For the next three minutes or so, you will perform the following series of movements to the beat:

1. Start with burpees and arm circles.
2. Transition to shadow boxing.
3. Dive into crocodile push-ups.
4. Do a crunch variation that Elev8d Fitness calls “polar opposites”.
5. Finish up with a little core work.

By the end of this speedy session, you’ll be feeling pretty darn tough. Go for round two and play it again if you have the time and energy!

If you enjoyed this workout, you’ll love more of Elev8d’s quick, effective routines. Check these out:

8-Minute Weight-Loss Workout Series

Do-Anywhere Total-Body Workout Series

16-Minute Challenge Workout Series

Related: Low-Intensity Interval Training: Better Results by Doing Less

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But this traditional understanding of stretching is flawed. Flexibility doesn’t come from stretching the muscles to a more impressive length—flexibility is actually the absence of tension in the muscles. And to get to the root of this tension, you have to address why your body is tight in the first place.

“People always come to me and tell me that they are genetically tight, that their body just isn’t flexible,” says Brian Bradley, fitness director of Elev8d Fitness, the new 8-minute home workout program from Sonima. “But this is a misunderstanding.” You’re not inflexible because your muscles are short. You’re inflexible because your body is out of alignment, and that impinges your full range of motion.

How Does Alignment Improve Flexibility?

Proper alignment starts with the pelvis. “The hips are the epicenter of the body, so when you have function in the hips, all the muscles that originate in that area are no longer under tension or restricted,” Bradley explains. The better the position of your hips, the better its relationship with the upper back, mid-back, shoulder blades, and all connected areas of the body.

“When you align the body, the bones where the tendons connect move into a more aligned position, which loosens the tension in the muscle. It’s freeing up your muscles to their full and natural length,” Bradley explains. In other words, you are changing the position of the skeleton where the tendons attach. When you put these attachment points into alignment, the muscles can relax into their full range of motion. As you slowly loosen tension in this or that muscle, the body comes into concert with itself, unifying as one system rather than a collection of disjointed parts. And that, Bradley says, is where real strength and wellness happens.

Related: Move Better, Look Better, and Feel Better with This Workout Series

Elev8d Fitness is designed around this fundamental principle: Align the body so that it can move through its full range of motion, thus balancing and unifying the musculature as a functional, efficient system. “You’ll actually get your body to the point where you don’t feel like you need to stretch,” Bradley says.

A Workout to Improve Flexibility

In this 8-minute workout, Elev8d Fitness co-founder and world-renowned physiologist Pete Egoscue will coach you through a sequence of one-minute movements. As you fire the hip flexors and core, notice a subtle release of tightness is the upper back and knees. Remember, form is critical. In order to align and balance the body, you have to pay close attention to the position of your spine, shoulders, and hips. For example, be sure to pinch the shoulder blades in the Da Vincis and maintain a slight arch in your back when you squat down for the Elev8d Side Unders.

Related: Can’t Touch Your Toes? These Three Exercises Will Change That

“You’re going to feel some work in these exercises,” Bradley says. “What we’re doing is training your muscles at their full length.” Strengthening your muscles in this state of zero tension or tightness is key—that’s the way to train your body back into its natural and functional alignment.

“This eight-minute sequence is literally changing how each section of your spine relates to your hips and shoulders,” Bradley says. As you work your way through the exercises, your range of motion is increasing exponentially. So much so that if you started the whole thing over again from the top, you would notice a dramatic difference in your flexibility. That’s because you’ve freed up your shoulders, mid-back, and hips, thus loosening the tension in the muscles.

You’re not necessarily going to feel a stretch with this workout, though. “It’ll feel like work and you may start breathing a little heavy. But then all of the sudden, you’ll be able to reach down and touch your toes,” Bradley says.

Transform your body in a little as eight minutes! Try the revolutionary Elev8d Fitness Flat Belly Workout Series!

The post A Quick Workout to Fix Tight Muscles appeared first on Sonima.

What you may not realize is that the position of sitting could also be the reason you want to curl up for a nap in the afternoon. Luckily, the right kind of movement can combat these negative sitting effects, and you can do these exercises from your home office or other workplace for a quick pick-me-up.

