Barlates: Gentle Home Workouts/Cardio Sculpt

Cardio Sculpt is part of Linda @ Barlates Gentle Home Workout Series. I really enjoyed this workout. I have enjoyed all of Linda’s Gentle Home Workouts but this one may be my favorite so far. I use these workouts as recovery day workouts. I just read over my review for her Gentle Home Workouts: Combinations and I could pretty much say the same thing about this workout. It’s not a beginner workout but I do think it is accessible to beginners. Linda does suggest modifications for some of the moves. It is more intermediate level but unlike many of Linda’s advanced workouts she does not rep you out. But I never felt like she was skimping on reps either. I felt well worked and even started to get a burn in whatever muscle group Linda was working by the end of the exercise. This workout is a low impact workout. It worked me nicely but also left me feeling really good at the end. Even though you are using light hand weights, they are only to increase the intensity of the short cardio intervals, so I would categorize this as a metabolic bodyweight strength workout. I am loving the Gentle Home Workout series. They are perfect recovery day workouts. I am using them on my yoga Sundays so I have been finishing them off with an Essentrics/Classical Stretch workout. And that works well, but there are other options if you are like me and workout for an hour every morning. Linda has some other wonderful feel good workouts that would be perfect to use with these workouts to round out your hour. Her Warm & Stretch workouts (Standing, Ball, Upper, Mat). They are all less than 30 minutes (21-27 minutes) and they are even gentler than these workouts so they would work perfectly to finish these off.

There are several ways you can do Linda’s workouts. You can purchase the Gentle Home Workouts DVD like I did, you can do Cardio Sculpt for free on YouTube and you can also purchase the download from Linda. There are 4 workouts in Linda’s Gentle Home Workouts Series. This workout, Walking, Combinations and Barre.

Cardio Sculpt is 40:30 minutes; 1 minute intro, 3:45 minute warm up and 4 minute stretch. Equipment: chair, fitness mat and light hand weights. Linda is using 1 pound hand weights.

1. (pick up DBs) Stand in wide stance and do alternating cross punches
2. Alternating upper cuts
3. Alternating hook punches
4. Do a little low impact prance jog with single arm speed bag
5. (set DBs aside) Rear curtsy lunge + squat bringing elbows to knees then stand while raising one knee and also reaching both arms overhead
6. Keep one leg stationary, hinge forward at waist and step other leg forward and back transferring your weight into the foot that is stepping
7. Knee repeaters
8. Start in lunge position, cross leg back to curtsy lunge, reaching fingertips to floor then return to lunge, alternate these two lunge variations
9. (pick up DBs) Fast heel jog (low impact) while punching one arm/DB to the front and to the side
10. Repeat #5-8
11. Shift hop side to side while punching arms/DBs forward and to sides
12. In wide plie squat, do single arm high/low punches to the side while also pulse squatting; changes to both arms punching high/low to the front and sides
13. Little hop jog while alternating raising and lowering arms
14. Lateral skaters, punching DBs down towards feet
15. (set one DB aside) Stand beside the chair, one hand on chair back, heels together and toes turned out, raise up on toes while keeping heels pressed together, lower into a partial squat and hold isometrically, reach other arm still holding DB overhead, and do side bends over chair back; add a deeper squat to the side bend
16. Lower heels to floor and extend one leg out to side, same side arm/DB raised overhead, do a side knee raise while bringing same side elbow to thigh and when you lower leg do a side bend reaching arm overhead/chair back; add a pulse when knee is at thigh and extend leg out to side (toe no longer tapping floor)
17. Still standing beside chair, one hand still on chair back, leg furthest away from chair is in front of you, knee bent and insole facing ceiling, arm w/ DB is raised to shoulder level with elbow facing in front of you and DB near your ear, raise bent leg while also crunching torso forward so elbow taps knee
18. Repeat #15-17 on other side of body
19. (set chair aside and get other DB) Wide plie squat pulses with front punches (start holding DBs beside ribs with eblows behind you, palms facing ceiling, do alternating front punches, rotating hands so palms face the floor when punching
20. Stand with legs wide in a partial squat and hinge forward at waist, do tricep kickbacks while doing small squat pulses
21. Curtsy lunges pulses while hinged forward and doing rear delt flys
22. Repeat curtsy lunge pulses on other leg but this time arms are turned so pinky side of hand faces ceiling, hinge forward slightly and raise straight arms out to sides and pulse at top of fly while pulsing in curtsy lunge
23. Keep legs in curtsy lunge position but no more pulsing, fly arms out to sides and hold, bend elbows swinging DBs to shoulders, straighten arms again then lower arms
24. Stand with one leg extended on front of you, toe pointed and on floor, arms are extended in front of you at shoulder level and held stationary, do alternating bicep curls in this position bringing DB to shoulder
25. Repeat #24 with other leg extended, arms in same position but this time hands/DBs are in hammer curl position (still bringing DBs to shoulders)
26. Stand with feet slightly apart, heels facing each other and toes turned out, raise heels and lower into a partial squat and hold isometrically, circle arms/DBs around bringing them into goal post then bring elbows/DBs together in front of chest
27. (set DBs aside) Get on all 4s, alternate one side hydrant + one back hydrant (behind you)
28. Still on all 4s, extend one straight leg across other leg behind you with toes pointed, hold the leg in this position, bend knee bringing heel to glute, extend leg straight again then return leg to starting position
29. Repeat #27 & 28 on other leg

For more info on Barlates and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.