The Ultimate Beach Workout

Calling all beach babes! The sand is good for more than just sunbaking on, it can help you get a killer workout too ;). Exercising on the soft sand not only helps you burn more calories and tones up your muscles in record time, it also comes with a stack of mental health benefits. So, are you ready to take your workout beach side?BUF Founder and the creator of our BUF Body and Look Good Naked online programs, Libby takes you through 10 seriously effective moves that will have you beach bound (with a banging bod to match) all-year round! 

Your 10 Exercises To Take To The Beach

Plank Pike Drag

 HOW TO DO IT:Start in a push-up position, balanced on your hands and toes. Make sure your hands are directly underneath your shoulders. Now engage your glutes and particularly your core to fold your body and drag your feet in towards your hands, lifting your hips high into a ‘pike’ position as you do so. Go as far as you can with the flexibility you have, then walk your hands out or jump your feet back and start again. Make sure you literally ‘drag’ your feet along the sand to create resistance!WHY IT WORKS:This is a safe way to actively work the deeper core muscles that tighten your waist and give you definition around your core, and also works the rest of your body at the same time. You’ll strengthen your core and shoulders and shape your legs and butt. It’s great bang for your buck! 

Lower Body Jacks with Sand Push

 HOW TO DO IT:Stand with your feet together and your knees slightly bent. Push your hips back slightly while keeping your spine long (this is to make sure you use your glutes). Now jump your feet out-in-out-in, repeating continuously and keeping your feet low so you can use the sand for resistance as you move your feet.WHY IT WORKS:This move is a great way to lift your butt and tone your inner and outer thighs, as well as your lower core. In other words, it’s a total winner. 

Reverse lunge knee drive hop - get high!

 HOW TO DO IT:Stand with your feet together and hands by your sides. Step back with your left foot and lower into a reverse lunge. Now push through your right foot and in one swift movement, leap skywards, driving your left knee up to just above your hip. Land lightly back into another lunge on the same side. Do all your reps on one side before switching!WHY IT WORKS:This exercise works several muscles at once and the plyometric element means you’re getting your heart rate UP and burning more calories both during and after your workout, as your body recovers. 

Brazilian Crunch

  HOW TO DO IT:Start in a push-up position balanced on your hands and toes. Drive your knee up towards your tricep and as it passes your bellybutton, twist to one side, dropping your hip and shoulder a little. Return and repeat on the other side.WHY IT WORKS:This challenging exercise activates your entire core, from your hips to your shoulders and everything in between! It’s a great way to work your core and back safely and the rotation makes it great for functional skill development too. 

180-degree squat jumps

  HOW TO DO IT:This is a standard squat jump but with a 180-degree twist in the air between each one. Start with a normal bodyweight squat, feet hip distance apart and lowering by bending at the hips and pushing your weight into your heels. When you reach the bottom of the squat, explosively jump up and rotate your body in the air to face the opposite direction, landing lightly in another squat. I like to swing my arms for a little momentum too – do what feels natural to you!WHY IT WORKS:By adding the in-air rotation, you’re challenging your legs to use more power and engage more fibres, your body to expend more energy (hellooo lean body) and also improving agility and coordination as you have to control your spin, accuracy and landing. This is one of my favourite moves – it tires you out so quickly! 

Lateral Sand Skaters

  HOW TO DO IT:This is a lateral (sideways) one-foot jump/hop from side-to-side. Make sure before you start that your body is in an athletic position; bend your knees a little and push your hips back slightly, but keep your spine long – this helps generate more power than you would if you started completely upright. Now pick your right foot up off the sand and push off your left leg to jump to the right, landing on your right foot before quickly pushing off again in the other direction. Move fast and make your leaps BIG.WHY IT WORKS:A great way to get your heart rate up, torch calories and work on your lateral movement and agility. Also another excellent leg and butt shaper, lifting and shaping your legs all the way from calves to thighs and lifting your butt too! 

Beyonce Hip Raises

 HOW TO DO IT:Start by setting yourself up in a reverse all-fours or ‘tabletop’ position, hands and feet flat on the ground and chest facing the sky. Lift one leg slightly off the ground and tuck it under the other, dropping your hips as you do. Next, un-tuck your leg and simultaneously push through the foot still on the ground to drive your hips up towards the sky, kicking the leg that was tucked beneath you as high as you can and squeezing your butt muscles. Repeat, completing all your reps on that same side before switching over.WHY IT WORKS:This is literally one of the key exercises Beyonce’s trainer uses to lift and tone the back of her legs and her famous bootylicious butt! What can we say… if it’s good enough for Queen Bey… 

Surfer Get Up

  HOW TO DO IT:Lie face-down the floor with your hands under your shoulders. Press up and in one swift movement, jump to your feet as you tuck your knees under your body. You should land with one foot in front and one behind, slightly crouched as if you were truly on a surfboard. Hold this stance for a second or two, then repeat with the other foot in front. Keep alternating with each repetition.WHY IT WORKS:This full-body exercise is actually quite an advanced movement, requiring power and strength, as well as flexibility, coordination and range of motion. Because you’re literally using every muscle from your arms to your legs, core and back, it’s one of the most effective conditioning exercises to improve cardio and tone your body from head to toe. Thanks to the extra coordination and rotation required, it might even beat that old favourite, the burpee ;) 

Seated Crunch Pulses

HOW TO DO IT:Sit upright and keep your spine long as you lift your feet up to about 90-degrees. Reach your hands out in line with your shins, palms facing the sky. Hold this position and use little pulsing movements to lean back a few inches and come forward again. Each rock back-forward counts as one repetition. Make sure you keep your back straight and use your core muscles, not your hip flexors. If that’s too tough, do lying crunch-pulses instead of seated.WHY IT WORKS:This is my favourite crunch move for sand workouts because you don’t have to get totally sandy to do it! It’s also a great way to work the often neglected lower abs and your deeper core muscles, so it’s super effective at pulling your tummy in and really safe for your back health too. 

Wet & Wild Finisher

HOW TO DO IT:Start at the back of the beach and sprint into the water until you’re roughly chest deep. Perform 50 x high-knee runs in the water, counting each knee-drive as one rep. Sprint back up the beach, catch your breath and repeat! Aim for 5 rounds. It’s a killer! NB: if you’re not a good swimmer, just go in hip deep, or do this drill at water’s edge instead.WHY IT WORKS:This is a seriously fat-torching, cardio improving finisher! Due to its interval nature and the various resistance you’re fighting against, it’s a fast-track way to blast calories at the end of your session and speed up results. 

How can we put these moves together in a total body workout?

• Do 12 repetitions of every exercise on the list except the finisher, making sure you do all the reps per side for unilateral movements like skaters, lunge-hop and hip raises.
• Repeat the entire list 4-6 times through, depending on your fitness level.
• Finish with 4-6 rounds of the finisher, again tailoring the number of sets to your fitness level. You may even want to keep going up to 10, it’s a fun one especially on a hot day!

 Original story created for The Runway Blog at Stylerunner.com.