How Sitting Affects Your Energy

We often don’t realize just how much our posture impacts our health. When your anterior contracts and your posterior is rounded, you effectively constrict the flow of oxygen through your body. In this rounded position, your spine is in a C-shape rather than its natural S-shape, cramping the diaphragm so that you can’t take full, deep breaths. What’s more, the C-shape in the spine tucks the hips under. When your psoas and hip flexors are tucked and unengaged like this, the body essentially collapses forward, crunching the vital organs into a smaller space.

Your energy flags post-lunch because you’ve spent the better half of the day collapsed forward and inert. When this happens, it’s all too easy to turn to sugar and caffeine. But what if there were a healthy, more holistic option?

Related: The #1 Most Overlooked Muscle in Your Workout

The solution to activating the hips and improving posture is actually quite simple: Move more. We’re not saying you need to quit your job or stop watching your favorite TV show, just simply get up and move around every 30 minutes. While you’re at it, give your body a quick alignment prompt with the three dynamic movements below from Elev8d Fitness, the new home workout program from the experts at Sonima. This routine takes less than a minute and does wonders for shaking loose the cobwebs and improving your posture.

Related: 4 Posture Exercises to Do While Sitting At Your Desk

3 Moves to Boost Your Energy

The Active Cows Face requires you to stand up and engage the deep muscles around the shoulder blades (the rhomboid muscles, trapezius, and deltoid). This effectively opens up the front of the body, allowing more oxygen into your lungs and more blood flow to your head, heart, and vital organs.

Next, the Downward Dog Bent Knee activates the hip flexors and the psoas while also loading up the shoulder blades. By engaging these deep, core muscle groups, this static position ignites a higher intensity burn. A true total-body exercise, the Downward Dog Bent Knee positions your head below your heart, which brings increased blood flow (and oxygen) to the brain.

Lastly, the Standing Arm Circles strengthen the muscles between the shoulder blades while also requiring static resistance in the core muscles, especially the obliques. This may look like a shoulder exercise, but notice the perturbance in the abdominal wall; you are working your abs too. Hand position is key, and remember to keep your shoulders down and back.

In combination, these three movements reset posture and increase blood flow in less than a minute so you can sit back at your desk with a clearer head and more energy. What’s more, if you make a daily practice of these three movements, your posture will improve in the long run. Give it a try!

Active Cows Face | 15x Per Side

1. Stand with your feet fist-width apart, toes pointed straight ahead. (You may even pigeon-toe them slightly.)
2. Reach your arms out at shoulder height with palms facing forward so your body forms a “t” shape.
3. Raise your right arm toward the ceiling, bending at the elbow so your hand reaches toward the center of your back. Simultaneously extend your left arm toward the floor, bending at the elbow to reach your left hand toward the center of your back, getting your right and left fingers as close to touching as possible.
4. Return arms to their original position and repeat, moving your arms in the opposite direction to bring the left to the center of the back from above and the right from beneath. That’s 1 rep.

Downward Dog Bent Knee | 30 Seconds

1. Start on hands and knees, then push into downward facing dog.
2. Bend your knees slightly, without touching the ground.
3. Hold this position as you pull the hips back to the heels, keeping the pelvis angled up and the back flat. You should feel this in the hip flexors.

Arm Circles | 40x

1. Stand with your feet hip-width apart, toes pointed straight ahead. Put your hands in a golfer’s grip: Make a thumb’s up and fold your fingers so the tips are on the top pads of your palms.
2. Extend your arms out at your shoulders with your thumbs pointed forward, hands palms down, and shoulder blades pinched back.
3. Keeping your shoulder blades pinched, circle your arms forward 20 times.
4. Pause, then flip your hands palms up, thumbs pointed backward, and circle your arms backward 20 times.
   
   

Transform your body in as little as 8 minutes a day! Try the revolutionary new approach to fitness that helps you achieve better results by doing less. Check out Elev8d  Fitness now on Vimeo.

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Often the only constant in our busy lives is mornings. Schedules and responsibilities may vary wildly from day-to-day, but every day starts the same: You wake up. This consistent context is the best time and environment to create and maintain habits, whether it’s drinking coffee, meditating in bed, or writing in a journal. The point is to create a morning ritual that sets the tone for the rest of the day. If you have a calm, happy morning, you’re far more likely to have a calm, happy day.

