This Workout is Painful but Really Works!

It took me 2 days to recover from this workout but I highly recommend it. I got it from Shape Magazine.

The workout says to choose the cardio yourself. You can do any kind of cardio you want. I have the Sharper Image Mini Step & Flex (which is an AMAZING piece of workout equipment, I recommend everyone checking that out as well) so I use it for my cardio during this routine.

Cario Warmup- 0 to 3 mins

Cardio- 3 to 6 mins

Calisthenics: (I use 8lb weights during these)

Squats- 6 to 7 mins

Pushups- 7 to 8 mins

Lunges- 8 to 9 mins

Pile Squats (feet wide)- 9 to 10 mins

Tricep Dips- 10 to 11 mins

Cardio- 12 to 18 mins

REPEAT CALISTHENICS- 18 to 24 mins

Cardio- 24 to 30 mins

REPEAT CALISTHENICS- 30 to 36 mins

Cool Down & Stretch- 36 to 40 mins


And you're done!!!

It's a really intense workout but I love it.

what are calisthenics?

Examples of calisthenic exercises include:

• Sit-ups/crunches: Start with your back on the floor, knees bent, bottoms of feet against the floor. Lift shoulders off the floor by tightening abdominal muscles bringing your chest closer to your knees. Lower back to the floor with a smooth movement.

• Push-ups: Start face down on floor, palms against floor under shoulders, toes curled up against floor. Push up with arms keeping a straight line from head through toes. Lower to within a few inches off floor and repeat. You should keep your head tilted upward, your back straight. Do not rest on your shoulder blades, even when you feel fatigue.

• Squats: Stand with feet shoulder width apart. Squat as far as possible bringing your arms forward parallel to the floor. Return to standing position. Repeat. Again, if you feel like this is not a challenge, there are other forms of squats. One method is lifting one leg off the floor in front of you, putting both arms in front of you for balance, and squatting. This is a one-legged squat or pistol.

So the calisthenics in the exercise I posted would be the: Squats, Push-ups, Lunges, Pile Squats, and Tricep Dips.

Hope this helps!!! :)

Did they say how many calories would be burned during this exercise?

Also, I'm glad you posted. I have a freakin' library of Shape, Fitness etc magazines and I know they have a bunch of those minute to minute workouts. I've just been too lazy to search through them all.

I do a cardio mix class at the comm college that incorporates this type of routine but we do 5 minutes cardio then some light weights for a few reps maybe doing bicep / hammer curls then 5 minutes of cardio then 5 minutes of weights etc.... until we've done 45 minutes then the last 10 - 15 minutes is ab and stretching.  When we do the cardio I get in the 85- 90% zone often and then the weights slow me down and ready for the next cardio.  Its also almost like a HIIT workout but scaled down a bit.

On days I really push myself I can burn 500 - 600 cals during the class I am 47 weight 170 lbs on average.

What are pile squats? I could look it up online but i'm being lazy. lol

I do something similar to these workouts, I got it from Prevention.com.  It's called the 3-2-1 workout, and has you do:

3-5 min warm-up, 3 min cardio (your choice, grapevine, jumping jacks, etc), 2 min strengthening (squats, push-ups, etc), 1 min abs (standing crunch, leg raises, etc), cycle thru the 3-2-1 minute thing 5 times for a 30-minute workout followed by a cool-down of 3-5 minutes.  If you really want to challenge yourself do it twice for an hour-long workout (I'm not brave enough for that yet, nor do I have the time)

In each 2-min strengthening circuit you're working a different part of your body so you've worked out your whole body in 30 minutes.  The plus: your heart rate stays elevated because there's no rest in between the cardio, strengthening & abs so you get maximum calorie burn.  I'm 5'3.5", 41 yrs old and burn about 250 calories each workout.  Since there are weights involved I only do it 2-3 times/week and try to do cardio another 2 days/week.

e1ys3, are you really spending up to 3 hours exercising when you do this workout?  I added up the max number of minutes from top to bottom & I come up with 202 minutes of exercise!  I wouldn't be able to move afterward!  Can you clarify things for me?

suzigirl, what month/issue is that in. I get that mag and never really look at them. I would like to find it in my pile of unopened prevention magazines.

did you mean "plié squats" as in ballet-style?

It burns approx. 385 calories!

suzigirl- No, it's a 40 min exercise. That isn't the amount of time to do each part of the exercise, it's the time during the exercise. For example: you start at 0 minutes to 3 minutes doing warm-up, then at 4 minutes you switch to cardio, etc. 

7 to 8 minutes of pushups? 10 to 11 minutes of tricep dips? Pulleez! Are there even 2% of the women on this site that could do any of that? Not me and I'm a weight-lifter.

cherylcs -- it's my understanding that you'd only be doing the pushups for 1 minute -- from minute 7 to minute 8 of the total 40 minutes. Right?

becb- YES! :)

Ah! that makes so much more sense! Thanks!