According to Peppermint Narwhal’s Animal Calendar, today is National Cat Day. It doesn’t specify whether it’s domestic cats, or wild felines, but that doesn’t matter. Cats are cool, and they deserve a special day (and workout) in their honor.
Luckily, I have just the workout for a day like today. Dr. Alan Rabinowitz was the co-founder of Panthera, the leading organization dedicated to conserving all 40 wild cat species. To honor his work, research, and efforts to protect all our great cats around the world, I created the Panthera workout in his honor.
Panthera
25-15-10
- Cheetah Sprints (Shuttle Sprints): Set up two markers 25 feet apart. Start at the first marker and run as fast as you can to the second marker. Reach down to touch the marker, then run back as fast as you can to the first marker, reaching down to touch it. Each touch-down counts as a repetition.
- Lion push-ups: Start in a pike plank position- feet on the ground, back arched with butt in the air, and hands on ground with arms straight. This position in yoga is sometimes referred as “downward dog”. In a fluid motion, bend elbows to a push up while rolling and scooping back from an arched position to a caved in position until your body is close to the ground’ then straighten your arms and keep back close to ground to end in “upward dog”. Return to original pike position to end the repetition.
*this is a considerably advanced modification of a push-up. If you find the exercise to be too hard on your shoulders, or you have difficulty with performing 25 of the exercise, switch to either a regular push-up, a cobra push-up, or pike push-up.
Do 25 cheetah sprints, then 25 lion push-ups. After that round, 15 cheetah sprints, and 15 lion push-ups. And finally, 10 cheetah sprints, and 10 lion push-ups.
To make this workout a complete cat fiesta, do 8-10 cat-cow stretches to cool-down.
OMG our cats are awesome!