WORKOUT

Focus & Ben­e­fits: Today, we will focus on total body strength with low-impact exer­cis­es. Low-impact strength train­ing offers a vari­ety of ben­e­fits. It is gen­tler on the joints than high-impact exer­cis­es, min­i­miz­ing stress on the knees, hips, and ankles, poten­tial­ly reduc­ing the risk of injuries. Many low-impact strength exer­cis­es pri­or­i­tize sta­bil­i­ty and bal­ance, engag­ing those impor­tant sta­bi­liz­ing mus­cles and chal­leng­ing your body’s pro­pri­o­cep­tion. Low-impact strength train­ing is appro­pri­ate for all fit­ness lev­els and can pos­i­tive­ly affect men­tal health. Addi­tion­al­ly, because these exer­cis­es put less stress on the body, they allow for more con­sis­tent train­ing with few­er rest days need­ed, pro­mot­ing long-term adher­ence to an exer­cise routine.

Equip­ment: An exer­cise mat and a set of dumb­bells. I use three sets of dumb­bells in this rou­tine, but if you only have one set, that is more than okay!

Tips & Help­ful Infor­ma­tion: This 29-minute work­out has a 4.5‑minute warm-up and a cool-down of the same length at the end. The body of the work­out is about 16.5 min­utes with no repeats. We per­form each exer­cise for 40 sec­onds and then rest for 10 sec­onds. Ten sec­onds is a quick turn­around time! While there is no offi­cial water break dur­ing this work­out, I let you know when we are halfway through so you can hit pause if you need to.

Even though this is not a Pilates-based rou­tine, I men­tion the rib-to-hip con­nec­tion and want to give you more infor­ma­tion on it. That means engag­ing your abdom­i­nals to bring your ribs clos­er to your hips or pelvis with­out round­ing for­ward or arch­ing your spine back­ward. Keep your spine straight, chest up, and rib cage down. When the ribs and hips are ​“con­nect­ed,” you are in a neu­tral spine position.

Dif­fi­cul­ty & Mod­i­fi­ca­tions Explained: This work­out is list­ed as a ³⁄₅ dif­fi­cul­ty; how­ev­er, and this is one of the best qual­i­ties of strength train­ing rou­tines, you can make it a ²⁄₅ or a 5/5, depend­ing on the weights you use. So, if you want to make an exer­cise feel less chal­leng­ing, decrease the amount of weight you are using. If you want it to feel more dif­fi­cult, increase your weight. But remem­ber, only increase your weight if you can per­form the exer­cise through the full range of motion and with prop­er form.

Here are some oth­er ideas for modifications:

• Squats, lunges, dead­lifts: make the motion small­er, e.g., don’t go down as far.
• Push-Ups: You can do these off a wall, coun­ter­top, or on your knees on the floor.
• Side Plank variations: 
  • both knees bent
  • bot­tom knee bent, top leg straight
  • both legs straight with one foot in front of the other
  • both legs straight, with feet stacked
• Plank Knee to Elbow/​Wrist variations: 
  • remove wrist and just do knee to elbow
  • slow moun­tain climbers
  • hold plank position

Clos­ing Notes: I hope you enjoy this rou­tine. Thanks for work­ing out with me – Hap­py Exercising!

WORK­OUT
Warm-Up: 35 sec­onds each (4.5 minutes)

• Alter­nat­ing Knee Pulls
• Good Morn­ings
• Swan Dive Walk Downs
• Box­er Shuffle
• Reach Up Squats
• Dead­lift Ws
• Alter­nat­ing Lat­er­al Lunge
• Mod­i­fied Jacks

Work­out: 40 sec­onds on // 10 sec­onds off (16.5 minutes)

• Gob­let Squats
• Curl Over­head Press
• Reverse Lunge + 2 Puls­es – R
• Reverse Lunge + 2 Puls­es – L
• Over­head Tri­cep Ext
• Dead­lift
• Sin­gle Arm Thrusters – R
• Sin­gle Arm Thrusters – L
• Push-Ups
• Dead­lift Rows

Halfway! Hit pause if you want a water break.

• Cac­tus Presses
• Tri­cep Push-Ups
• Dead­lift Reverse Lunge
• Sumo Squat Upright Row
• Bridges
• Dead­bugs
• Reverse Sin­gle-Leg Stretch
• Side Plank Hip Dips – R
• Side Plank Hip Dips – L
• Plank Alter­nat­ing Knee to Elbow/​Wrist

Cool-Down: 35 sec­onds each (4.5 minutes)

• Rock­ing Run­ners Lunge – R
• Rock­ing Run­ners Lunge – L
• Down Dog
• Pir­i­formis – R
• Pir­i­formis – L
• Ham­string – B
• Mer­maid – R
• Mer­maid – L