How to do Up Downs

Back to Exercises

Difficulty: Medium

Impact Level: High

Target Body Parts: abs, triceps, upper back, chest, shoulders, calves, quadriceps

Instructions

This movement is a combination of running in place and our burpee exercise. Stand on some flat ground and bend your elbows to approximately 90 degrees and keep that at this angle during the exercise. Raise one arm up and lift the opposite foot up at the same time so that your knee comes up to the same height as your hips. Quickly hop from one foot to the other and at the same time swing your front arm back and the other arm forwards and up. As soon as you land onto the other foot, repeat this process of hopping and swinging your arms continuously for four strides.

After your fourth stride, crouch down and put your hands on the floor underneath your shoulders. From there take your weight into your hands and shoulders and jump your feet out behind you to straighten your legs. At the same time, bend your elbows and lower your upper body to the floor like doing a push up – chest in between your hands. This is the bottom point of the movement and should be the same as the bottom point of your push up.

From the bottom press your upper body back up away from the floor, by pushing down with your hands. As this happens, jump your legs in underneath you, landing with your feet at shoulder width. Transfer your bodyweight back into your legs and stand up as if you are doing the upward part of a squat.

Once standing, start running in place again for another 4 strides then do another burpee. Keep switching between running in place and a burpee every 4 strides for the required duration.

How to make Up Downs easier

Make sure you have mastered the individual components of this exercise first by trying our Running in Place and Burpees exercises.

How to make Up Downs more challenging

Increase the intensity of this exercise by swapping the running element of the exercise for four Power Jumps followed by a Burpee and repeat.

Looking to add this exercise to your workouts?

Customize your workouts simply by adding or removing Sworkit exercises. Sign in or sign up to get started.

Try It Out