I got a gem of a video for you today. This simple and highly effective workout from trainer Haskel Garmaise can be done in a hotel room or at home – no equipment needed (aside from a good Tabata timer).
What I love about this workout is that it incorporates 2 simple workout protocols – the descending ladder and tabata training protocol followed by a simple ab workout to end.
The “descending ladder” means you perform 10 reps of a particular exercise in the first set, followed by 9 reps, then 8 reps and so on until you work your way down to 1. In this video, the example is as follows:
Set 1: 10 pushups, 10 sit ups and 10 squats
Set 2: 9 pushups, 9 sit ups and 9 squats
Set 3: 8 pushups, 8 sit ups and 8 squats
Set 4: 7 pushups, 7 sit ups and 7 squats
Set 5: 6 pushups, 6 sit ups and 6 squats
Set 6: 5 pushups, 5 sit ups and 5 squats
Set 7: 4 pushups, 4 sit ups and 4 squats
Set 8: 3 pushups, 3 sit ups and 3 squats
Set 9: 2 pushups, 2 sit ups and 2 squats
Set 1: 1 pushups, 1 sit ups and 1 squats
Next, is on to Tabata Exercises. Starting with our all time favorite – burpees, then jump squats, mountain climbers and plyometric lunges. You can either do all these separately as individual Tabata sets each or do it as part of one Tabata circuit.
Finally, the workout is ended with a simple ab routine of standard Ab Crunches or Figure 4 crunches.
Although Haskel Garmaise presented this as a “hotel room” workout when travelling, I think it makes a great total body workout program you can adopt for 3-4 times during the week. It covers all the major muscle groups and is a great cardiovascular workout too.
Check it out here: