Tom Williams is the owner of Burn Fitness—one of the best ranked gyms in Santa Monica—and the creator of Fatburn.com—an easy to use, fat-loss program that not only works but also teaches you how to eat correctly. His Saturday morning aerobic class is a combination of plyometrics, weights and cardio drills delivered in 90-second bursts with 15 second rests between each exercise. In other words—it’s a really hard class, but the results are incredible.
The class starts with core exercises. Williams says, “People use the word ‘core’ in my business incorrectly these days because they think of it as the center of your body like the core of an apple. But actually you have two core exercises—one for the lower body and one for the upper body. The lower body core exercise is the squat. So we start with s
quats in the beginning of the class. Then we break the legs down piece by piece. We go from the core exercise of using the entire lower body, to doing a lunge where we’re using glutes, hamstrings and quads going forward and then we move laterally doing the same thing.â€
The exercise we are going to look at here is one of the lower body core exercises called “Crossover with a Weight and a Tap.†This is a functional exercise that works the entire body. “It mostly works the legs, the glutes, the hamstrings and the quads but because of the way you’re twisting and moving side to side it’s working everything. It’s an all-over body exercise,†explains Williams. Personally I find this to be one of the most challenging exercises—perhaps because we typically execute this after running 4 flights of stairs and I’m ex
hausted. Nevertheless, this is how to do it and why we do it, and modeling the exercise is Nicole Cogan.
Photo #1
Start with the weight in your hands. Your right foot should be on the ball, your left foot on the ground. Knees should be bent and your back flat. Keep your eyes on the mirror and not on the ground.
Photo #2
Tap the weight lightly to the ground then jump up and extend the weight so that it is above your head. You should strive to be erect while in this position.
Photo #3
Shift your weight so that when you land your left foot is on the ball and your right foot is on the ground.
You are essentially jumping up and over the ball—fully extending the weight above your head while in the midst of your jump. This exercise should be one fluid motion. Strive for 20 repetitions. Look straight ahead and not down at the floor to maintain good form. You should not be hunched over; keep your back flat while crouched and maintain good posture.
For more info on classes or how to get fit check out www.burnfitness.com
