Day 1 opens the program with the exercise the whole month is built around. The circuit is 20 jumping jacks, 20 half jacks, 20 jumping jacks and 20 side jacks: work through all four in order without stopping and that is one set, then rest 2 minutes and repeat. Level I is 3 sets, Level II is 5, Level III is 7, and that structure holds for all 30 days - so pick the level you can complete today, not the one you would like to be able to complete, and move up when a level stops testing you. All rep counts on the cards are totals: 20 side jacks means 10 to each side, alternating.
Jumping jacks need little introduction: from feet together and arms at your sides, jump the feet out wide as the arms swing up to meet overhead, then jump back and bring the arms down. Half jacks keep the jump and remove the arms - feet in, feet out, hands staying at your sides - which drops the effort a notch and gives the shoulders a break between the two full blocks. Side jacks close the circuit standing in a wide stance with no jump at all: one arm reaches up and over toward the opposite side while the other hand rests on the hip, then you lean the other way and switch. Two jumping blocks, one bounce-only block and one standing block, in that order, so the intensity peaks in the middle of the circuit and eases at the end.
Land softly on the balls of your feet through both jumping exercises, and keep the arms travelling their full arc rather than a lazy half-lift. On half jacks, resist the urge to speed up so much that the feet barely separate - a real jump out and a real jump back. In side jacks, lean from the waist and reach with straight fingers; the further the arm reaches over, the more the trunk works.
Eighty reps to open the month, and the pattern is already set: jump, breathe, repeat.
Make it Harder: Turn the half jacks into full jumping jacks so the circuit is 60 jumping jacks straight before the side jacks.
Make it Easier: Do the jumping jacks and half jacks as step-out jacks - one foot at a time, no jump - and keep the side jacks as written.
