WORKOUT

Focus & Ben­e­fits: Did some­one ask for a sequel to the 70-minute Total Body 30/30 Strength and Car­dio Cir­cuits work­out? Was that some­one me? If you too want to test your phys­i­cal sta­mi­na and men­tal grit yet again with a half strength/​half car­dio sweat fest, this rou­tine deliv­ers weights, high heart rates, and plen­ty ​“oh my good­ness” moments. We kick off the work­out with approx­i­mate­ly 30 min­utes of strength while your mus­cles are at their fresh­est, giv­ing you the oppor­tu­ni­ty to chal­lenge your weight selec­tions. The com­bi­na­tion moves strength exer­cis­es are paired togeth­er as super­sets, mean­ing that you will com­plete both exer­cis­es back-to-back with min­i­mal rest between the two while tar­get­ing sim­i­lar mus­cle groups. I tried to be thought­ful with my sequenc­ing and exer­cise pair­ings so that you can use the same set of weights for both exer­cis­es in a super­set (min­i­miz­ing the need to switch weights dur­ing the quick 10-sec­ond transitions).

The sec­ond half of the work­out includes body­weight-only endurance-focused car­dio cir­cuits designed to test your heart and lungs but not spike your heart rate to the point of anaer­o­bic efforts. Thus, you’re focus for the sec­ond half of the work­out is to main­tain a con­sis­tent­ly ele­vat­ed, but man­age­able heart rate through­out the rough­ly 30-minute segment.

This rou­tine is a great way to con­quer a strength and car­dio work­out in one train­ing ses­sion when you have both the time and physical/​mental readi­ness to com­mit to a long workout!

Equip­ment: You’ll need a range of weights from light to mod­er­ate­ly heavy for the first half of the work­out. Your weight selec­tions will most like­ly not be your heav­i­est loads as we are tack­ling com­bi­na­tion exer­cis­es and a high vol­ume of work; there­fore, rely on your per­ceived exer­tion, cur­rent fit­ness lev­el, and your per­son­al train­ing goals to deter­mine the heav­i­ness range of your weights. A mat might also be help­ful for the plank/​prone posi­tion exer­cis­es dur­ing the fin­ish­er (yep, there is a fin­ish­er) as well as the cool-down.

Tips & Help­ful Infor­ma­tion: Pace your­self! Although you can main­tain a goal of chal­leng­ing your­self through­out this work­out, be mind­ful that we are ​“work­ing” for rough­ly an hour (exclud­ing the warm-up and cool-down). Strik­ing a bal­ance between test­ing your lim­its and reserv­ing some of your ener­gy to com­plete the entire work­out is a con­tin­u­ous feat of tri­al and error, lis­ten­ing to your body, and trust­ing your own intu­ition. You’ll get there!

Dif­fi­cul­ty & Mod­i­fi­ca­tions Explained: This work­out is rat­ed as a lev­el 5 because it is mean. All jokes aside, the lengthy dura­tion, super­set com­bi­na­tion exer­cise for­mat for the strength seg­ment, and pro­gres­sive­ly dif­fi­cult endurance-based car­dio cir­cuits are all con­tribut­ing fac­tors to the inten­si­ty lev­el rat­ing. Focus on one com­po­nent of each com­bi­na­tion exer­cise, slow your cadence, decrease your range of motion, omit the jumps dur­ing the car­dio, and/​or pause the video to catch your breath when­ev­er need­ed to decrease the work­out dif­fi­cul­ty. You can also cut the work­out in half, choos­ing to tack­le either the strength or car­dio por­tion on one day and then com­plete the oth­er por­tion on the next (just make sure to include the warm-up and cool-down on both days!). Mut­ter­ing some­what evil things to me at the screen can also be helpful.

Clos­ing Notes: As always, have fun and remem­ber that move­ment, even when it chal­lenges us, is meant to be enjoyable.