Related: 10 Quick Home Workouts to Jumpstart Every Morning

But just as you align your thoughts with meditation or journaling, it is as important to align your body to prepare for the day.

The Benefits of Alignment

Ideally, the body should be a symmetrical unit. The load-bearing joints (shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles) should be even and balanced. But environmental influences (sitting, injuries, lack of diverse movement) causes our musculature and skeleton to shift into asymmetrical positions. Your spine settles into a hunched, C-shape from sitting at a desk all day, and your shoulder punches forward in your morning run to make up for your misaligned hip. All these compensations come at a cost. When the body is out of whack, overall wellness suffers.

However, when your body is in alignment, your various interconnected systems—digestive, nervous, and lymph—function more smoothly. Alignment can do wonders for energy too. When you remove postural limitations such as an out of whack shoulder or a creaky hip, oxygen can flow more freely through the body. Adjustments in posture have even been shown to improve headaches, sleep, and mood.

Related: A Meditation to Help You Prepare for Restful Sleep

Quick Start for a Better Day

Elev8d Fitness, the new home workout program from the experts at Sonima, is an alignment-based method that focuses on form and quality of moment. The exercises are designed to re-establish your body’s symmetrical posture and natural range of motion.

The short alignment sequence below is the perfect way to wake up the body and activate the deep stabilizing muscles. Each exercise gently activates the hips and spine, expands the diaphragm, and eases the shoulders back into a straight and open posture.

In just a few minutes, your blood will be pumping, releasing endorphins, the feel-good hormone. The Squat exercise will activate the hips to establish a healthy S-shape in the spine, a crucial reset if you plan to be sitting in a chair for most of the day.  And you’ll love Shadow Boxing. It’s nearly impossible to pop around on your toes and box an imaginary opponent without a smile on your face!

Even better, research shows that it’s the initiation of an exercise activity that solidifies the habit, not the execution. In other words, once you stand up and decide to exercise, the rest is more or less an automated follow-through. So start every day with an 8-, 16-, or 24-minute Elev8d Fitness workout, and you may soon find yourself looking forward to waking up and working out. It not only boosts energy and puts you in a great mindset for the day, it’s also fun!

Active Cows Face | 5x Per Side

1. Place your feet fist-width apart and point them straight ahead; you may even pigeon-toe them slightly.
2. Move your right arm toward your head and reach to the center of the back while you, simultaneously, bring your left arm up from the hip to the center of the back, getting the fingers as close to touching as possible.
3. Return arms to their original position then repeat process with opposite arms, bringing the left to the center of the back from above, the right from beneath.

Active Squat | 5x

1. Spread your feet just wider than your hips and point your toes straight ahead.
2. Extend your arms directly in front of you, palms down.
3. Drop your hips into the squat but keep your pelvis rolled forward so that there’s a small arch in your back—this arch is crucial!
4. Slowly return to standing.

Shadow Boxing | 30 Seconds

1. Stagger your legs with one foot forward, one foot back.
2. Shuffle the feet and switch foot position consistently.
3. Simultaneously throw punches with alternating fists, keeping your hands up near the head.

Transform your body and start every day off right in a little as 8 minutes a day! Try the innovative Elev8d Fitness program that boosts energy to keep your body and your mind sharp all day long.

The post The 3 Dynamic Exercises You Should Do Every Morning appeared first on Sonima.

Pete Egoscue, alignment expert and author of the Pain Free book series, reveals several 60-second workouts that can be done anywhere and with minimal equipment required. From “rope abs” to “flutter kicks,” these moves are a great way to get a total-body workout and maintain your fitness. “The more in a workout you can engage your entire body, the more stability and strength you will have, the more effective the exercise becomes,” says Egoscue. These creative and simple workouts may only be a minute long, but there’s no doubt they will make you break a sweat!

The post The 60-Second Cardio Workout appeared first on Sonima.

