High intensity cardio circuit ft. step box exercises
Let Kris J Simpson and Caroline from Bodies by Design Personal Training Studios show you how to perform a high intensity cardio circuit using step boxes.
Hey, Y’all. KJ Simpson here, here with Caroline. We’re at Bodies By Design Personal Training, and we have a five minute super high-intensity cardio circuit using step box exercises!!
What you need for this one is a step box. This is a Reebok step. It comes with the risers, and you can also do this at home. You can have any stable piece of furniture essentially. It could be a box like the one we have over here. And they sell what’s called a plyo box over here, as well, so lots of different ways of doing it. I do want to caution you though if you’re going to be using some sort of box that you have to be aware that you could skin your shins. We’ve seen that happen before. We don’t want that to happen to you. So really this is the safest plastic type of step, and it’s very, very stable that you could use. But without any further ado, let’s get into this super high-intensity cardio circuit using step box exercises. Caroline’s going to demonstrate for us here today. Starting off with exercise number one of five, it’s the simple step. The thing is with these step box exercises, along with a lot of different activities, you can increase the intensity just by increasing the speed. So because this is a cardio-based exercise, if you want to get more cardio benefit out of it, you have to speed things up here. We’re going to get into now a high knee step-up. So merely alternating the legs and raising that knee as high as possible. Now, I want Caroline to amp this up a little bit here and get the intensity cooked up, and we are going to get a bit of a jump on her foot. As you can see here, just rise off of the step. Make sure that you always land on the step. Again, these exercises can be a little dangerous. Okay, here we are at the halfway point. This is exercise number three. This is the pushup. You can also do a modified pushup if the regular pushups are just too complicated for you. So knees on the ground instead of feet and pushing up. So as you can see, a nice linear line from her shoulders to her hips to her knees and merely pushing up off of the step. This exercise allows our heart rate to come down slightly. You know, we call this interval training where we can decrease our heart rate because we’re going to ramp it up again with exercise number four. Exercise number four is the mountain climber. So we just came off of that pushup position. Stay down there, bringing your knees into your chest. Now, you can also increase the difficulty of this exercise by swinging outwards with your feet, okay? This increases the difficulty and the intensity of this particular exercise. Okay, we’re here. This is exercise number five. We’re about to wrap up this five-minute circuit. We’ve done one minute on each of the exercise. Now we’re at the final one, and this is the in and out jump squats. Now, Caroline is doing them very slowly, very meticulously. If you’ve got bad knees, you’re going to want to do them this way, but, of course, we can turn up the volume. We can turn up the heat on this one, and as you can see, she’s doing a jump squat here and essentially in and out. Great for the outer thigh. Great for the inner thigh. Great to finish this cardiovascular, high-intensity cardiovascular circuit using step box exercises. So as you know, we always leave you with a 30-day challenge, so Caroline and I want to challenge you to do this first thing in the morning. Have your coffee, have your green tea, but the first thing out of bed, I want you to do this five-minute cardiovascular circuit. So it’s one minute per exercise, and do it first thing in the morning. It’s only five minutes, but because it’s such a high-intensity exercise and because you’re doing it first thing in the morning, you’re gonna get that long-lasting calorie burn throughout the day, and if you don’t make it into the gym that day, that’s okay ’cause you got that five minutes first thing in the morning. It works better that java or coffee or whatever your thing is. Trust me on this.
So that’s your 30-day challenge. I want you to team up, buddy up with somebody. Like, share and comment on this video. Get started on that 30-day challenge. We’re going to cheer you on to the finish line. We’ll see you there, and we’ll give you one of these as you inspire to aspire.
Inspire to aspire,
KJ Simpson
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Full Transcript
Hey, y’all. KJ Simpson here, here with Caroline. We’re at Bodies By Design Personal Training, and we have a five minute super high intensity cardio circuit using step box exercises!! What you need for this one is a step box. This is a Reebok step. It comes with the risers, and you can also do this at home. You can have any stable piece of furniture essentially. It could be a box like the one we have over here. And they actually sell what’s called a plyo box over here, as well, so lot’s of different ways of doing it. I do want to caution you though, if you’re gonna be using some sort of box that you have to be aware that you could really skin your shins. We’ve seen that happen before. We don’t want that to happen to you. So really this is the safest plastic type of step, and it’s very, very stable that you could use. But without any further ado, let’s get into this super high intensity cardio circuit using step box exercises. Caroline’s gonna demonstrate for us here today. Starting off with exercise number one of five, it’s the simple step. The thing is with these step box exercises, along with a lot of different exercises, you can increase the intensity just by increasing the speed. So because this is a cardio-based exercise, if you wanna get more cardio benefit out of it, you gotta speed things up here. We’re gonna get into now a high knee step-up. So simply alternating the legs and raising that knee as high as possible. Now, I want Caroline to amp this up a little bit here and get the intensity cooked up, and we are going to get a bit of a jump on her foot. As you can see here, just a rise off of the step. Make sure that you always land on the step. Again, these exercises can be a little dangerous. Okay, here we are at the halfway point. This is exercise number three. This is the pushup. You can also do a modified pushup if the regular pushups are just too difficult for you. So knees on the ground instead of feet and pushing up. So as you can see, nice linear line from her shoulders to her hips to her knees and simply pushing up off of the step. This exercise allows our heart rate to come down slightly. You know, we call this interval training where we can decrease our heart rate because we’re going to ramp it up again with exercise number four. Exercise number four is the mountain climber. So we just came off of that pushup position. Stay down there, bringing your knees into your chest. Now, you can also increase the difficulty of this exercise by swinging outwards with your feet, okay? This basically increases the difficulty and the intensity of this particular exercise. Okay, we’re here. This is exercise number five. We’re about to wrap up this five minute circuit. We’ve done one minute on each of the exercise. Now we’re at the final one, and this is the in and out jump squats. Now, Caroline is doing them very slowly, very meticulously. If you’ve got bad knees, you’re gonna want to do them this way, but, of course, we can turn up the volume. We can turn up the heat on this one, and as you can see, she’s doing a jump squat here and essentially in and out. Great for the outer thigh. Great for the inner thigh. Great to finish this cardiovascular, high intensity cardiovascular circuit using step box exercises. So as you know, we always leave you with a 30 day challenge, so Caroline and I want to challenge you to do this first thing in the morning. Have your coffee, have your green tea, but first thing out of bed, I want you to do this five minute cardiovascular circuit. So it’s one minute per exercise, and do it first thing in the morning. It’s only five minutes, but because it’s such a high intensity exercise and because you’re doing it first thing in the morning, you’re gonna get that long lasting calorie burn throughout the day, and if you don’t make it into the gym that day, that’s okay ’cause you got that five minutes first thing in the morning. It works better that java or coffee or whatever your thing is. Trust me on this. So that’s your 30 day challenge. I want you to team up, buddy up with somebody. Like, share and comment on this video. Get started on that 30 day challenge. We’re gonna cheer you on to the finish line. We’ll see you there, and we’ll give you one of these as you inspire to aspire