[Meg]

You've been looking for squat alternatives, right? Here ya go ... body weight squats with absolutely no equipment necessary: Tabata Squats.

Eight sets of 20 seconds each. As many squats as fast possible. Ten second rest between sets. You're done in four minutes!

[3fcuser1058250]

... That's hillarious and looks extremely difficult... I have very good knees but after those I wouldn't anymore...

That's a great site Meg!

[alinnell]

I wouldn't last one set....but I can blame that on bad knees!

[Lydia227]

I feel pain in my quads just watching that. Yikes. What an awesome way to quickly get the heart rate up though. Thanks for sharing Meg!

[Mel]

Well that looks like a good warm up! How 'bout adding a resistance band under the feet? or 5 pound weights in your hands? Or jumping up onto a step for 5 then down for 5....

Mel

[Meg]

[sportmom]

That was cute! Meg, I think you are trying to recruit more members into your bad knee club! Mine are ok, but I think that would be the end of them! Esp. looking at how fit these girls are (esp. red) and it was killing them! The clip of purple lady nursing her baby was nice to see - hard to believe she was doing all that so soon after childbirth and with heavy breasts too! I think they are all hip hop dancers, no? They had amazing quads even thru their pants.

[Meg]

Fran, it's really a great exercise and you don't have to go as low as they did (especially the girl in the middle ). I first ran into these at an Alwyn Cosgrove workshop ... he made us all do all eight rounds. Of course I wasn't nearly as fast or deep as the video! The workshop was called 'Your Body Is A Barbell' and it was all about lower body exercises using only bodyweight. So then he had us do the leg matrix that Mel posted about a while ago - 24 squats, 24 lunges, 24 jump squats, and 24 jump lunges - in 90 seconds. And a whole bunch of other bodyweight exercises. My legs were total Jello at the end of the hour!

Seriously, this really is an exercise that you could do now - I've used it with a number of clients. Just go to parallel on the squats - there's no need to go so deep - and do as many as you can in each 20 second round. I haven't had a client who can do more than four rounds though!

One other thing ... we were taught to do them using Prisoner Squats (hands laced together behind your head):



and I can keep my balance better that way.

C'mon and give 'em a try! Ilene promises that she will too!

[2frustrated]

Yeah I'll try too!

I think I'll either do them Sunday or Monday!

[srmb60]

Meg is evil! Who can resist trying that at least once? It's like a double dog dare!



is this article good info? http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle....4-046-training

[Mel]

I actually have a lot of my clients do these and the leg cranks. My only advice is get a good bra

Mel

[Meg]

Great article, Susan! I like a lot that I read in T-Mag, especially the exercise and training articles. Even though I'm hardly their target audience. I've gotten some good workouts and exercises from them. You can subscribe and get an email update every Friday night.

[srmb60]

I jumped. I don't know why I jumped but I did. And it was hard. I'll try them plain.

[4rabbit]

SusanB -- You jumped ??? I do'nt get it ?? You did tabata jumps ??

[srmb60]

Jump squats! Where on earth during that video did I get the idea that I was supposed to jump squat?