Eating out most, if not all, meals is one of the lures of travel whether you’re roaming the planet for business or pleasure. A 2012 survey from TripAdvisor of more than 1,400 U.S. travelers found that 65 percent were more likely to overindulge in food while on vacation, and another 49 percent are likely to binge-drink. Nearly a third claimed to always or often pack on pounds during a trip. Here’s where frequent fliers may have a leg-up on vacationers. Having most likely learned the hard way, they know how crucial is is to do some exercise while on the road to burn off extra calories before they end up with excess baggage (not kind that fits in the overhead bin).

Next time you’re away, try to sneak in a quick workout each morning or evening when you’re winding down from a long day. This is especially important if you’re enjoying feasts daily and not doing any form of activity, like hiking, biking, swimming, etc. Don’t worry, it doesn’t need to be an intense sweat-fest. This 20-minute workout video designed by Pete Egoscue, Sonima.com’s alignment expert and author of multiple books including Pain Free, features a series of easy and effective exercises you can do right in your hotel room—no gym equipment, workout clothes, or sneakers needed.

Related: Simple Airplane Stretches for a Long Flight

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When it comes to fitness, it’s not just about what you do or how, but also why you’re doing it. Not all workouts have to be about work—even if they’re challenging. Before you start this 15-minute routine designed by Pete Egoscue, Sonima.com’s alignment expert and author of multiple books including Pain Free, try to set an intention to take this time for yourself, give back to your mind and body, be present in the moment, and aim to have fun. Fact is, you’re not at your desk, in your car, or out running errands. You’re taking a much-deserved recess just like when you were a kid and you’ll feel great for it afterward. And if you don’t have a full 15 minutes to dedicate to this, doing one of the three principle moves in this full-body workout—including plank variations, static squat, and up-downs—when you can will help increase total strength over time.

Related: It’s Time to Bring Happiness to Your Workout

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Your best training partner may be sitting on the couch right next to you. You’re both pros at egging each other on to watch one more episode of your latest TV show obsession. What if you were to use that same drive to push each other to do one more rep? This total body workout routine is designed for couples by Pete Egoscue, Sonima.com’s pain and anatomy advisor. You don’t even need to leave the comfort of your living room to do it. In just 15 minutes, you two can feel healthier, fitter, and closer to each other than when you were sitting side-by-side on the sofa.

Start with a series of crunches and bicycles, pressing the soles of your feet together for support, to work your core. Afterward, sit up, face each other, hold hands and take turns pulling each other as far as you can go for a nice stretch. From there, transition to a plank position for one-arm push-pulls (again holding hands) to challenge both your balance and strength. To stabilize yourself, tighten your quads, use your whole body and lock your elbow. Next, continue to engage your quads, core and each other with wheelbarrows and a back-to-back squat—both of which require good partner communication to perform properly. Smiling or laughing through these moves might take your mind off the burn. Wrap up the workout with walkouts where you bend down to touch your toes and walk your hands out for pushups.

Related: A Daily Practice That Can Strengthen Your Relationship

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The excuse to not hit the gym is right in front of you, babbling and flinging food everywhere but his mouth. Babies are a handful and a legitimate reason why many moms—and new parents in general—skip daily exercise. But that doesn’t mean you should sacrifice your health altogether. Do yourself a favor and try to squeeze in 15 minutes of fitness a day.

How will you make the time? A recent survey of 1,154 moms conducted by Woman’s Day and the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a national non-profit founded by the American Heart Association and Clinton Foundation, found that mothers are spending 10 minutes or more a day doing something sedentary with their kids, including eating a meal, watching TV and doing homework. Those 10+ minutes are a good time to do a few simple workout moves from Pete Egoscue, Sonima.com’s pain and anatomy advisor. Get your kids to join you or do it alongside them while they eat, play, nap, or study. If you can’t spare a full 15 minutes, start with five and work your way up.

Related: A Meditation on Self-Care for Mothers

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Want to burn calories fast? Jump rope for 10 minutes and torch more than 100 calories, which is equivalent to running an eight-minute-mile, according to the Compendium of Physical Studies. Best part: This aerobic exercise is totally portable (you can do it anywhere from your living room to hotel to the park), a time-saver (takes no time to get a great workout) and easier on your joints than going for a run, reports the Jump Rope Institute.

