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5 Challenging Workout Finishers

As we adjust to another period of lockdown, we’ve all had to adapt to a new temporary way of living that we never would have expected. Keeping to a routine is important during this time, including staying active at home.

It’s understandable at times that you might lack a little motivation to exercise at home, so we’ve pulled together a few fun workout finisher challenges that you can add to the end of your workout routine.

Here are 5 workout finishers for you to try, along with no equipment needed exercises to choose from as part of the finisher.

  • Burpees
  • Press Ups
  • Squat or Squat Jumps
  • Tricep Press Up
  • Sit Ups
  • Leg Raises

What is a Workout Finisher?

A finisher involves quick, intense bursts of cardio and/or strength exercises and is performed at the end of your regular workout. It is usually between 1 - 10 minutes and allows you to get that last ‘push’ out of a workout.

1. Pyramid Finisher

For this workout finisher pick an exercise and work your way down the reps from 10 – 1.

For example, if you were to choose squats as your finisher, you would start with 10 squats, followed by a short rest, then 9 squats, followed by a short rest, then 8 squats, followed by a short rest and so on until you reach one squat.

For a more advanced pyramid finisher pair two exercises together. For example push ups and burpees. For this you would follow the same pattern completing 10 of each exercise before taking a short rest, moving onto 9 of each exercise, all the way down to 1.

2. Timed Challenge Finisher

For this finisher all you need to do is pick at time, say 5 minutes, and see how many reps of one exercise you can do.  Take a break when needed but remember to keep a track of how many reps you have done. Once you have finished write down your results. Then try and beat this on a future workout.

3. Tabata Finsher

This type of finisher involves 8 sets of 20 seconds of exercise with 10 seconds of rest. That’s just 4 minutes in total for this finisher!

You can either choose 1 exercise for and repeat this during every set or choose a different exercise for each 20 second time period.

4. 100 Rep Finisher

For the 100 rep finisher choose 1 exercise and perform 100 reps. You can take break, but try to keep this minimal. Remember to set a timer before you start and keep a note of your time once you have finished. Aim to beat this next time.

5. Sally Up, Sally Down Finisher

Popular exercises for the Sally Up, Sally Down finisher include Squats, Press Ups, Pull Up and Plank Push-Ups.

For this exercise you’ll need the song Sally Up, Sally Down. You can find this by searching Sally Up, Sally Down on YouTube. To perform this finisher, listen for the words up and down in the song.

For example, if you were to choose squats you would start in a standing squat position, with your feet a little wider than hip width, toes facing forward, this is your up position. When you hear the word down, sit down into a squat position and hold until you hear the word up, you can then move back into a standing squat position. Repeat throughout the song.