing in if you're into it.

I finished this in just under 8 and a half minutes, so still a less than 10 minute workout, very manageable. If you feel like you're just done after the first round and can't possibly do a second, then just do 1 round. Then come back and try this workout again in a few days and see if you can do the 2 full rounds. You'll probably surprise yourself with how quickly you've improved and gotten stronger. Like I said, the request was for upper body workouts. Feel free to request anything else you want to see on here or anything you want more or less of. I'm totally open to new ideas and challenges we'll all work on together. 

If you're looking at all these pushups and scoffing, do not dismiss these workouts because you think you can't do them, you can! Start on your knees. Trust me. I used to do pushups on my knees too. You have to start somewhere. Don't be ashamed or afraid to start on your knees. This is something your body has never done before, you have to teach and show your muscles how to do this. Our bodies aren't born just knowing how to do everything, we had to learn how to walk too. We have to learn through practice. Don't be afraid to practice. You're no better or worse than anyone else, and neither am I. We're all working to do better and be stronger and fitter. We're in this together.