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I recently received a comment on one of the posts requesting help with a workout. Ginger states that she is a runner and horseback rider. Here is part of her comment: “…I work out mostly at home and have a “Power Tower”. (It has a multi-grip pullup bar, push-up handles, and a tricep dip/abs station.) It’s fun to play on, and I’m interested in more body weight workouts on my equipment that even a beginner can do. I am currently getting over an injury so you might want to include posts with mild rehabilitative exercises…”

First I want to address the injury. It is imperative to follow the advice of your physician or physical therapist first and foremost. With that disclaimer aside, I want you to think about building strength in your injured area (again, only after it is healed enough to be ready for use). If it hurts, stop!  If you doctor or physical therapist says not to do it yet, stop! If you have the go ahead, then do it only to what is comfortable. But I want you to do movements that affect that area often. Light weight, small reps, but frequency is the key to SLOWLY building back up your strength in the injured area. Since I don’t know what area is injured, I am going to create a workout without worrying about it. You can substitute in exercises or simply delete them if they hurt or are forbidden by your physical therapist at this time.

The key for me to get you a workout is that it has to be 30-45 minutes long, use bodyweight exercises while incorporating your running, and I definitely want to utilize your Power Tower.  I will have a few suggestions for you if you were to get another piece of equipment such as a Physioball or a Medicine Ball. They are non-expensive and will give you tons of variety immediately. See how to build your own Medicine Ball by clicking here. Just check out my Exercises page and scroll down to Physioball, Medicine Ball, Dumbbells, Heavy Bag, etc and check out some exercises to substitute in or add to your workout.  If you like the one below, you can change it up a bit by adding in the new exercises.

Now incorporating a run may be difficult, but my suggestion is to do some exercises, keeping your heartrate up, then running from whereever your Power Tower is to the outside and go about 1/4 mile (round trip). The run up the stairs and out the door will be part of it 🙂  Return and do more on the Power Tower or bodyweight exercises near it. Then add another 1/4 run in there and return, etc.  For this workout, however, I will make a total workout to be done in the same room as your Power Tower. I will do my best to keep the movements easy…well that’s relative 🙂

I want to quickly address Pull-ups. They are not a man’s exercise!  Let me repeat…they are not a man’s exercise! They are more difficult for women (so are Push-ups), but they need to be worked on just the same. For example, my friend Valerie, who could not do Push-ups without using her knees just a year ago, can now do 25 Military Push-ups no problem. She just kept at them. By the way, you should see her whip out the Burpees!

Ok, so this will be my first attempt at a beginner workout for our runner/horseback rider friend. Here we go: