The Playground Workout

If you thought your local playground was just kids business, you’re in for a big surprise! It can totally double as your home gym ;)Your days of playing tag and haggling for position in the slippery slide line-up may be over, but that doesn’t mean you can’t inject a little fun back into your workouts by turning the local playground into your very own gym.And hey, if you’ve got a few kids yourself, this is a perfect way to mix their playtime with your sweat time!

How To Use This Workout:

• Complete 10 repetitions of each of the moves in this workout. For any 1-sided exercises (e.g. lunges), complete 10 reps per side.
• Once you’re done, take a 30-second breather, then start over again.
• More rounds means more cred, so go for gold!

MONKEY BAR: Hanging Knees-UpGREAT FOR: Core, Arms, ShouldersTechnique:

• Start by hanging from the monkey bars. Pull your shoulder blades down your back to bring your shoulders away from your ears.
• Draw your abs to your spine as you bend one leg and raise your knee up towards your chest. Make sure you tuck your pelvis under a little and round your lower back, to ensure your lower abs are working, rather than just your hip flexors.
• Lower your leg down slowly and repeat with the opposite leg.

Advanced exercisers: try lifting both knees up to your chest at once!SLIDE: Burpee Jump-UpsGREAT FOR: Cardio, Core, Legs & ButtTechnique:

• Start standing directly in front of the bottom part of the slide.
• Complete the first part of a burpee by bending down and placing your hands on the bottom part of the slide, then jump your feet out behind you into ‘plank’ position, then immediately back in again.
• Release your hands and jump powerfully off the ground, to land with both feet on the bottom part of the slide, lowering into a squat position (if that sounds a bit too hard, just jump up and reach for the sky, without leaping on to the slide!)
• From there, stand up straight and squeeze your glutes, then step back down off the slide and repeat!

Advanced exercisers: try putting your hands on the ground instead of the bottom of the slide.STEP, BENCH OR CLIMBING PLATFORM: Lateral Step-UpGREAT FOR: Butt, Thighs & HipsTechnique:

• Start standing side-on to the platform. Now place one foot up on it, with the other remaining on the ground.
• Squat down a little, then press up through the heel of the foot that’s on the platform and push up until you are standing upright, balancing on just that one leg. The foot that was on the ground should now be airborne.
• Lower back down into a slight squat, keeping one leg on the platform the whole time and repeat. Once you’ve completed all your reps on that side, switch legs.

Advanced exercisers: try adding a little jump to the top of each repetition.SWING: Hip RaisesGREAT FOR: Butt & CoreTechnique:

• Lie on the ground with your heels resting on the seat of the swing (legs should be at a 90-degree angle)
• Push through your heels to raise your hips up off the ground towards the sky, squeezing your glutes and stabilising through your core as you go.
• Slowly lower down and start over!

Advanced Exercisers: try this move with just one leg at a time… ouchie!SEE-SAW: Elevated Push-Up with Spider KneesGREAT FOR: Arms/Chest/BackTechnique:

• Place your hands shoulder-width apart, resting on the middle of the see-saw, hands in line with your armpits. Your body should strong through the middle with legs straight out behind, like you’re planking.
• Slowly lower your chest down towards the see-saw, then push back up to start position again.
• Next, alternately bring each knee up to the outside of the elbow on the same side.

Hot Tip: if you don’t have a see-saw, go rogue and just do this on the ground, on the seat of a bench, a climbing platform, a set of parallel bars, anywhere you can find!START OVER!