Get this sequence done early in the day to get your week started with a burst of energy:

Down dog into a plank, hold for 5 seconds, then 6-10 push-ups (unbroken)
Down dog into a plank, hold for 5 seconds, then 10 mountain-climbers (each leg)
Down dog into a plank, hold for 5 seconds, then 6-10 push-ups
20 squats
5 high jumps or tuck jumps
Stretch your arms way up towards the sky and count 5 full breaths

Repeat. 5 rounds total.

When in your plank, for a bit of extra extra, squeeze your glutes (that’s your butt) like you’re making a panini between them. To keep your alignment, you’ll need to squeeze your quads hard too.

Also, get your dumbbells this week if you’ve not done so already. We’ll start incorporating them next Monday. Choose a weight that’s difficult (but possible) to do 5 shoulder presses.

For Day 4 of our Push-ups + Poems challenge, we turn to Audre Lorde. Before it was the title of a collection of her essays and speeches (1984), Sister Outsider was a poem, in Lorde’s Black Unicorn collection. Here it is.

Sister Outsider
Audre Lorde (The Black Unicorn 1978)

We were born in a poor time
never touching
each other’s hunger
never
sharing our crusts
in fear
the bread became enemy.

Now we raise our children
to respect themselves
as well as each other.

Now you have made loneliness
holy and useful
and no longer needed
now
your light shines very brightly
but I want you
to know
your darkness also
rich
and beyond fear.