Low Impact Cardio Crush Intervals is part of AngieFitnessTV‘s 15 Minutes to Fit Series. This morning I decided to stack 3 of Angie’s 15 Minutes to Fit workouts to get an hour long low impact cardio workout and wow! I got an excellent workout! Since I previewed them all in advance, I stacked them in specific order with this workout being easiest/least intense of the 3. The second one appeared to be the most intense so I thought it fit well in the middle (Step Bosu Ball Cardio Intervals) and I ended with the more intermediate of the 3–or the second hardest (Bosu Ball Cardio w/ Light Handweights). I got an excellent cardio workout! With the warm ups and stretches it clocked in at 61 minutes, I burned 458 calories and I was in my peak heart rate 16 minutes and my cardio heart rate 37 minutes. And I projected their difficulty well, too. I never entered my peak heart rate zone on this workout but I was in my cardio zone the majority of the workout. If you want to do something similar and also save some time, skip the warm ups and cool down/stretches of the middle workouts and you can shave 6-12 minutes off your workout time, depending on how many you decide to stack. I have been neglecting focused flexibility lately (outside of physical therapy 3x a week but that is all focused on my left shoulder) so I didn’t want to skip any of Angie’s stretching.
This is a great interval based step cardio workout. You alternate between moves on the step and moves on the floor. Each exercise is done for one minute. I wore my 8 pound vest for this workout. I considered also wearing ankle weights and weighted gloves but since I had two more 15 Minutes to Fit workouts following this I held back. However, in the future, depending on how I use this workout, light ankle weights (my one or two pound ankle weights) and my one pound weighed gloves would add some extra intensity–which, after doing this workout, I felt I needed.
Low Impact Cardio Crush Intervals is 18:48 minutes; 35 minute intro, 3 minute warm up and 3 minute cool down/stretch. Equipment: step @ 8 inches set up vertically. Having done the workout, there is no reason to have it set up vertically if you are more comfortable with the step being horizontal–which I am. I ended up doing all of the moves facing the step horizontally. Angie has it set up that way because you are alternating step work with floor work and her workout space is kind of small. So she needed the room for the floor work. If you have a large space then set the step up however you want.
- Stand beside step, side step up with knee raise then step down with heel tap
- Step the right foot forward and back (on floor)
- Repeat #1 & 2 on other side of body
- Stand behind step, do one basic step + one step while lifting other leg straight behind you (hip extension)
- Step out wide into a partial squat then step back in (on floor)
- Repeat #4 & 5 on other lead leg
- 3 knee repeaters on step
- Alternating knee raises (on the floor) bringing opposite elbow to knee when it is raised
- Repeat #7 on other leg
- Hamstring curls (on the floor)
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