1 Hour Low Impact Full Body Workout at Home | Bodyweight Only is a long body weight strength workout from Caroline Girvan. She proves you need little to no equipment to get a great total body strength workout. This workout is set up in circuits. Every 8-10 exercises (8-10 minutes) you will do a circuit of 5 core exercises (5 minutes). The workout ends with a 2 minute plank hold. The core circuit is the same 5 exercises every time you do it but the strength exercises are all different/no repeats. There are 4 strength circuits and the core circuit is repeated 4 times. The 3rd time the core circuit is repeated I felt the difference in my body. My legs and quads were fatigued and holding my legs up for the first 2 core exercises was much more challenging than it was the first two times we did the core circuit! The first strength circuit is lower body, the second strength circuit is upper body, the 3rd strength circuit is back to lower body and the 4th and final strength circuit is a mixture of lower body, total body and balance work. Balance work is great for you and everyone should do it, but I have 2 plates and 12 screws in each heel (drunk driver hit me head on 15 year ago), so my balance is tenuous. So I had a chair nearby to assist with some of the balance moves.
This workout is done interval style: each exercise is done for 50 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest. There is a timer in the upper left hand corner of the screen counting down your intervals and recoveries. When there is 10 seconds left of an exercise Caroline starts previewing the next exercise. This carries over into the recovery so you get 20 seconds of preview. There is no progress bar at the bottom of the screen like there is in her later workouts and I did miss this but she alerts you with words on the screen at the halfway mark and again when there is 10 minutes left of the workout. During the intro she gives form pointers for one of the exercises that I found very helpful.
1 Hour Low Impact Full Body Workout at Home | Bodyweight Only is 65:05; 2:10 minute intro, no warm up and 2 minute stretch. Equipment: yoga block and a fitness mat. You also need a wall for wall squats. I also used heel wedges and had a chair nearby for balance.
- Heel elevated squat (heels elevated on yoga block, I used heel wedges)
- 1/2 rep elevated squats (lower to bottom of squat but only raise halfway)
- Uneven squat (wide squat, one foot is on yoga block)
- Repeat #3 on other side of body
- Sumo squat
- Lunge to sumo (do one sumo squat then pivot to side into a lunge, pivot back into sumo squat then pivot to other side into a lunge)
- Curtsy to rear lunge (in static lunge, move back foot from rear curtsy lunge to regular lunge and back)
- Repeat #7 on other side of body
- Table top side crunch (lay on back, knees bent and feet raised, crunch upper body while reaching both hands past one leg)
- Repeat #9 reaching hands to other side of body
- Crunch pulses (lay on back, knees bent and feet on mat, crunch upper body, reaching hands up past knees; she also shows a variation w/ hands behind head)
- Tuck to hollow (lay on back, crunch upper body, bringing knees into chest, tap hands to heels, extend legs out straight a few inches off the floor while also extending arms overhead a few inches off the floor)
- Leg lower (lay on back, raise straight legs to ceiling, lower straight legs until they are a few inches off the floor then raise them back to start)
- Uneven push up (one hand on yoga block)
- Repeat #14 with yoga block under other hand
- Plank up and down (alternate straight arm plank with forearm plank)
- Pike push up
- Scapular push up (in straight arm plank, do scapular retractions, lowering chest while keeping arms straight and bringing shoulder blades together then round spine)
- Push up to side plank (one hand is on the yoga block, do one push up then rotate into side plank, raise hand that is not on yoga block to ceiling)
- Repeat #19 on other side of body
- Reverse snow angels (lay on stomach, raise head/chest, extend arms in front of you, sweep them out to sides bringing hands beside glutes)
- Diamond push ups (tricep push ups, hands are together under chest so that hands form a diamond)
- Cobra push ups (lay on stomach on mat with hands on mat under shoulders, push up upper body only cobra-style, hips remain on mat)
- Repeat #9-13
- Lateral lunges (alternating stationary side lunges)
- Foot elevated lunge (stationary lunge, front foot is elevated on yoga block)
- Foot elevated pulsing lunge
- Repeat #26 & 27 on other side of body
- Foot elevated curtsy lunge (static curtsy lunge, front foot is elevated on yoga block)
- Repeat #29 on other side of body
- Low squat walks (hold squat isometrically and lateral walk 5 steps to side and back)
- Wall squat
- Alternating reverse lunges (pulse 5x while in lunge)
- Repeat #9-13
- Hinge balance (balance on one leg, hinge forward raising other leg behind you, return to upright, raised leg never touches the ground as you raise knee in front of you)
- Repeat #35 on other side of the body
- Knee tuck saw to single leg raise (in straight arm plank, bring one knee under body, shift hips back into 3 legged down dog, bending knee and opening hip)
- Repeat #37 on other side of body
- 3 point balance (balance on one leg, raise other leg behind you then to the side then in front of you, when changing directions foot never touches the ground)
- Repeat #39 on other side of body
- X over squats (balance on one leg, other ankle is cross over knee, do single leg squats in this position)
- Repeat #41 on other side of body
- Standing leg extension (balance on one leg, raise other leg in front of you with knee bent, from this starting position, extend leg straight in front of you then bend knee)
- Repeat #43 on other side of the body
- Repeat #9-13
- Hold elbow plank for 2 minutes
For more info on Caroline Girvan’s workouts and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.
