WORKOUT

This work­out serves as Day 11 of the FB Kick­start 30 Day Pro­gram but can also be com­plet­ed as a stand­alone workout.

Com­plete a low­er body, upper body, and weight­ed core exer­cise in the two total body strength cir­cuits that sand­wich a sin­gle car­dio seg­ment in this rou­tine. Bring your chal­leng­ing weights and men­tal focus!

Focus & Ben­e­fits: We tar­get the low­er body, upper body, and core in each cir­cuit of this total body strength and car­dio rou­tine to max­i­mize our time-in-train­ing. Mov­ing from dis­tal extrem­i­ties (legs to arms) increas­es the phys­i­cal demands on the body, allow­ing us to pack a lot of work into a rel­a­tive­ly short rou­tine. Fur­ther­more, most of the exer­cis­es in this work­out are com­bi­na­tion moves where we com­plete a short sequence of more than one move­ment pat­tern with­in one exer­cise. These com­bi­na­tions not only increase total body mus­cle engage­ment to effi­cient­ly pro­vide a com­pre­hen­sive total body work­out with a small num­ber of exer­cis­es, but they also improve brain stim­u­la­tion and alertness.

Two total body strength cir­cuits sand­wich one car­dio cir­cuit in the mid­dle of the work­out. This car­dio ​“inter­mis­sion” cir­cuit is meant to ele­vate and chal­lenge your heart rate but not burn out all your ener­gy before the final strength cir­cuit. The­o­ret­i­cal­ly, the inclu­sion of some car­dio in the mid­dle of a strength train­ing ses­sion gives your mus­cles a brief respite from the increased con­trac­tile ten­sion required of resis­tance train­ing, allow­ing you to return to your lift­ing segment(s) with con­sis­tent efforts. Strength/​cardio com­bo work­outs also increase over­all caloric expen­di­ture, which is help­ful if weight loss and mus­cle build­ing are tan­dem goals.

Equip­ment: You’ll need your ​“medi­um” to ​“mod­er­ate­ly heavy” weights for the strength cir­cuits of this work­out. The dis­tinc­tion between these two cat­e­gories of heav­i­ness ulti­mate­ly depends on your per­son­al goals and cur­rent lev­el of fit­ness. ​“Medi­um” typ­i­cal­ly refers to weight ranges that are man­age­able for the entire work­ing set where­as ​“mod­er­ate­ly heavy” loads are usu­al­ly dif­fi­cult to hold onto with the same start­ing cadence and form towards the last two to three reps of a set. Lift clos­er to your ​“mod­er­ate­ly heavy” range for a more chal­leng­ing work­out experience.

Bring along a mat as well for your push-ups.

Tips & Help­ful Infor­ma­tion: For the car­dio cir­cuit, focus on qual­i­ty move­ment that fills each work­ing inter­val. Move at a pace and choose exer­cise modifications/​progressions that allow you to speak a few breathy words at a time (we’re not aim­ing for com­plete breath­less­ness here).

Addi­tion­al­ly, although you have 20 sec­onds of tran­si­tion time between exer­cis­es, this is not that much time to both switch out your weights and take your reg­u­la­to­ry breaths. Read the write-up before press­ing play to con­sid­er your weight choic­es for each exer­cise, as we are mov­ing between body extrem­i­ties that typ­i­cal­ly require marked­ly dif­fer­ent weight loads.

Dif­fi­cul­ty & Mod­i­fi­ca­tions Explained: This rou­tine is rat­ed a lev­el 4 because of the com­bi­na­tion exer­cis­es as well as the increased phys­i­cal demands of mov­ing among low­er body, upper body, and weight­ed core exer­cis­es dur­ing one cir­cuit (with the objec­tive of using chal­leng­ing weights). Decrease the over­all work­out inten­si­ty by decreas­ing your range of motion, lowering/​omitting the weights dur­ing the strength cir­cuits, and/​or opt­ing to focus on one of the exer­cise com­po­nents dur­ing a com­bi­na­tion exercise.

Clos­ing Notes: Remem­ber that every work­out doesn’t pro­duce a per­son­al record or per­son­al best per­for­mance. Con­sis­ten­cy, pro­gres­sive train­ing, and a will­ing­ness to improve form and func­tion are the vari­ables that keep you trend­ing in a pos­i­tive direc­tion towards over­all progress. Fall in love with the process of train­ing, acknowl­edge and cel­e­brate your progress along the way, and rec­og­nize that there will always be new ​“end goals!”

Work­out
Warm-Up: 30 sec per exer­cise, no rest between exer­cis­es (5:00)
‑Squat + Alt. Knee Hugs
‑Dead­lift + Low Rows
‑Alt. Reverse Lunges + Over­head Press
‑Inch­worm + Knee Pull-Ins
‑Thread the Nee­dle — R
‑Thread the Nee­dle — L
‑Scapu­lar Push-Up
‑Jump Rope
‑Blastoff Squat
‑Arm Cir­cle Jump­ing Jacks

***30 sec off***

My Weights (not a rec­om­men­da­tion, just a reference):
(Medium/​Moderately Heavy)
‑Low­er Body: 30 lbs. (~14 kg) / 35 lbs. (~16 kg)
‑Upper Body: 15 lbs. (6.8 kg) – 30 lbs. (~14 kg)
‑Core (1 weight): 20 lbs. (9.1 kg) / 25 lbs. (11.3 kg)

Total Body Cir­cuit #1: 45 sec on / 20 sec off / 2 rounds (~6:30)
-(Low­er Body): Dead­lift + 2 Reverse Lunges (both legs)
-(Upper Body): 2 Ham­mer Curls + 2 Over­head Presses
-(Core): Over­head Hold: March (1 weight: round 1 = R / round 2 = L)

***30 sec off***

Car­dio Cir­cuit: 45 sec on / 20 sec off / 2 rounds (~6:30)
‑4 Jump­ing Jacks + 4 Blastoff Squats with Over­head Slam
‑Squat-to-Plank + Squat Thrust (alter­nate)
‑Inch­worm + 8 Moun­tain Climbers

***Water Break***

Total Body Cir­cuit #2: 45 sec on / 20 sec off / 2 rounds (~6:30)
-(Low­er Body): Nar­row Squat + 2 Curt­sy Lunges (both legs)
-(Upper Body): 2 Low Rows + (step to plank) 2 Push-Ups (hands on weights)
-(Core): Lat­er­al Tor­so Pivot/​Woodchop (1 weight)

***30 sec off***

Strength + Car­dio Fin­ish­er: 45 sec on / 15 sec off / 2 rounds (~2:00)
‑Squat + Biceps Curl/​Clean + Over­head Press (quick tempo)

Cool-Down: approx. 30 sec per stretch (approx. 4:00)
‑Quads/​Hip Flex­ors Stretch – R
‑Hamstrings/​Hip Hinge Stretch – R
‑Quads/​Hip Flex­ors Stretch – L
‑Hamstrings/​Hip Hinge Stretch – L
‑Over­head Tri­ceps + Lats Stretch – R
‑Over­head Tri­ceps + Lats Stretch – L
‑Chest Open­er + Tree Hug
– Slow Body Roll-Downs