Sometimes, you just don’t have time to make it to the gym.  Or maybe you are new to this working out thing and don’t have a gym membership.  The former is what happened for my husband and I recently.  We were planning on going to the gym, but just didn’t have the time to squeeze in the drive and an entire workout.  The weather is becoming lovely in the evenings here in Arizona, so we headed out into the backyard to sneak in a quick workout.  After some body weight exercise, we took the dogs out on a quick walk around the neighborhood.  (And then planned to hit the gym the next morning, because my husband is a gym rat!)  At the end our of workout, we decided it was a great date night!  So I wanted to share my tips for a great backyard workout while the weather is still amazing.

Calisthenics (Body Weight Workouts)

The lovely thing about calisthenics is you can do them just about anywhere.  (Even a hotel room.  Search “hotel workout” on Pinterest.)  So even if you have a small backyard, you can still get a great workout in.  Bonus: It is super easy to put together one of these types of workouts!  Our favorite is to do “super set”.  You take 3 – 5 exercises and do them back to back.  Rest for a minute and then do it all over again!  If you are just starting to workout, feel free to take a 30 second rest between exercises and do less of each exercise.  Here are some common calisthenics you can do:

• Lunges
• Squats
• Push Ups
• Burpees
• Wall Sit
• Front Kicks
• Crunches
• Bicycle Sit Ups
• Planks
• Mountain Climbers

If you are more advanced you can get really crazy with alternative burpees, push-ups, squat jumps, and the like.  My husband love challenging himself by making up new variations of common calisthenic exercises.

Cardio

Oh, cardio.  I actually enjoy cardio quite a bit.  However, there is a big difference in my husband’s and my stride and overall endurance.  So, it is hard for us to get the same workout if we are doing something like jogging around the neighborhood.  Because his jog is more similar to my run.  Usually if we take to the sidewalks, we will just walk it out for a while and chat.  But if we really want to get he blood pumping, we will do higher intensity calisthenics in the backyard.  This looks like burpees, jumping jacks, high knees, squat jumps, jump rope, etc.  Basically, a lot of jumping.

Stretching

This is my favorite part of working out together.  When we help each other stretch, I feel like I get a deeper and more beneficial stretch.  We will stretch out a bit ourselves and then transition to helping each other.  Especially with the hamstrings and glutes.  Ohhh, sooo good.  Just make sure you get a good cool down in before you start stretching.  (Note: my dogs lovvvve to help with the stretching part!)

That is the basics of a backyard workout!  It doesn’t have to be too crazy or intense.  Just a way to get moving together!  And then you can eat a delicious recovery meal together!