How to Get a Full Body Workout With a Pair of Paper Plates
Even if your gym reopens, it’s safer to stay at home as much as possible, which is why we’re going to dedicate this month to self-training equipment. Today: a humble paper plate.
Paper plates are a great replacement for sliders. These are usually plastic circles that you place your hands or feet on so that you can do exercises in which your feet (or hands) slide across the floor.
Amazingly, paper plates do the job better than store-bought sliders. A typical pair of sliders will have a hard plastic side that works on carpet and a soft side that works (no scratches) on hardwood floors. Paper plates are great for both. In fact, the plates slide more smoothly across the wood floor in my house than sliders. And you don’t need a special type of plate; the cheapest and simplest paper plates will do.
Upper body exercises
Sliding push-ups are a basic exercise (in fact, every movement of the slider is a basic exercise) with the sliders at your fingertips. Start in a push-up position, then extend your arms slightly wider than your shoulders, do a push-up and return your arms to their original position.
For side crunches, use one paper plate while sitting with one hip on the ground. Watch the video demo here : You place a paper plate under one arm, place your weight on that arm, and allow the arm to move away from your body until you lie down (or as far as you feel comfortable). Then return to the seat.
Lower body exercises
Climbers are a classic slider exercise. Get into a plank position with sliders under your feet and place one foot forward and then the other.
Make it harder by pulling in both legs at the same time, like a tuck. Or keep one foot off the ground all the time and slide the other.
A skater’s lunges use the same muscles as lunges, but the need to control the glide makes them more difficult. Place one foot on the ground and the other on the slider. Lunge forward with this leg, and then lift it again until you stand.
This way you can do any type of lunge, including reverse lunges (the foot of the slider goes behind you) and side lunges.