School Girl Workout

When you're a girl in middle school, there's as much pressure on you to be lean and fit as there is on adult women. Some middle school girls get exercise from participating in school sports, but others aren't interested in sports. So this simple workout is a good (enough) alternative for the perfectionist middle school girl. Maybe in between homework assignments, these easy exercises could be done.

1. Stretch your back. You'll need it to be strong for carrying that heavy backpack all the time. If you can strengthen-up your back muscles, walking around with your backpack won't be so difficult and you won't be panting when you walk into school. Try kneeling on your hands and knees, and then arch your back for about 10 seconds. Then switch to curving you're your back up for about 10 seconds… like a cat. Doing this repeatedly will strengthen the muscles along your spine.
2. Do those sit-ups and crunches you learn in P.E. I know, I know, gym class = bad. But trust me, those pain-in-the-butt sit-ups and crunches really work. Why else would they make you do them so darn much? Try about 30 crunches and 15 sit-ups. You can split them up as much as you like. Crunches are generally easier, so that's why do more of those (wink).
3. Lie on your back and do some leg raises. Raise both your legs slowly while keeping them straight. Then lower them down slowly. It makes it a little easier to put you hands under you butt for support. You can feel the burn when you do about 10 leg raises with your legs together. But then after you cool down, do about 30 raises per leg separately. It's easier when you do them one leg at a time, so you can fit more raises in before you feel like your leg will fall off. These are good for firming-up your thighs.
4. Squat. Just stand up straight and then squat and pretend you're sitting on an invisible chair. Then stand up again. Do about 30, but you can definitely take breaks in between because the burn is a little intense. This helps with the thighs like the leg raises do.
5. Run up and down the stairs. You can do this however many times you want. It just gets your heart going and burns calories.
6. Grab your backpack and lift it in front of you. You know how when you get a lot of homework you groan and think “when am I ever going to use this?!” Well, this is one way! Use all those heavy books as a barbell in your backpack. Zip your backpack closed, grab the top, and lift it about 10 times in front of you with both arms. Then lift it with one arm to your side and switch arms after 10 lifts. You can change the weight by adding or removing books from your bag.
7. Just do jumping jacks. Yep, the ones you've been told to do every gym class since kindergarten. Like running up and down stairs, it'll get your heart pumping and will burn calories. Do as many as you like maybe over 30. Just don't pass out!

These exercises can be done in any order you please. You can break up the counts too. You can do almost anything to stay in shape. These are just some ideas of what you could do after school while you do your homework to make it maybe not as boring. This is the work out that I did and it worked for me. Just remember you don't have to be skinny and “perfect”. But if you just feel like you want to exercise, then try this and have fun with it.