Hi, I'm Laurie Hernandez and welcome back to Cirque It Out.
I'm here in Las Vegas, home to some of Cirque du Soleil's greatest shows.
Stick with me as we go through the paces
with one of Cirque du Soleil's elite performers and their coach.
Ready to work out the CirqueWay? Let's Cirque It Out.
You should consult your physician before starting this
or any other fitness program to determine if it is right for your needs.
Do not start this fitness program if your physician
or health care provider advises against it.
If you experience faintness, dizziness, pain or shortness of breath
at any time while exercising, you should stop immediately.
Today we'll be working out with Jordan
and Performance Conditioning Specialist Rich Kylie.
Jordan plays the Eleanor Rigby character in Cirque's production of The Beatles LOVE.
LOVE is a show filled with dancing, acrobatics and the music from The Beatles.
In this episode, we're going to concentrate on something a little different: dance.
Often when people think about Cirque, they think acrobatics.
But dance is a huge part of every beautifully choreographed show.
- Hi Jordan, hi Rich. - Hi.
- Are we ready to Cirque It Out today? - Let's do it.
Today's workout is a full-body workout with a focus on stability
and muscular endurance.
We'll use a series of mini circuits that contain an upper body,
lower body and core exercise with high reps,
low weight and short rest times.
- Are you ready to get started? - Yeah.
Well first, we need to do some dynamic movement prep.
We're gonna start with a PVC pipe or a wooden stick, [PVC Pipe or Wooden Stick]
doing some shoulder mobility.
She's gonna go back and forth five times
and then she's gonna go around the world with it
a few times each side.
What I love about this,
we're just naturally getting the shoulders nice and warm,
getting them ready to just do some extra work.
And throughout this movement prep, we like to progress slowly.
So it starts off easy, gets a little bit harder
and then we try to get the heart rate up a little bit before we get started.
Getting it ready for just some higher intensity work that we're about to do.
Perfect.
Next up, we're gonna do a dynamic inchworm with a push up;
she's gonna do five of these.
Alright, first thing is she's gonna bend at the waist,
walk it out,
do a push up
and then tiptoe her feet back up to the top.
Then she's gonna turn around and do it again. We're gonna repeat this five times.
What I love about this one is we're stretching out the hamstrings,
getting the shoulders ready, the chest ready for some extra work.
Perfect.
As she walks out and then she does her push up,
I like to keep her on the balls of her feet
so we can get a nice calf stretch in addition
to a hamstring stretch as well on this one.
So if she just goes on her tiptoes,
she'll get primarily the hamstring.
But if she walks a little bit more on the balls of her feet,
that helps get the calves ready as well.
Perfect.
Now we're gonna get our heart rate up just a little bit more.
So now we're gonna do ten squats;
we're gonna get your heart rate up a little bit more
and get you ready for the workout.
[10 Squats] So ten squats—feet just about hip width,
shoulder width, depending on what you prefer;
toes pointed slightly out,
and her butt is gonna help lead the movement as she goes down.
Go ahead, Jordan. Perfect.
You notice the weight is on her heels here,
nice flat back.
Awesome.
And that's a good pace.
And then her breathing pattern on this is gonna be breathing in on the way down,
out on the way up.
Good. And we're gonna be watching our knees,
hoping that they're not gonna go over our toes;
that's why leading the movement with our butt
helps keep the weight on those heels.
Alright, now we're ready for a workout.
[Workout]
So our first mini circuit is gonna include a set of lunges,
dumbbell presses on a stability ball
and dead bugs.
So what's great about circuit training is, if you have a friend,
we can do it together.
So first, Jordan is gonna be doing lunges;
she's gonna be doing 12 each leg, so 24 in total.
And Laurie is gonna be doing her dumbbell presses on the ball,
12 in total right there.
Alright, so let's get started.
So you notice first with Jordan,
she's taking a step out, weight is on her heel,
knee is behind the toes, perfect straight back,
looking great.
Laurie, doing her dumbbell presses,
hips are up in a hip bridge
and she's just pressing in a straight line,
acting like she's trying to bend a bar, as if she had a straight bar there.
Perfect.
And the breathing patterns on these—in on the way down,
out on the way up for both exercises.
Perfect.
Alright, let's switch
and then we'll do dead bugs together.
Good.
Perfect, Laurie.
As she's taking a step out, weight is on her heel
and she's driving through the floor as she pushes back up in that position.
So if you're having trouble with the lunge,
a great option would be just to go into a split squat position
or take off weights and just do body weight.
If you feel like it's a little too easy,
go ahead and add more weight or do walking lunges.
Alright, next let's do our dead bugs.
On our back, hands and feet in the air.
Good, just like that.
When they lay down, there's gonna be a natural arch in their back,
they're gonna pull that arch
out of their back by pulling their belly button to the floor.
And then they're gonna go opposite arm, opposite leg, reaching nice and slow.
Just like that.
We're gonna do 12 reps,
taking a deep breath in as we're going down
and exhaling as we go back up.
I love this exercise because it works on both muscular endurance
and core stability,
which is much needed for our artists with Cirque.
