How to Do a Scorpion Stretch and Why Your Hips and Back Will Love It Laura Williams Bustos, MS, ACSM EP-C
5 Plank Variations for a Full-Body Workout
Replay Video
Stretch like a scorpion
If you ve ever come face-to-face with a live scorpion, you know a glimpse of its stinger is enough to make you flee.
The scorpion stretch is designed to mimic the appearance of a scorpion not to deliver a system-shocking sting.
The big question you re probably asking right about now is, Why would I want to emulate a venomous creature?
Because it provides a killer stretch pun intended.
Medically Reviewed
People with mesomorph body types tend to see big gains from strength and interval-type workouts. But longer cardio training is important, too.
Jakob Lagerstedt/Stocksy
How do you know if you have a mesomorphbody type? You might love Tabata and other high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts, but find long bouts of cardio arduous. You may naturally enjoy the weight room because that’s where your strengths no pun intended lie.
“A mesomorph is generally defined as someone who has a body type that has a high level of muscle and strength,” says Adam Feit, the head strength and sports psychology coach for Precision Nutrition in Springfield, Massachusetts. Now, perhaps you don’t have lots of muscle at the moment because you’ve been inactive for a while. But you know if you did start working out, you would gain muscle relatively easily.
What Is Peripheral Heart Action (PHA) Training?
According to the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), PHA training is similar to circuit training in that you move from exercise to exercise with little to no rest, but with PHA training, you purposely alternate between upper- and lower-body movements.
“The blood circulates between your upper and lower body and builds better muscle strength and endurance because you can maximize your efforts you aren’t maxing out on one muscle group for too long,” Tamir says.
While the upper-to-lower-body format of a PHA workout is fixed, there’s room to play with the structure of it, according to Thomas. You can do a timed workout (for example, 1 to 3 sets of 30 seconds or 1 minute per exercise with 0 to 2 minutes rest between sets), or you can work by sets and reps (for example, 2 to 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps with 0 to 2 mins rest between sets).