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Squat thrusts or burpees.

Description: Squat down, thrust your legs behind and return to the starting position.

Motions trained:Various, including jumping/landing, torso flexion and extension.

Main muscles used: Legs
   Other muscles: Chest



How to do it: Start in standing position. Squat down and put your hands on the floor on the outside of your legs. Bracing yourself with your hands, shoot your legs straight back, then pull them back to the squatting position. When you come up, jump into the air. as you land, repeat.

How to work up to it: Squat down and put your hands on the floor in front of you. Just practice pushing out and pulling yourself back to squating position. Then add standing up (not jumping). If you are large and have trouble jumping, then avoid that. Standing up though is important, since it gets your lower body working.

Ramping it up: Add rolls and falls when doing squat thrusts. You can also make a hybird with a star on the jump.

Do's and don'ts: Don't let your lower body flop around at the bottom. Keep it tight and in a nice straight line. After the jump, just collapse into a ball rather than stopping yourself and trying to squat. Don't drop to the floor hard on your arms. Leg you legs do all the braking actions needed.

Comments: A very taxing exercise. This is an excellent one to throw into any workout and with a pushup in the middle would get pretty much every major muscle in the body.