WORKOUT

Focus & Ben­e­fits: Short on time but want to get your heart rate up with­out the jump? You’re in the right place! This rou­tine brings you a mod­er­ate-inten­si­ty, all-stand­ing car­dio work­out in less than 25 min­utes from start to fin­ish. Exer­cis­es are all body­weight and wrist-friend­ly too, mak­ing this approach­able and effec­tive for almost any­one. All lev­els are wel­come, as mod­i­fi­ca­tions and pro­gres­sions are pro­vid­ed through­out to tai­lor this to what you need today.

Equip­ment: None.

Tips & Help­ful Information:

The for­mat today is fair­ly straight­for­ward so we can stay effi­cient. After a quick 3‑minute warmup, we head into one main cir­cuit of 9 exer­cis­es. We com­plete these for 2 rounds of 40 sec­onds work / 10 sec­onds rest, with addi­tion­al rest between rounds. A brief 3‑minute cooldown will bring the heart rate back down slowly.

I nev­er used to be a fan of low-impact car­dio until I start­ed cre­at­ing these work­outs for Fit­ness Blender. As an ath­lete for most of my life it was always about jump­ing, high-inten­si­ty moves, and push­ing myself to the lim­it. I still enjoy those things (out­side of preg­nan­cy; I filmed this in my 3^rd trimester) but have def­i­nite­ly found a new love for low-impact car­dio. I love it because I don’t feel com­plete­ly deplet­ed after­ward and, since I’ve become a moth­er, I need my ener­gy in many addi­tion­al places. So high-inten­si­ty work­outs most days of the week sim­ply do not fit into the demands of my lifestyle right now. I also love that low-impact body­weight work­outs bring out some new cre­ativ­i­ty in me. Most of these exer­cis­es in today’s work­out are brand new, or com­bi­na­tions of oth­er exercises.

Dif­fi­cul­ty & Mod­i­fi­ca­tions Explained: This is a lev­el 3 of 5 dif­fi­cul­ty due to the low-impact and mod­er­ate-inten­si­ty style of the for­mat and exer­cise selec­tions. Light dumb­bells and/​or ankle weights could take this up to a lev­el 4 while slow­ing the pace and decreas­ing your range of motion could take this down to a lev­el 2.

Clos­ing Note: I’m curi­ous, if you care to share in the com­ments, if you pre­fer high-impact/high-inten­si­ty work­outs or low-impact/­mod­er­ate inten­si­ty (like this one)? Has your evo­lu­tion with train­ing pref­er­ences evolved like mine in dif­fer­ent sea­sons of life?

– WORK­OUT OUTLINE –

Warmup (3:00) — 30 sec each
Box­er Shuffle
Ham­string Curl with Row
Over­head Reach + Cross Step
Toe Reach Sweeps
Side Lunge Shifts
Step Jack

Work­out (15:00) — 40 sec on / 10 sec off; 2 rounds

High Knee Taps
Side Lunge with Reach, alternating
3 Knee Dri­ves + Piv­ot Jab – One Side
3 Knee Dri­ves + Piv­ot Jab – Oth­er Side
Over­head Squat + Butt Kick (2÷2)
Reverse Lunge Hinge + Front Kick – R
Reverse Lunge Hinge + Front Kick – L
Side Walk­ing Jacks + Shuf­fle Back – One Side
Side Walk­ing Jacks + Shuf­fle Back – Oth­er Side

Cooldown (3:00) — 30 sec each
Stand­ing Hip Stretch – R
Quad Stretch – R
Stand­ing Hip Stretch – L
Quad Stretch – L
For­ward Fold
For­ward Fold + Rotation