All You Need For This Standing Core Crusher Is 2 Water Bottles

Gabrielle Kassel

March 26, 2020 10:55 PM

Pre-coronavirus pandemic, your workouts might have featured high-end equipment and machines. Or maybe you're more old school, opting for well-worn barbells and rusty plates that have had their share of clanging and banging. However you trained then, the social-distancing and self-isolation in effect today means getting a solid sweat on requires a little ingenuity.

Crush Your Core With a Set of Water Bottles

Trainer Paul Sklar, C.S.C.S , for instance, recently posted a quarantine-friendly core crusher on Instagram. All you need for the move? Two water bottles, soup cans, or any other cylindrical implement you can hold in your hand.

A variation on classic boxing punch rotation training, for this exercise youll grip one makeshift weight in each hand, palm facing down. Take an athletic stance with feet just outside hips-width. Squeeze your glutes, squats, and coree to create tension throughout your body.

Position your hands in front of your chest at shoulder height in guard position. Then keeping feet planted, rotate your torso and punch with one arm out at shoulder-height. Bring it back to the guard position before rotating in the other direction and punching with the opposite arm.

Ramp up the speed, just as Sklar does in the video, and use your obliques to create power. Don't swivel your hips to rotate. Crank out 20 total reps.

Without dropping your arms at your sides, you'll move into another 20 reps. But this time, you'll punch to eye-height. Varying the height allows you to target your traps and shoulders at a slightly different range of motion.

Repeat 20 reps at each position twice before dropping your arms.

Rest 30 seconds, and complete 9 more sets. Keep the intensity for each round, or you won't get as much out of this workout. Remember, especially when you're training with makeshift implements, making progress is all about effort.

Gabrielle Kassel