Nerd workout! Inspired by Black Widow of the Avengers

Posted: May 28, 2012 | Author: fitnerd | Filed under: Home workout, Nerdiness | Tags: avengers, black, chair, clean, crunch, jump lunge, kick, leg, lifts, oblique, press, pushups, side, squat, tire run, twist, widow | Leave a comment »

Happy Memorial Day everyone! As it’s Monday, I wanted to do a nerd workout. As it’s Memorial Day, this nerd workout fits the theme of fighting for America, if you’ve seen the Avengers movie, which probably most of you have. Today the home workout is inspired by Black Widow. There are two fight scenes Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow is famous for, one from the Iron Man 2 movie, and one from the beginning of the Avengers movie (so if you haven’t seen it, not too much to spoil here).

Here’s the Avengers one:

And the Iron Man 2 one:

As you can see, she uses her core to twist her body to and from people, and her legs to squat, jump, and kick, among other things. All of that, including the chair, will be used in the workout. I do use some equipment – the sandbag – in this workout, but I will provide other options for that exercise. You will also need an interval timer – get a Seconds Free app on your phone, or get an interval timer from online – they aren’t expensive and really are incredibly useful for working out. I’m hoping to ramp up the workouts here from now on. It’s officially basically summer, so let’s make a last drive to get in shape for the summer – and for any of you Dragoncon folks – if you wanna get fit for a costume, let’s start now!

21 rounds

10 second off, 50 seconds hard as you can

7 exercises – 3 times through

Squat chair kick – squat down to the chair and kick up – in case of future hostage situations 20 / 20 / 19

Side leg lifts right – with all her kicking, she needs legs to be strong from all sides 23 / 21 / 21

Side leg lifts left 20 / 21 / 24

Tire run (x 10) and pushup – run away and get up from enemies 6.5 / 6.5 / 7

Clean and press – build up your arms, legs, core, to fight and punch enemies 8 / ? / 11

Jump lung and twist – build up strength and agility for her signature twisting moves 12 / 14 / 12

Oblique crunch – again – with all her twisting, focus on strengthening areas that are important for those moves 24 / 25 / 29

Note SGU in the background of these pictures haha

Squat chair kick

Use your hands as necessary, but I tried not to once I got going. Use the chair not to actually sit on, but just a guide to where to squat down to, then powerfully, stand up and kick one leg as high and strong as you can. That is one rep. Squat down and kick with the other leg for the next rep. If you don’t want to use a chair, then just squat and kick. Make sure if you place your weight on the chair that it is stable and won’t slide.

Side leg lifts right

Kneel on your knees, placing on leg out to the right. Lift this leg up to be parallel to the floor. That’s one rep.

Side leg lifts left

Do all the things above, just on the left side, with left leg.

Tire run (x 10) and pushup

With your legs about hip width apart, act like you are running through the tire obstacle course. Lift your legs up ten times, each knee up one rep. After you do that as fast as you can, drop down to the floor and do a pushup, modifying as necessary. Jump up to do the tire run again. Each tire run and pushup is one rep.

Clean and press

This is one exercise that requires equipment for it to be effective, so if you don’t have a sandbag, then choose between jump squats or pushups. (If you are doing jump squats, squat, and jump as high as you can) Neither are exactly the same effect, but are good alternates. If you do have a sandbag or something that could be used in the same way, start with standing with your sandbag. Then squat and using your hips and your motion of your body, lift the sand bag and flip it over so that it’s resting on your arms. Then, powering up from your squat, lift the bag over your head, again using your motion to help you with this. There are different ways of gripping the sandbag I found online – overhand, underhand, and even using the handles I didn’t use. I’m not sure of the “correct” way, though the way that is more like a bar would be starting off overhand. Do what feels comfortable I guess.

Jump lunge and twist

I did this with a sandbag to add challenge, (and oh, it did), but this is just as super challenging without. Jump lunges are never not challenging. Anyway, start out in lunge. Jump and switch leg positions. Twist your body to the side that has the leg in front. Each switch and twist is one rep. Add a weight if you can and would like to.

Oblique crunch

Lift your legs up from the floor to the ceiling. Crunch up and point your arms out to one side of your legs. One rep. Next rep, crunch to the other side of your legs.

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