Annie-Celeste Taylor’s Workout: From Theory to Practice

17 January

Annie-Celeste Taylor’s Workout: From Theory to Practice

Fitness Ambassador, Annie-Celeste Taylor has put together a beginner-friendly warm-up and workout that can be recreated safely at home. Staying active can be incorporated anywhere, feel free to recreate some of these wherever possible.

What makes a good warm-up?

For a good warm-up, you need to include a gentle, low-intensity activity to warm and loosen the muscles, like walking around the room or marching on the spot, then once the body is starting to warm start to include Dynamic Stretching - controlled, repetitive movements that actively lengthen your muscles and move your joints through their full range of motion without ‘holding’ at the endpoint. This increases muscle temperature and decreases muscle stiffness.

See Annie’s warm-up below

Low-impact movement:

• Jacks – swing arms up and step one leg to the side return to start and swing ups up and step the other leg out
• Step & forward arm raise – Take a step forward and raise the opposite arm up swinging in a forward motion return to the starting position and repeat on the other side
• High Knees – in a marching motion lift your knees up as high as you can (the aim is as high as your hips but stay where you feel comfortable and work towards that. (hold on to the chair if needed for balance)
• Butt Kicks – Standing bend one knee lifting one foot behind you, pulling the heel towards your bottom, return to stand repeat on the other foot (hold on to the chair for balance if needed)

Dynamic Stretching:

• Shoulder Rolls & Neck – Chin to chest, chin to ceiling / look over each shoulder/ tilt ear to shoulder and gently shake no and then gently nod yes (repeat on another side
• Chest swings & thoracic mobility – Swing arms open and closed at shoulder level / Imagine hugging a giant ball in front of you and then opening out and lying on a giant ball behind you
• Lateral tilts – Standing arms by your sides tilt sideways reaching one arm towards the side of the knee, return to standing and repeat on the other side
• Torso rotate – Standing slightly wider than the hip by swinging your arms side to side to create rotation through the waist, follow with your head to get a full twist in the spine
• Hip rotations – Imagine you are using a hula–hoop and drawing circles with your hips
• Leg rotations – Standing on one leg (hold on to chair/wall etc if needed for balance) rotate ankles in both directions/ then bend at the knee and draw circles with your feet / then lift the knee and open your hip out to the side and lower down to the ground, lift again but keeping hip open close hip by bringing knee to front and lower down to the ground.
• Hamstring stretch – Standing with one leg in front of you toes up sweep hands down the leg towards that foot and up to air repeat on that leg a few times then switch

Workout:

All of these moves can be done either free-standing or holding onto a chair or stable surface For maximum results, repeat this workout 2-3 times with a small break in between. Make sure to listen to your body and stop if you feel any unusual pain but also be aware that exercise can feel uncomfortable to begin with

1. 3-Way Lunge: Step your left leg forward into a lunge. Then out to the side and then behind you. On the forward and back lunge keep the weight in the front leg and drive the movement by sending the back knee towards the floor, on the side lung, think about sitting your weight into the side step, Repeat on that leg 10 times and then swap sides.

2. Incline Press-Ups: Using a wall, chair or countertop (make sure you are choosing a stable surface) place your hands out in front of you on the the wall at shoulder height, step your feet away so you are making a diagonal line with your body, bending at the elbows lower your chest to the wall and push yourself back up to straight arms (try and keep your body straight throughout the move) repeat 10 times

3. Squat to heel raise - squat down as low as you can (or sit in a chair if you feel more comfortable with something behind you) Squeeze your glute muscles to stand back up. As you reach the top of your standing motion, lift your heels off the ground to activate the calf muscles, Lower yourself back down and repeat x 10,

4. Shoulder Matrix –
   1. Lift arms out to the side x5
   2. Lift arms out the front x5
   3. Lift arms out the side bring to the front and lower / lift arms out the front open out the sides and lower x 5
   4. Starting with arms in front of you lift arms forward up overhead and lower back down to front x 5 (aim to get the upper arm past the ear without throwing your hips forward
   5. Starting with arms overhead lower arms down to the side at shoulder height so you make a ‘T’ position and raise back up overhead x 5