The Warm-Up
Let this be 10-30 minutes of blood pumping, heart rate bumping cardio that you each choose. It’s the “getting ready” portion of the workout date and everyone prepares differently. Maybe you both want to run on the treadmill together? Perhaps one of you prefers five minutes on the bike and foam rolling while the other stair climbs? What matters is you’re fired up and ready to light it up together through this next series of exercises!
Round 1 – Best Way to the Heart is Through the Stomach
This starting round is all about getting the entirety of the body into beast mode with a focus on your core. Do the following workout routine all in a row as quickly as you can, three times through. Rest as needed, but keep your hustle high!
- 20 Partner Crunch/Squat-Sits (both of you each do a set)– One of you lays down on the mat with your heels tucked, ready to crunch. The other will anchor their partners feet by standing on them AND holding a down-squat position. Keep your hands high to make the cruncher stretch for it! Hold this while your cohort crunches it out then switch!
- 30 “Showdown” Planks Claps– Get in a straight arm plank position facing your partner (who is doing the same). Make sure you’re an arms width apart and your feet are in a wide stance. Then, simply alternate hand claps with each other!
- 20 Crunch Tosses– Grab a weighted ball of some sort (preferably a soft wrapped one) and lay down on your backs with the bottoms of your feet about a foot away from each other’s. One of you starts with the ball and crunches up, tossing the ball to your partner in the process. Your partner, seated and waiting for the ball will catch it, drop down, crunch up, and toss it back!
- 10 Partner Crawl-and-Jumps– Have one of you get in a downward dog position (hips high enough to crawl under) and have your partner crawl under you while avoiding touching your knees to the ground. Once the crawler has made their way to the other side you’re going to stand up and jump the downward dogger (who has now lowered their hips into a plank) leaving the crawler right back where they started, getting into a downward dog pose immediately. Now the roles reverse! Repeat!
Round 2 – Love is a Battlefield
This next round is going to wear your arms out! You’ve been warned. Do the following exercises all in a row as quickly as you can, three times through. Rest as needed but again, move quickly!
- 20 Partner Crunches– Line up in push-up position facing one another. One of you does a push-up then holds while the other does a push-up, then holds. Repeat for 20 reps. Feel free to modify with your knees down! Just be sure to make sure your hips travel with you to the floor.
- 20 Dumbbell Daps– Grab a pair of dumbbells that you feel comfortable and confident enough in holding out at shoulder height with your arms fully extended. Keep your palms facing each other at all times. One of you starts with your dumbbells extended inside the dumbbells of your partner. You’re then going to raise your dumbbells, give the top of theirs a little “bonk” with yours, then bring your dumbbells outside of theirs making the two of you switch positions. Now they “bonk” your dumbbells in the same fashion! Repeat!
- 20 Band “See-Saws”– Grab a resistance band and then have each of you grab one end. Stand in a shoulder width stance facing each other far enough away so that there is tension on the band while still allowing you room to move it. One of you will raise the end of your band all the way up overhead with their arms extended, engaging the back/shoulder/core/leg muscles while the other drives their end down while hinging at the waist (like you’re hiking a football) with their arms fully extended (engaging all the same muscles). Find a rhythm and build a burn together!
- 30 Jumping Jacks– Nothing fancy here… just both of you doing 30 jumping jacks.
Round 3 – Do the Leg Work
This last round will finalize the workout and get you one step closer to cuddle time. Just…be sure to shower first. Sticking to the same format as the rest do the following exercises all in a row as quickly as you can, three times through. Rest as needed but keep moving!
- 15 Partner Jump Squats– Get in squat position. Squat. Jump as high as you can as you come up. Once you’ve done this, then your partner does the same. The goal is to look like a couple of pistons roaring!
- 20 Lateral Lunge Hand-Offs– Grab a weighted ball of your choice and stand side to side. Make sure you’re about a foot away from one another and in a super wide stance. Wider than it feels like you should be at first. This is important for the range of motion. One of you will start with the ball and lateral lunges towards your partner while the other person is lateral lunging towards you as well. Once you hand the ball off, both of you will lateral lunge away from other before repeating back to center and handing the ball off again. Repeat!
- 20 Lunge Battles (each leg!)– This can be done side to side or facing each other since all that really matters is that you have space to stationary lunge. One of you will start out with doing five lunges while the other holds the down lunge position. Once the lunger has completed five reps, they will now be the one to hold the down lunge position while the other partner does their set of five lunges. Repeat until you’ve both completed 20 lunges… then do the same thing on the other leg!
- 50 Squat-Sit Patty Cakes– Get in a down squat position facing each other. You need to be close enough to play a game of “patty cake” (high five across the body, clap in the center, repeat other side). Do 50 of these! You have to do a lot in order to build that longevity burn!