Work­out
Warm-Up: 30 sec per exer­cise, no rest between exer­cis­es (6:00)
‑Squat + Over­head Sweep (sweep while in squat)
‑Zom­bie March
‑Alt. Reverse Lunges + Shoul­der Squeeze (palms down)
‑Twist­ing SL Kick­stand Dead­lift + Curt­sy Lunge – R
‑Twist­ing SL Kick­stand Dead­lift + Curt­sy Lunge – L
‑Inch­worm
‑Kneel­ing Runner’s Lunge + Thread the Nee­dle – R (R leg for­ward / L arm threads)
‑Kneel­ing Runner’s Lunge + Thread the Nee­dle – L (L leg for­ward / R arm threads)
‑Push-Up + Alt. Side Planks
‑Jump Rope + Feet Shuffles
‑Squat + Squat Jump
‑For­ward Swing Jump­ing Jacks

***30 sec off***

My Weights (not a rec­om­men­da­tion, just a reference):
‑Light: 10 lbs. (4.5 kg) – 12 lbs. (5.4 kg)
‑Medi­um: 15 lbs. (6.8 kg)
‑Mod­er­ate­ly Heavy: 25 lbs. (11.3 kg)

STRENGTH SEG­MENT: Approx. 30 Minutes
For­mat: 45 sec on / 10 sec off / 3x – 30 sec off between rounds (~7:00 per superset)

Super­set #1:
‑½-Pulse Front Squat + Over­head Strict Press
‑Reverse Lunges + Arnold Press (com­plete both lunges then press when stand­ing tall)

***30 sec off***

Super­set #2:
‑½-Pulse Dead­lift + Low Row (row at low­est range of motion OR halfway range)
‑Alt. SL Kick­stand Dead­lifts + Dumb­bell Drag (palms up)

***30 sec of***

Super­set #3:
‑Calf Raise + Forward/​Back Tip­toe + Lat­er­al Raise (raise while feet are ground­ed after tiptoe)
‑Iso Squat + 2 For­ward Rais­es (pause in squat to com­plete raises)

***30 sec off***

Super­set #4:
‑Alt. Iso Curt­sy Lunges + 3 Ham­mer Curls (pause in lunge to com­plete curls)
‑Alt. Lat­er­al Lunges + Rota­tion­al Biceps Curls (curl center)

***Water Break***

CAR­DIO SEG­MENT: Approx. 30 Minutes
For­mat: 20 sec on, no rest between the first three exer­cis­es. Rest 15 sec. 60 sec on for the fourth exer­cise. Rest 15 sec and repeat for a total of 3 rounds per cir­cuit (~7:30 per cir­cuit; but also, who let me do this?)

Car­dio Cir­cuit #1:
‑Skaters
‑Heis­man Shuffle
‑Lat­er­al Shuf­fles + Touchdown
***15 sec off***
‑Com­bo – 60 sec: 4 Skaters + 4 Heis­man Shuf­fles + 4 Lat­er­al Shuf­fles + Touchdowns

***45 sec off***

Car­dio Cir­cuit #2:
‑Squat Cross-Jack Touchdowns
‑Squat Thrusts
‑Bear Crawl Jog
***15 sec off***
‑Com­bo – 60 sec: 4 Squat Cross-Jack Touch­downs + 4 Squat Thrusts + 4 Bear Crawl Jogs

***45 sec off***

Car­dio Cir­cuit #3:
‑2 Jacks + 2 Front Kicks (both legs)
‑In-and-Out Fast Feet
‑Twist­ing Squat Jumps
***15 sec off***
‑Com­bo – 60 sec: [2 Jacks + 2 Front Kicks] + 4 In-and-Out Fast Feet + 4 Twist­ing Squat Jumps

***45 sec off***

Low Impact Car­dio Fin­ish­er: 30 sec on / 10 sec off / 2 rounds (~4:00)
‑Alt. Rota­tion­al Knee Dri­ves with Over­head Pulls
‑Low Squat-to-Plank + 6 Shoul­der Taps (tap in plank)
‑Full Plank: 3 Quick Step-Ins + 1 Push-Up

Cool-Down: approx. 30 sec per stretch (approx. 6:00)
(a small gift from me – you don’t have to leave the mat)
‑Child’s Pose + Hip Shift – R
‑Child’s Pose + Hip Shift – L
‑Cat-Cow
‑Down-Dog + Feet Pedals
‑Kneel­ing Runner’s Lunge + Tor­so Rota­tion – R
‑1/​2‑Pigeon – R
‑Kneel­ing Runner’s Lunge + Tor­so Rota­tion – L
‑1/​2‑Pigeon – L
‑Pup­py Pose + Triceps/​Lats Stretch (pat back) – R
‑Pup­py Pose + Triceps/​Lats Stretch (pat back) – L
‑Seat­ed: Side Bend + Reach (obliques stretch) – R
‑Seat­ed: Side Bend + Reach (obliques stretch) – L