Tips: Imagine the feeling of being sandwiched between two panes of glass. Keep your hips from rotating and your body from leaning forward until you twist. Maintain a zipped up connection in your lower abs–like you’re zipping up a pair of jeans after a Thanksgiving feast!

Tips: Don’t feel rushed, which can cause your movements to muddle and feel unstable. Take your time and focus on pain-free ranges of motion. And at the end, realize how awesome you can feel in just five minutes with the right exercise!

Tips: The more muscles that are working and engaged during exercise, the more calories we burn. This exercise gets all your body parts moving–and reduces impact–for effective results!

Tips: Don’t let your ego cause an injury. Allow yourself time to build strength and endurance. We often get injured when we get tired, lose focus, or push the limits to an unhealthy extreme. (Peer pressure, anyone?) Instead, challenge yourself–within reason–and keep breathing!

Tips: The yin to the yang! Why does this workout, which focuses on stretching, matter just as much as the others to accomplish your fitness goals? Because your body needs both muscle- and cardio-building workouts as well as stretching and recovery sets. 

The most established and obvious benefit of stretching is to help improve flexibility and range of motion. But stretching also increases blood flow to the muscles, and that reduces muscle soreness and helps to speed recovery from muscle and joint injuries. Stretching also helps keep the spine in better alignment and improve overall posture–this is key to good form in exercise.