My dog Bella and his cousin Vinny are training for an upcoming charity event to support the local Humane Society. They are doing wall squats and prisoner squats to get their glutes, hamstrings, and quadriceps ready for race day.

Here’s a brief video demonstration of these two exercises:

To preform wall squats like the dog in this video:

• Stand with your back against the wall. Plant your feet in front of your body with a shoulder width stance, toes pointing forward.
• Lean against the wall lowering your body until your knees are flexed at a 90 degree angle, keeping your weight in your ankles. Extend your legs to elevate your body back to the starting position and repeat.

Variations: Hold dumbbells when preforming these squats, use a stability ball positioned between the wall and your back, do static holds in the squat position for 30-60 seconds.

To preform prisoner squats like the man in this video:

• Stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and lace your fingers behind your head.
• Keep your elbows back while bending at the hips and knees to lower your body until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Press back up to the starting position and repeat.

Variations: Boost the intensity by adding an explosive jump on the way back up from the squat position.

I highly recommend consulting with your doctor or your vet before preforming either exercise if you have trick knees, a bad back, or a fluffy tail.

Now Bella, Vinny, and I are off to get some water, we had a ruff workout!