Dusty Gilbreth, certified personal trainer and youth baseball instructor at The Infield (www.the-infield.net) in South Elgin, came into our ABC7 studio with Ethan Plantz, age 10, Dominick Mastrangeli, age 11, and Neeko Rivera, age 10, to show us easy exercises you can do together.
Exercise 1: Front squat with a medicine ball
- Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, toes pointed forward.
- Hold medicine ball out in front of your body, slightly above your chest, with arms straight.
- Lower your body, bending at the hips, keeping your weight back on your heels.
- Keep your back as upright as possible.
- Make sure your knees don't cross the plain of your toes. Don't go past 90 degrees at your knees.
Exercise 2: Split squat with a medicine ball
- Stand with one foot in front of your body with your other foot behind your body.
- Hold medicine ball at chest level close to your body.
- Lower your back knee to the ground until your front leg has created a 90-degree angle.
- Slowly raise your back leg to its starting position.
- Perform ten repetitions on each leg three times.
Exercise 3: Medicine ball partner tosses
- Stand sideways, about 4 feet from your partner who should also be standing sideways at to your left.
- With straight arms, holding the ball with both hands, bring the ball to side opposite partner and toss across your body to your partner.
- The ball should be at about stomach/ chest height.
- Your partner then catches the ball and throws it back to you using the same technique (only starting from his side opposite you).
Exercise 4: Elastic band exercises - curls and shoulder press
- Using an elastic exercise band, grab a handle in each hand and step on the middle of the band with both feet at shoulder width apart.
- Allow your hands to hang at your sides with your palms facing forward.
- Curl both handles so as to try and touch your hands to the front of your shoulders.
- Stand with your legs just beyond shoulder width apart, and grab the handles of an exercise band with each hand.
- Holding the other handle of the exercise band in your right hand, simply press the handle up toward the ceiling as high as you can extend it.
- Return to the start position and repeat.
