Low Impact Cardio for Beginners is another metabolic cardio workout from Heather Robertson. This one caught my eye because of the word “beginners” in the title. Not because I am a beginner but because I am looking for a Heather Robertson workout I can do after my surgery (in 2 days!). I need something that uses light dumbbells, is low impact and has no plank based moves. As it turns out, this fits that criteria perfectly. Doing it today I used heavier weights for a few of the exercises than I will be able to use after the surgery but that’s okay. I will just use lighter weights. Not a big deal. Especially since by the end of this workout by shoulders were burning! I will say this is not my favorite of Heather’s workouts. I like all of the exercises but there are only 6 of them and you run through them 3 times. You usually get a bit more variety in Heather’s workouts than what this one offers. But that’s okay. I haven’t even had the surgery yet and I am already going through withdraw at the very thought of not doing one of Heather’s workouts for 4 weeks! So now I have this one and actually a few others I sussed out so I can still get my Heather Robertson workout fix even while recovering.
This workout, used in combination with 2 of her other workouts this morning, actually created an excellent 66 minute metabolic cardio workout. I created a folder/playlist specifically for this morning’s workouts and stacked the workouts I planned to do in the order I planned to do them so they played straight through from beginning to end. I started with Burn Fat Fast // Low Impact Fat Burning HIIT Workout since it has it’s own warm up. After that I went straight into this workout and followed it with her 12 Minute Kettlebell Tabata then I ended it all with her Recovery Workout // Strength + Relaxation Routine. And all together, I got a killer workout. (With the Recovery workout my total workout time was 79 minutes)
This workout is made up of one circuit consisting of 6 exercises that is repeated 3 times. Each exercise is done for 45 seconds with 15 seconds of rest. There is a counter in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, counting down your interval. During the 15 second recovery between exercises, the next exercise is featured in a rectangle in the center of the screen along with a clock, counting down the 15 seconds.
Low Impact Cardio for Beginners is 19 minutes; 1 minute intro and last 40 seconds is Heather talking. Equipment: light dumbbells. Heather used the same set of weights for the entire workout. The weights listed below are what I used.
- Squat + Twist (holding DBs at shoulder level, squat and when you stand, raise one knee across body, tapping opposite elbow to knee, alternate sides with a squat between each knee raise) (8# DBs)
- Speed Skater (lateral skaters, tapping floor with finger tips while in curtsy lunge)
- Step Jacks (low jacks while pushing DBs straight overhead) (5# DBs)
- Lunge + Press (stationary lunge, pressing DBs overhead at bottom of lunge) (5# DBs)
- Lunge + Curl (stationary lunge w/ bicep curls–other leg) (8# DBs)
- Shadow Box (in split stance, alternate punching DBs in front of you) (3# DBs)
- Repeat #1-6 two more times
For more info on Heather Robertson’s workouts and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.
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