WORKOUT

Focus & Ben­e­fits: You’ll tar­get the low­er body, upper body, and core in each cir­cuit of this effi­cient total body strength train­ing rou­tine designed to help you chal­lenge your mus­cles with­out requir­ing your heav­i­est weight options. Mov­ing through dis­tal body parts with­in each cir­cuit forces your car­dio­vas­cu­lar sys­tem to quick­ly adapt to shift­ing its sup­ply of blood and oxy­gen from one set of non-prox­i­mal mus­cle groups to the next. You’ll learn that breath reg­u­la­tion (deep, mea­sured breath­ing in through the nose and out through the mouth) will help improve your abil­i­ty to switch between com­pet­ing mus­cle demands as well as help you incre­men­tal­ly increase your weight loads for each exer­cise dur­ing sub­se­quent rounds of each cir­cuit and/​or future attempts at this workout.

Equip­ment: You’ll need a vari­ety of weight ranges rel­a­tive to what you typ­i­cal­ly use for low­er body, upper body, and weight­ed core strength rou­tines. The weight loads should feel mod­er­ate­ly heavy for each exer­cise – you’re not nec­es­sar­i­ly aim­ing to lift to fail­ure or at a max­i­mum effort, but you should feel suf­fi­cient­ly chal­lenged to com­plete your remain­ing reps dur­ing the last 15 sec­onds of each work inter­val. A mat is also help­ful for any on-floor exercises.

Tips & Help­ful Infor­ma­tion: Although the tran­si­tions between exer­cis­es are 20 sec­onds long, review the write-up before press­ing play to con­sid­er your weight choic­es for each exer­cise as we will be fre­quent­ly switch­ing between extrem­i­ties with­in a cir­cuit. Our low­er body, upper body, and core weight selec­tions can vary quite a bit; there­fore, set­ting up your weight selec­tions ahead of time and/​or men­tal­ly hav­ing an idea of your weight choic­es will be help­ful to mak­ing this a pleas­ant work­out experience.

Dif­fi­cul­ty & Mod­i­fi­ca­tions Explained: This rou­tine is rat­ed as a lev­el 4 because of the com­plex­i­ty of a few of the exer­cise vari­a­tions as well as the chal­lenge of rotat­ing between low­er body, upper body, and weight­ed core moves.

Clos­ing Notes: Remem­ber, dis­tinc­tions for your weight loads are rel­a­tive to the work­out, your train­ing goals, and how you feel on any giv­en day. The ​“medi­um” and ​“mod­er­ate­ly heavy” labels men­tioned through­out this work­out could vary for you each time you com­plete this work­out. Learn­ing how to gauge your per­ceived exer­tion is a great way to chal­lenge your­self while still enjoy­ing your workout.

Have fun!

Work­out
Warm-Up: 30 sec per exer­cise, no rest between exer­cis­es (5:00)
‑Alt. Knee Hugs
‑Squat + Hip Shifts
‑SL Twist­ing Dead­lift – R
‑SL Twist­ing Dead­lift – L
‑Inch­worm + Rene­gade Rows
‑Push-Ups + Alt. Side Planks
‑Glute Bridge March
‑Iso Glute Bridge Hold
‑Jog-in-Place + Over­head Presses
‑Alli­ga­tor Jump­ing Jacks

***30 sec off***

My Weights (not a rec­om­men­da­tion, just a ref­er­ence): Medium/​Moderately Heavy
‑Low­er Body: 30 lbs. (13.6 kg) – 35 lbs. (~16 kg)
‑Upper Body: 15 lbs. (6.8 kg) – 20 lbs. (9.1 kg)
‑Core: 20 lbs. (9.1 kg) – 35 lbs. (16 kg)

Cir­cuit For­mat: 45 sec on / 20 sec off / 3 rounds

Cir­cuit #1: (9:30)
-(Low­er Body): Squat + 2 Reverse Lunges (both legs)
-(Upper Body): Over­head Press (neu­tral) + Arnold Press
-(Core): Split Rack Farmer’s Car­ry (round 1 = R / round 2 = L / round 3 = R/L)

***30 sec off***

Cir­cuit #2: (9:30)
-(Low­er Body): Alt. Curt­sy Lunges + Dead­lift (cen­ter)
-(Upper Body): Biceps Curl + Ham­mer Curl
-(Core): Stand­ing Wood­chops (round 1 = R / round 2 = L / round 3 = R/L)

***Water Break***

Cir­cuit #3: (9:30)
-(Low­er Body): Glute Bridge + Leg Exten­sions (both legs, extend in bridge)
-(Upper Body): Rene­gade Rows + 2 Push-Ups (row each side before com­plet­ing push-up)
-(Core): Iso Chest Press/​Crunch + Flut­ter Kicks

***30 sec off***

Plank Fin­ish­er: 30 sec on / 10 sec off / 2 rounds (4:00)
‑Fore­arm Side Plank – R
‑Fore­arm Side Plank – L
‑Fore­arm Plank

Cool-Down: approx. 30 sec per stretch (approx. 5:00)
‑Child’s Pose + Reach Thru- R
‑Child’s Pose + Reach Thru – L
‑Pup­py Pose + Dou­ble Tri­ceps Stretch (pat self on the back)
−1÷2 Pigeon Pose – R
‑Adduc­tor Rock – R
−1÷2 Pigeon Pose – L
‑Adduc­tor Rock – L
‑Down-Dog + Feet Pedals
‑Seat­ed: Chest Open­er Stretch (hands behind body)
‑Seat­ed: (legs extend­ed) For­ward Fold/​Legs Hug