6 Outdoor Circuit Exercises to Strengthen Your Muscles
Tight on time? Introducing 6 Outdoor Circuit Exercises recommended by our personal trainers that helps to strengthen muscles for everyday use, and improve your overall fitness. This circuit workout is also equipment free, which means you can attempt it anywhere, anytime. We recommend going to a nearby park, and if you’re wondering where are the best spots to get your workout done in Singapore, do check out our previous blogpost on the best workout spots near FITLUC Gym!
1. In and Out Broad Jump
Targeted Muscles: Quads, Hamstrings, Hip Flexors
Benefits: Increased Speed, Power and Mobility, Lower Body Conditioning
Familiar with standing broad jumps? Well, the In and Out Broad jump hail from the same family, and is a great beginner exercise too. Being a conditioning exercise, it is great for strengthening your body, and as it relies on your leg muscles to produce momentum to push you forward, it also improves your overall speed and stability.
1. Bend knees and hips slightly as you swing your arms backwards
2. Swing arms forward quickly and extend your knees and hips to jump forward
3. As you land, bend your knees a little and land on the bell of your feet to absorb the impact
4. Jump both feet outwards to a sumo stance and back in
2. Mountain Climbers Burpees
Targeted Muscles: Glutes, Quads, Core, Calves, Shoulders, Chest, Triceps
Benefits: Increased Heart-Rate and Mobility, Body Conditioning
2 intense exercises combined into 1, Mountain Climbers Burpees is a full-body workout that increases your heart rate and conditions your body as it is both a cardio and strength exercise.
1. Perform a mountain climber by bringing one knee towards your chest while engaging your core in the push-up position 2. After performing 2 mountain climbers, jump your feet back to starting position 3. As you stand back up, swing your arms and jump high up in the air 4. When landing, bend knees to cushion the impact of the jump 5. Lower hands to floor such that they are in front of your feet 6. With the weight on your hands, jump your feet backwards so that you land in a push-up position
7. Repeat from Step 1 again
3. Explosive Walking Lunges
Targeted Muscles: Quadriceps, Glutes, Hamstring, Calves, Abdominals, Hips
Benefits: Increased Flexibility and Mobility
Both a stability and strengthening exercise, Walking Lunges not only improves your posture and balance, but also strengthens your lower body, toning the inner and outer thigh muscles. This exercise is beginner friendly too, as it mimics everyday movements like climbing stairs, tying shoe laces and stepping across obstacles.
1. Step forward with right leg, putting weight onto the heels
2. Bend right knee, lowering down such that it is parallel to the floor while maintaining an upright chest
3. While keeping the right leg still, bring left leg forward and repeat the same movement on the left
4. Tempo High Knees
Targeted Muscles: Quadriceps, Glutes, Hamstring, Calves, Hip Flexors
Benefits: Increased Stability and Endurance
Another beginner friendly exercise, Tempo High Knees are a highly versatile exercise that can be incorporated as part of your warm up, before strength training and even during HIIT workouts. Remember to tighten your core, and straighten your spine as you perform the workout!
1. Stand with your feet about shoulder width apart
2. Engage your core and raise your left knee high up towards chest level before lowering it down
3. As you raise your left knee, swing the opposite arm up as well for counterbalance
4. Switch quickly with your right knee towards your chest and back to the left knee
5. Pause for a short while when the left knee is at chest level
5. Duck walk squat jumps
Targeted Muscles: Quadriceps, Glutes, Hamstring, Calves
Benefits: Increased Flexibility, Stamina, Strength
A combination of both duck walks and squat jumps, this vigorous exercise is sure to get your heart pumping. As it is a high intensity, full body workout, you can expect an overall improvement to your muscular strength, stamina and metabolism.
1. Perform a duck walk by going down into a full squat position
2. Keep your core engaged and chest up while walking forward like a duck
3. After duck walking for 2 steps, as you stand back up swing your arms forward and jump high up in the air
Caution: This exercise can cause stress to the joints. Consult a professional or our FITLUC trainers on the benefits and risk if you have any existing injuries.
6. Sit Throughs
Targeted Muscles: Shoulders, Triceps, Abdominals, Obliques, Calves
Benefits: Increased Flexibility and Mobility, Improves Core and Shoulder Strength
Sit Throughs are a bodyweight exercise that helps increase body awareness, as it requires you to shift your body weight from one hand to another. If you find it difficult to transition smoothly, try slowing down so as to maintain balance and prevent injuries.
1. Set up in crawling position with hands under the shoulders and knees under the hips
2. As you lift your right hand off the ground, drive your left knee forward towards your right hand while keeping your core engaged
3. Ensure that shoulders remain forward and squared
4. Return to starting position and repeat the same steps with the opposite side
These 6 exercises when done in a circuit targets muscle groups essential for everyday tasks, yet also requires no equipment at all. For office workers, or people working in desk-bound jobs, this programme is a great starting point to increase your overall agility, mobility and flexibility, and also can be tweaked according to your own fitness level, i.e lowering or increasing the intensity of the exercises in this circuit. Check out the full video below!
Importance of Programming
Having an exercise programme is crucial, as it allows you to easily achieve your goals. Not only does it keep you accountable, it also gives you direction on what to do for each workout session, allowing for better progression by keeping you on track to reach the goals you have set for yourself. Once you have an exercise programme, it becomes easier to incorporate it to your lifestyle and become part of your daily routine.
Proper form and posture is essential when exercising to prevent any injuries. When unsure about executing the proper technique, our trainers’ at FITLUC are always ready to teach you, no matter the workout environment. Our trainers are always within reach for house call personal training, online training, or even at your favourite fitness corner. Alternatively, if you are looking for more sophisticated equipment in a nice cosy and clean environment, feel free to check out our flagship gym along Keong Saik Road! Drop us a WhatsApp message at +65 8812 0110 or book an outdoor personal training trial with one of our dedicated trainers to explore if personal training is the best choice for you!
Just a heads-up, it will probably be one of the best decisions you’ve ever made.
Co-edited by: Ch'ng Ning
About FITLUC
Looking for a Personal Trainer in Singapore? Look no further! At FITLUC, we specialise in In-Person and Online Personal Training, and we also offer house-call PT with a small additional fee. We currently base our Personal Training clients at a well-equipped gym just a stone's throw away from Outram Park MRT.
We are recognized as one of the Top 12 Best PT in Singapore and were featured on Mothership, The Straits Times, YES 93.3FM, Yahoo News, etc. Our Personal Trainers have worked with clients aged 13 – 84, from Celebrities to CEOs, working professionals and homemakers, with goals ranging from fat loss, weight loss, muscle gain to athletic performance and elderly training. Our celebrity clientele includes Tay Ping Hui, Maxi Lim, Hazelle Teo, Tayying, Lee Teng, Ze Tong, Benjamin Tan, Jaspers Lai and more.
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