Sunday was a crazy day here in America. It was Super Bowl Sunday…also known as Superb Owl Sunday in zookeeper circles (and really, I have to just take a moment to thank all my zookeeper friends for their absolutely SUPERB owl photos they shared on social media. I didn’t waste nearly enough time looking at all the fluff and cute).
Photo by Susan Burchardt
But Sunday was also a vitally important holiday in the United States. It was Groundhog Day. Without this insane weather prediction holiday, we wouldn’t know when spring will occur this year. Luckily, we have just six more weeks of winter. (I do have to wonder WHEN this became a holiday tradition, because you KNOW this voodoo practice wouldn’t fly in colonial America)
I don’t watch the Super Bowl. Haven’t for many years. But I do appreciate a good Groundhog Day reference, and by that I mean the movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray. If you haven’t seen this film, I don’t know how we can still be friends at this point. Just do yourself a favor and find a copy to watch. You can thank me later (by trying this fun workout).
So, to celebrate Groundhog Day, both the movie, the day, and the Superb Owl that fell on this day, I’ve created a Superb Owl Groundhog Workout.
Like the movie, you will have to repeat this simple workout over and over. Until you can’t. Sometimes they call this style of workout “Death By” but I rarely see it programmed like this.
Superb Owl Groundhog Workout
Set a timer to repeatedly go off every 3 minutes. Perform the exercises in the full workout. Rest the remainder of the 3 minutes. As soon as your 3 minutes are up, go immediately back into the exercises. Repeat every 3 minutes until you cannot complete the exercises in the amount of time.
- 10 Zookeeper Burpees: Combining two of my favorite exercises- burpees and sit-ups. Stand tall and perform a burpee by placing your hands on the ground, and stepping or jumping your feet back to a plank position. Lower yourself all the way to the ground, push-up and step or jump your feet back toward your hands. Instead of jumping up at the end, though, you are going to roll back and do a rolling sit-up, what I refer as an armadillo roll. Then you jump up and do it all over again. Fun times!
- 10 Owl Flyaways-Lay on your stomach, stretching your arms out in front of you. Using your abs and back, lift your legs slightly off the ground along with your arms, chest, and head. Breathe out as you lift up. Breathe in and relax, letting your legs and arms on the ground. One cycle is one repetition.
- 10 Groundhog Pop-up Squat Jumps– Okay, I’ll admit, this one ISN’T my favorite. Groundhog pop-ups are also called Spyhops in ZooFit. Combining a full squat with a jump, it hits you right in the quads. Luckily, you only have to do 10… Stand with your feet about hip width apart, or a little wider for a modification. Keep your chest up and weight more in your heels than your toes, bend your knees and squat to a low stance. On your way up, press with your legs to propel you up and jump as you come to standing.
You can modify by squatting to a chair instead of all the way down, and instead of jumping into the air, you can stand up onto your tip toes before coming back into a squat. Good form is WAY more important than jumping or getting low, so work to your level.
There are several ways to scale this workout is to meet your fitness level. If you cannot complete one cycle of the workout, go down 1 rep of each exercise or until you can complete it. You don’t want too much rest, but enough to try to get at least 4-5 rounds in. If you are easily getting 6 or 7 rounds, or you are resting more than 30 seconds between rounds, increase the rep count of each exercise. Modify the exercises as needed for your level.