30-Day Fitness Challenge, Day 3: Cardio + Flexibility
Consider today your "rest day" workout. It's important for you to still get up and get active -- you’re creating a habit, after all -- but you have flexibility on what you do. Here are your options:
Option #1: 30-minute walk/jog circuit
Enjoy 30 total minutes of walking and jogging, alternating between two minutes of walking and one minute of jogging for the full 30 minutes. If you want to break this up into two 15-minute periods, or three 10-minute periods throughout your day, hey, it's your life.
Option #2: Home cardio circuit exercises
If you choose option #2, perform each exercise below for 60 seconds, immediately transitioning to the next one without rest. Perform four total rounds of the exercises to accumulate 20 minutes of cardio. You can do all four rounds consecutively, or you can break them up into two 10-minute periods. This options is slightly more intense than the walk/jog series detailed above, which is why it's shorter.
Jog in place: just like it sounds, jog in place!
Post-cardio 10-minute stretch
Regardless of which option you choose, after you've completed your cardio routine, add this 10-minute stretch series designed to maintain flexibility and range of motion. Don't skip your stretch! Flexibility is one of the five components of fitness, and it's vital to long-term mobility and a pain-free lifestyle.
Triceps stretch, 30 seconds per side
Shoulder stretch, 30 seconds per side
Quad stretch, 30 seconds per side
Chest stretch, 30 seconds per side
Forward fold, 60 seconds
Hip flexor stretch, 30 seconds per side
Standing calf stretch, 30 seconds per side
Seated hamstring stretch, 30 seconds per side
Supine figure-4 stretch, 30 seconds per side
Butterfly stretch, 60 seconds