CALISTHENICS LEG WORKOUT – Bodyweight Only Leg Day | Day One

Calisthenics Leg Workout – Bodyweight Only Leg Day is another impressive body weight strength workout from Caroline Girvan. She proves you do not need dumbbells to completely fry your legs. This workout was tough! Lots of burn out! Not just for me, but for Caroline, too. She paused many times in the course of this workout to thaw her legs out. This is an intense lower body strength workout. You do need some equipment: a chair, which everyone has, and a yoga block. If you do not have a yoga block you can substitute a thick book. So this is a great travel workout, too! I need to try more of Caroline’s body weight workouts–particularly total body and upper body since I have another long vacation on the horizon. Anyway, just because you are not using dumbbells does not mean this is easy. The real killer for me were the isometrical holds and the pulses. And she hits you right out of the gate with a Bulgarian lunge isometric hold–the very first exercise. She does everything at a slow and controlled pace and she goes deep into the moves. During the intro she encourages you to do the same–to make this workout challenging. And it was definitely a burner for me!

This is a triset workout done interval fashion. What this means is there are 3 exercises that are done back to back before you finally get a rest period. Each exercise is done for 45 seconds (2:15 minutes of work) then you get a 30 second rest/recovery. There is a timer in the upper left hand side of the screen counting down your intervals and recoveries. During the recovery Caroline previews the next triset. There is also a little bar at the bottom of the screen that counts down the entire workout time as a percentage.

Calisthenics Leg Workout – Bodyweight Only Leg Day is 43:09 minutes; 2 minute intro, no warm up and 2 minute stretch. Equipment: chair or high step, yoga block and fitness mat.

Triset 1:

1. Bulgarian lunge hold (back leg is elevated on chair or high step, lower to bottom of lunge and hold isometrically entire interval)
2. Bulgarian lunge pulse (same position as #1 but remain at bottom of lunge, pulse up and down, never fully rising out of lunge)
3. Bulgarian lunge full range (same position as #1 & 2, but this time do a full lunge)
4. 30 second rest
5. Repeat #1-4 on other side of body

Triset 2:

1. Heel elevated squats 1/2 reps (heels are elevated on yoga block, lower to bottom of squat but only raise halfway)
2. Heel elevated squat hold (same position as #1, but lower to bottom of squat and hold isometrically)
3. Heel elevated squats full range
4. 30 second rest
5. Repeat #1-4

Triset 3:

1. Lunge to RDL (lower into a lunge then hinge forward into a single leg RDL raising back leg behind you)
2. Knee tuck (lower into reverse lunge until knee taps the floor then bring back leg forward into a knee raise)
3. Forward lean lunge (static/stationary lunges, torso is hinged forward over front leg)
4. 30 second rest
5. Repeat #1-4 on other side of body

Triset 4:

1. Kneel to squat (stand in front of mat, lower into squat then step back into kneeling lunge then step back foot forward again into squat)
2. Side step narrow to wide squat (step out squats–remaining in squat entire interval, do one narrow then step one foot out to wide squat)
3. Staggered squat (single leg squat with back leg in kickstand)
4. 30 second rest
5. Repeat #1-4 on other side of body

Triset 5:

1. Elevated lunge 1.5 rep (static/stationary lunges with front foot elevated on yoga block, lower to bottom of lunge, raise halfway, lower to bottom of lunge, raise all the way)
2. Elevated lunge hold (same position as #1, lower to bottom of lunge and hold isometrically entire interval)
3. Rear step lunge (reverse lunges, front foot is still elevated on yoga block)
4. 30 second rest
5. Repeat #1-4 on other side of body

Triset 6:

1. Curtsy lunge (stationary/static cross-back lunge)
2. Hold isometrically at bottom of curtsy lunge
3. Curtsy to lunge (alternate one curtsy lunge with one regular lunge–back leg remains behind you the entire interval)
4. 30 second rest
5. Repeat #1-4 on other side of body

Triset 7 (Finisher):

1. Squat on toes 1/2 reps (raise heels so you are balanced on toes, lower to bottom of squat but only raise halfway)
2. Hold (same position as #1 but hold at bottom of squat isometrically entire interval)
3. Full range (same position as #1 & 2 but do a full squat)
4. 30 second rest
5. Repeat #1-3

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