Stride & Strength is a free YouTube workout from Jessica Smith. She says it is a walking workout w/ strength training intervals. It is a very good total body workout. I actually did it as an add on after another of Jessica’s walking strength workouts: Get Strong!: Stepping Strength. Stepping Strength was more intense/metabolic than this workout and also more comprehensive, so this worked very nicely to round it out. But this is still a great metabolic strength workout on its own. I was actually pretty worn out when I came to this workout (Stepping Strength worked me hard!) so I am glad it wasn’t super intense.
Because Jessica is doing this workout live there is some rep count issues. I think she meant to do 16 reps of each exercise but I was counting and sometimes it was 20+ reps and sometimes 17. But when she actually counted aloud she got the reps correct and you did 16 reps. So I think that was what she intended for everything. However because there is frequently so many reps, your muscles can get burned out pretty quickly. But if you come to the workout with the intention of doing 16 reps of each set and then stopping even if Jessica doesn’t, you can probably lift heavier. For the first set of upper body exercises I used 7 pound dumbbells but when we repeated them all, I had to drop to 5 pound dumbbells because my arms were too fatigued. Again, I had already done Stepping Strength so maybe that wouldn’t have been the case if I came to this workout fresh. For the hammer curls and tricep kickbacks you are doing brisk partial reps, staying on the high end of the exercise, so you have lift lighter to keep pace with her. Plus, since there is always tension on the muscle, they do start burning.
Stride & Strength is 36 minutes; 6:30 minute warm up and 5 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells (Jessica recommends 2-15 pounds and she is using 5 pound dumbbells). The dumbbells listed below are what I used. You are either marching in place or step tapping side to side between each move.
- Step tap side to side; add alternating overhead press (7# DBs)
- Alternating knee lifts w/ hammer curls (7# DBs)
- Alternating tap backs; add double arm tricep kickbacks (7# DBs)
- Repeat #1-3 (5# DBs)
- Single leg squat (Jessica is holding both DBs in one hand, same side as the working leg) (one 20# DB)
- Hold at bottom of squat and do a single arm back row (one 20# DB)
- Repeat 5 & 6 on other side of body
- Wide plie squats; add front scoops (pushing DBs from hips to in front of body, palms facing ceiling) (5# DBs)
- Repeat #5 & 6
- Repeat #7
- Repeat #8
Set DBs on floor.
- Double side steps on a diagonal; add twisting torso to the side with each step
- Front knee raise then step, remaining on same leg; add crunching toward knee when you raise it (arms are behind head)
- Repeat 1 & 2 on other side of body
- Alternate tapping toes out to side; changes to lifting legs out to side instead of tapping
- Lift and lower one leg out to side of body, flexing and pointing foot; add pulling same side arm from overhead, bringing elbow down to hip as you raise leg
- Repeat #4
- Repeat #5 on other side of body
For more info on JessicaSmithTV and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.
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