Workouts — Page 32

Guided Cool Down — Post-Workout Stretches

March 28, 2019 by Nicole Leave a Comment

This guided cool down will take you just under 20 minutes. It’s perfect to do after a workout! There is some dynamic stretching, but the real focus is on static stretches held for 30 seconds each. We’ll hit the major muscle groups, showing some extra love to hips and shoulders.

Every body is different. You may have muscle imbalances or nagging injuries that require additional attention before and after a workout. This is a general guided cool down—I encourage you to add stretches and foam rolling as needed.

Guided Cool Down

I get it. If you’re strapped on time and squeezing in a quick workout, the cool down/stretching is the first thing to get scrapped. I’m guilty of doing it sometimes, too! But it’s SO IMPORTANT. Taking the time to stretch and recover after a workout is vital for staying injury-free.

Start your workout with one of my warm up videos (5-Minute Warm Up or Gentle 7-Minute Warm Up) and finish it off with this guided cool down. Yes, it will take a little more time, but your body will thank you and you’ll be all the more ready to take on your next workout. 🙂

If you’re looking for a guided cool down that’s a little shorter, I do have a 10-minute stretching video for runners. It’s great for non-runners, too, but focuses mostly on lower body.

I’ll have a new workout for you guys on Tuesday. I’m on a plane to Vegas for a friend’s bachelorette party right now, so I’m trying to be realistic here. A Monday morning post after a redeye home Sunday night just isn’t going to happen lol.

Before I sign off, I want to thank everyone who has subscribed to my YouTube channel! I’m nearing 25K subscribers and plan to do a giveaway to celebrate when I get there.

xo Nicole

Filed Under: Stretching, Video, Workouts Tagged With: cool down, stretching

Gentle Warm Up for At-Home Workouts

March 25, 2019 by Nicole Leave a Comment

A couple years ago, I posted a 5-minute warm up for at-home workouts. While it’s a big hit on YouTube (over 1.5 million views!), I get lots of comments on the video saying it’s a little too intense. So for anyone looking for a toned down version of that video, today’s gentle warm up is for you.

It’s similar to the original warm up, but we’ll slow down the pace and eliminate all jumping during the cardio portion. It’ll take you 7 minutes to complete.

Gentle Warm Up for At-Home Workouts

The goal of a warm up is to gradually bring your heart rate up and to prepare your body for the range of motion required for the exercises you’re about to complete. So we’ll start with about 2 minutes of gentle cardio. You’ll cycle through four exercises twice, staying on each for 15 seconds. We’ll then move into dynamic or active stretches, doing 3-5 reps of each movement.

This is a general gentle warm up. If you’re working with specific muscle imbalances or injuries, you may need to spend more time addressing those through targeted dynamic stretches or even foam rolling. Always listen to your body, modifying or stopping as needed.

Hope this gentle warm up is a better match for what your body needs if you found my previous warm up to be too intense! I put together a guided cool down as well, which I’ll post later this week. You get two videos instead of once since neither is an actual workout.

I’ve been getting lots of requests lately, so here’s what you can look forward to in the coming weeks:

Stepper workouts
Workouts with heavy weight
Another deck of cards workout
Another arm song workout

Always open to requests so feel free to send ’em my way! Also working on Studio Pumps class pack #2. 🙂

xo Nicole

Filed Under: Stretching, Video, Workouts

Step HIIT Workout for Lower Body – 15 Minutes

March 18, 2019 by Nicole 1 Comment

Step HIIT Workout for Lower Body - This HIIT workout uses a step bench and weight to burn out the lower body. #stepper #hiit #lowerbodyworkout #stepworkout

This step hiit workout will take you just under 15 minutes to complete and targets lower body. I’m using a cube stepper, but a longer step bench works great, too.

When I was home visiting my parents last week on the Vineyard, I shot a bunch of stepper workouts. I keep my step bench there because I have zero space in my apartment. I know not all of you have a stepper, so I’ll spread out publishing the workouts I shot using mine. In between will be bodyweight, resistance band, etc. workouts.

Step HIIT Workout for Lower Body

EQUIPMENT I USED:

Stepper (a step bench works, too) – I’m using all four risers; use fewer to make the exercises easier.
1 heavy weight (or two medium weights) – I’m using a 20-lb dumbbell, scale up or down to match your fitness level. A kettlebell or medicine ball would work, too.

This step hiit workout uses an interval structure of 30 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest. You’ll go through five exercises a total of four times. The middle three exercises in the circuit isolate one leg. The first time through the circuit, do them all on the left leg. Second time through, all on the right leg. And so on.

If you’re following along with the video, at the halfway point, I give you 30 seconds of recovery instead of 10 seconds.

As with all workouts, you want to make sure you’re properly warmed up beforehand. Always listen to your body, modifying or stopping as needed.

Step HIIT Workout Breakdown

See 1:31 in the above video for a preview of all the exercises and how to modify them.

Squat to Sit – This is the one exercise that will be more challenging if you use fewer risers on your step bench. If your bench is too low to sit down completely, just do a regular weighted squat.
Uneven Squat Pulse to Step Up – Use the weight for this one unless modifying.
Uneven Squat Hop to Step Up – This builds off of the previous exercise, adding in more explosive movement and ditching the weight.
Pistol Squat – If you’re advanced, do this with the weight.
Up ‘N Overs

If you enjoyed this workout, I have a couple other lower body stepper workouts you’d love:

xo Nicole

Filed Under: Hand Weights/Dumbbells, Interval Training, Lower Body, Step Bench, Video, Workouts Tagged With: stepper