And if you're having trouble with this exercise,
go ahead and just do one single leg reach to the floor,
you don't have to add the arm motion;
just reach with your heel with a nice bent leg
and touch the floor.
Or if that's a little easy,
add more reps or go ahead and hold a weight over your head just as you go down.
We're looking pretty strong and stable right now.
- Twelve? - Yep.
Perfect.
Our second circuit is gonna contain a series of hip bridges, [12 Hip Bridges]
plank elbow taps [12 Plank Elbow Taps]
and half kneeling presses. [12 Half Kneeling Presses]
So first, let's get started on our hip bridges. [12 Hip Bridges]
We're gonna be doing 12 of each.
First thing we're gonna be doing is single-leg hip bridges.
You notice that they're driving through the heel,
hips are going high into the ceiling.
Perfect. We're gonna be doing 12 reps on each side.
Perfect.
Once they get 12 they're gonna switch.
Awesome.
Make sure we're breathing in and out,
getting that oxygen flowing.
Perfect.
We're gonna go into our half kneeling presses. [12 Half Kneeling Presses]
Up, good. Just like that, pressing in a straight line.
Good. Hand either to your side or it can be straight out.
Perfect. If you're having trouble controlling your core on this one,
go ahead and put your hand on your leg or your hip;
it helps stabilize the core.
What I love about this one is we can work on both shoulder
and core at the same time. If we take our hand off,
we'll switch sides, 12 again.
And then hands to the side, make it a little more difficult. Good.
We're looking for an upright torso as they're pressing up and down.
Again, breathing pattern on this—in on the way down, out on the way up.
Last one—plank elbow taps. [12 Plank Elbow Taps]
We're gonna do 12 in total.
For you, let's just hold until she finishes her reps.
So we're going on her, okay?
Jordan is gonna do a harder version where she's gonna do shoulder taps;
she's going a little bit higher than the elbows.
Alright, go ahead.
Good.
And you'll notice as you get better at this,
your torso will move less,
you'll be able to just keep it nice and stable,
you'll be able to move a little bit slower.
But in this case, I think Laurie is telling her to hurry up so that the push up ends.
Alright, our third and last circuit, we're gonna do two exercises.
We're gonna do a bodyweight squat [Bodyweight Squat]
and bent over dumbbell rows. [Bent Over Dumbbell Rows]
We're gonna do 30 seconds each
and we're just gonna cycle through two times—get her good and tired
before she's done.
Alright, so let's get started—I'll time you. Go ahead.
Now here she's just gonna do as many squats as she can in 30 seconds, alright.
She's just gonna rep them out
because right now we're just trying to burn it out,
get our heart rate up, make us work harder.
Good. Really reach down, let's get our depth.
Yeah, perfect.
Force yourself to get just a little bit uncomfortable in these situations—
with good form, obviously.
Weight on the heels.
Perfect. And time. Right into our dumbbell rows.
She's gonna bend at the waist first;
bend a little bit more at the waist,
there you go right there. Go ahead. Timers go.
Control that breathing.
We've got ten seconds.
Looking great.
Hopefully, she's gonna try to beat her reps
from her first set and her second set; we'll see how she's doing.
Perfect.
Control that breathing. She's got ten seconds.
Looking great.
And time.
Back to our body weight squats.
Ready, and go.
Good. She's gonna rep these out.
Lead the movement with your butt, drive in back, good.
What we're gonna be watching for is making sure that the knees
don't track over the toes.
If you feel like they start to,
maybe try decreasing the depth that you're going first.
You feel like you're getting squat down, go ahead and really get that depth.
Reach down and back, good.
Just a few more seconds.
And time.
One last dumbbell row.
Let's see if we can beat our numbers from before.
Ready? And go.
Looking great.
I think she's gonna beat it.
Good. We're gonna breathe in as we pull.
Our breathing is a little bit opposite on this one,
when we push sometimes when we pull as well,
and the breathing is gonna switch.
In this case, she's gonna breathe in as she pulls up
and breathe out as she goes back down.
Five seconds.
Let's see if we can get a few more.
And time.
Crushed it.
Alright, it's time to cool down.
Just like we spent time doing a dynamic movement prep,
we also need to spend time getting in some cool down methods.
So in this case, I always love to have my artist
hop on a foam roller and start to roll out some of those areas that we just worked.
In this case, we hit pretty much everything, so I think it's fair to say
that she can probably spend some time foam rolling everything.
A good rule of thumb is, I like to spend about
30 seconds on each area that I'm rolling.
If it's really sore, spend a little bit more time
and then once we get done foam rolling, always have a stretch after that.
Because my artists are pretty much all flexible
and they want to keep that flexibility,
so it's always a good practice once we're done foam rolling
to stretch some of those muscles that we just worked.
I don't know if I can do that one like her, but...
And each artist will have a different stretching method;
you know, sometimes they'll spend more time or less time doing something,
I typically like to hold stretches for about 30 seconds.
Stretching and holding for that 30 seconds
is just gonna be really important in letting those muscle fibres
get back to where they were.
Looking great.
Jordan, great work today, now that we're done with the workout.
Thanks Rich, but I gotta go— I have two shows to do. See ya!
Cirque It Out A Fitness Series by Cirque du Soleil
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