Because jumping rope for 10 minutes straight is actually much harder than it sounds, Sonima’s pain and anatomy advisor, Pete Egoscue, devised this sweet seven-minute workout plan that incorporates the rope in a realistic way that people of all fitness levels can do. Start by jumping rope for 100 reps to get your heart rate up. From there, use the rope as a prop to do fat-blasting jump rope exercises, including quick overs (lateral lifts over a bench), v-ups, step-ups, squats, and crunches. Cool down with Egoscue’s favorite stretches, like cats-and-dogs and Downward Dog.

Related: What Are the Best Fitness Plans for Weight Loss?

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Follow this fast-moving 14-minute workout that engages both your small and big muscles groups, from your calves and hip flexors to your glutes and back, to get that strong and lean body that you want. Start with a series of step ups, which you can do on a park bench or your house steps. Be sure to go at your own pace here. Speed means nothing if you break good form. From there, do 30 seconds of running in place to spike your heart rate. Without taking a break, move onto 10 up-downs (aka burpees). Repeat running in place and up downs. Wrap up the workout with floor work, including mountain climbers, roller coasters, donkey kicks, and flutter kicks.

Related: A Simple Solution to Heal Plantar Fasciitis

The post The Strong and Lean Workout appeared first on Sonima.

Join in for this 15-minute workout that will ignite your abdominals and strengthen your core musculature with a few simple exercises. The efficacy of this workout relies on your commitment and focus, as well as proper alignment. Listen closely to instructions from Pete Egoscue, the founder of the Egoscue Method for alignment-based pain relief, to get the most out of your workout. This series of planks, pushups, abdominal crunches, and core walks are all familiar postures, but are sequenced here for maximum results.

Related: A Core-Strengthening Yoga Sequence

The post The Core Challenge Workout appeared first on Sonima.

The average office worker sits for about 10 hours per day—and that doesn’t include couch-and-TV time in the evenings. Staying in your seat for so long without getting up often has been linked to a high risk of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer, and depression, as well as muscle and joint pain, plus a shorter life span, poor dietary habits, and other bad behaviors, like smoking.

These are plenty of reasons why you should heed the advice of this new study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine in June: People with desk jobs should aim to stand up for two to four hours per workday  (i.e., pace during calls, walk to coworker’s desk instead of send email, take stairs, walk to lunch, etc.) to promote a healthy lifestyle, including improved nutrition and reduced stress as well as decreased alcohol consumption and smoking.

This 10-minute after-work workout from Pete Egoscue, an alignment expert and founder of the Egoscue Method, will help you add that extra (and much-needed) standing time to your day. Start with a step-up sequence to get your heart rate up and blood flowing. From there, move to strength-building exercises, including tricep extensions, squats, and ab work. Cool down with cats and dogs stretches, mountain climbers and Downward Dog.

Related: 5 Yoga-Inspired Stretches for Relief After Sitting

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There’s no excuse not to get your workout in today—this 10-minute session requires no equipment and can be done in the comfort of your own home. This total-body routine was designed by alignment and movement expert Pete Egoscue, founder of the Egoscue Method for pain prevention. (Learn more about Egoscue and his approach to fitness here.) In this short video, Pete challenges you to use muscles you may not normally engage, with the aim to improve your range of motion. When the workout starts to get tough, remember it’s all about balance, breathing, and perseverance.

Related: The Partner Chair Workout

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Long sessions at the gym multiple times a week was once considered the best approach to attain fitness. But with the rise of shorter, more time-efficient, no-gear-required training plans in recent years, this is no longer the case. You can do an equally satisfying total-body workout that will help you reach your fitness goals in half the time (or less!). Don’t take our word for it. Make this challenging 14-minute primal workout designed by Pete Egoscue, an alignment expert and founder of the Egoscue Method, part of your weekly routine and see what happens.

Start with a simple warm-up of toe-touches before moving into a series of back-and-forth inchworms that test your mobility and strength. From here, reset your body for a reverse core move with straight arms. Continue to engage those abdominal muscles with side planks followed by a traditional front plank. At this point, you should be feeling the burn—and you’re already halfway through the workout! Keep firing up your core with V-ups and flutter kicks. After this, you get a little break with quick active-recovery skips. Return to engaging your muscles with squat holds and stork walks. Round out this total-body workout push-ups and air benches. And you’re done!

Related: The Get Grounded Workout

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