Monday's Health Tip: Quick, Easy, and Equipment-Free Workout!

This quick and easy workout only requires the use of your legs and can be done in about 20 minutes, but is guaranteed to work up a sweat and will leave you feeling (pleasantly) tired. To begin, make sure to warm up for about 5 minutes. Jog in place and perform some light stretching in order to elevate your heart rate and work up a little bit of a sweat. Once you're warmed up, head outside. Start off by jogging slowly for about 5 minutes. Then it's time to start sprinting! When you reach a telephone pole, pick up your pace so you're running at about 75-80% of your maximum effort, and continue for the length of two telephone poles (about 2oo feet). When you reach the second pole, slow down your pace to a light jog (or a walk if you are a beginner) and continue at this pace for the length of one telephone pole (about 100 feet). Repeat this cycle, adding one telephone pole to each sprint cycle. So for example, the second time you sprint, you'd want to run the distance of 3 poles, the third time, 4 poles, etc. Work your way up to 5 telephone poles, and then work your way back down to two. So, the total cycle will look like this: Jog for 5 minutes Sprint the length of two telephone poles Walk the length of one Sprint the length of three telephone poles Walk one Sprint 4 Walk 1 Sprint 5 Walk 1 Sprint 4 Walk 1 Sprint 3 Walk 1 Sprint 2 Cool down by walking slowly for 5 minutes or until your heart rate comes back down. This quick workout is a great way to ward off holiday stress, weight gain, and is also perfect reason to get out of the house for a little quality alone time. Keep me posted if you decide to give this workout a shot, and let me know how it goes!