Donkey Kicks: Boot Camp Move to Try Today! [Plus Bonus Circus Trick!]

Boot camp at our Y is the personal trainers’ class to try out every crazy, painful and downright evil move they don’t dare use on their paying customers. Case in point: The Trainer Pull. Trainer Riley squats on two sliding discs, hands me two resistance bands like reins and then has me pull him up and down the main hallway of the gym on wet carpet. I love you guys so I’m not going to make you do that. (Plus it would entail you finding some poor schmuck who’s going to let you lug him around a public venue with the off chance you let go of one of the bands and smack him in the face. Which I totally did to Riley. He took it like a champ!)
Today’s move, the Donkey Kick, is brought to you by Trainer Jim. You don’t need any equipment except a wall and a lack of pride! This move will really burn out your quads but you’ll feel it in your shoulders and core as well.
Step 1:

Kneel down in front of a wall, with your butt facing the wall and your toes just touching. Push up so you are crouched on your hands and toes. Note: this is a perfect moment for a wardrobe malfunction! The first time we did these I was testing out the SKINS and because of their super, um, compression (think toothpaste being squeezed out of a tube) I had on a really lose top. Which waited until I was upside down on the wall to slide up to my pits. Thankfully everyone else was upside down too so nobody could see me… until Trainer Jim called a time out just for me to fix my shirt. Thank heavens for sports bras!
Step 2:
Jump both feet up onto the wall. Then back to the ground. Up. Down. Up. Down. As fast as you can for 30 seconds. (1 minute if you’re feeling frisky). Don’t forget to throw in a couple of “hee-haw”s to amuse any onlookers. (If you squint really hard you can see the cuts in my upper arm from all that new muscle I’ve been building thanks to Rachel Cosgrove and this month’s Experiment!)
Bonus Circus Move: The quad push-up
Trainer Jim wasn’t done with us yet! He had us lay down in a grid formation overlapping feet and butts. Yes, butts – if you put your feet on the other person’s lower back you will crush them and cause them great pain. (I’m still sorry Gym Buddy Megan!!)
And then, on the count of three (decide who will be counting to three, and whether or not that means go on three or count three and then go, and who has gas and so forth BEFORE you start) PUSH UP! Ta-Da!!!

Many thanks to Gym Buddies Jeni (she of the fantastic cleavage – sorry girl, only shot we got!), Allison, Megan (in the first push-up pic) and Daria (in the second push-up pic) for repeating this about ten times until we got a decent shot and to Krista for taking the pics!

What is your favorite hard-core boot camp move? Did you try the Donkey Kicks? (Do it! It’s fun, I swear!!) Got a circus trick for the Gym Buddies and I to try?
Written with love by Charlotte Hilton Andersen for The Great Fitness Experiment (c) 2010. If you enjoyed this, please check out my new book for more of my crazy antics and uncomfortable over-shares!

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