Fitness, Workout

Intermediate Home Exercise Plan For Women – Day 1

You are a fit woman, looking for a home workout routine that challenges you and addresses every area of your body? This exercise plan is going to have you exhausted and exhilarated!

How Does This Exercise Plan Work?

This workout is a 2-day-split, which means it divides the body into two areas that are handled on different days: Workout 1 and Workout 2. I like to use splits in workout routines because they give our bodies an opportunity to recover and we can also work more muscles per workout.

To do the routine you will need a chair, a set of dumbbells (I was using a set of 10 lbs ( 5 kg) each), and a stopwatch to time it. We should always time our workouts, this way when we repeat the routine we can see how much we’ve progressed.

If you aren’t familiar with any of the exercises, no worries: Most of them I demonstrate in the videos you’ll find below or there will be a link to an explanation.

Warm-Up

Before you get started, you should warm up, as this prepares your muscles for the tasks ahead. I recommend you do ten minutes: Five minutes of freestyle jump rope to increase cardiopulmonary activity and five minutes of workout-specific movements. Those are movements that mimic the actual exercise movements you do later on. For an in-depth explanation of both concepts, have a look at this article.

Workout 1 – Lower Body, Cardio & Core

On to the first workout of the split. It is divided into three parts, which means we’ll finish one part and then move on to the next. The three parts together make up the complete workout 1.

Part 1

Set your stopwatch and get ready. There are 3 exercises and you do them for a total of 3 rounds:

Exercise	Reps	Comment
Back Lunge & Jump Up	12
Deadlift & Half One Leg Squat Combo	10 each side	Having done both exercises counts as one rep
Vertical Leap	20	Do not take any breaks. Complete the full 20 reps, then, if you need it, take a quick break

Part 2

For the second part, set your timer for 2 intervals: 30 seconds and 50 seconds. The total is 5 rounds with two exercises you will do back and forth:

Exercise	Comment
Pike Toe Touches	Dont lock out your joints when doing these.
2 Pulse Squat & Jump Tuck	As above, but also make sure you dont put pressure on your spine

Part 3

On to part 3, where we handle core strength. Rest 1 minute between the sets:

Exercise	Reps	Sets
All Around Plank	5	2
Regular Plank Hold	Hold 1 minute	2

Videos

Here is a video of me doing the exercises. Notice how I always try to keep proper form, which is what you should do too:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d_fLNQMQto?rel=0&hd=1]
Sounds complicated? It really isnt. Here is a longer explanation of it:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0ZAKKzUpoM?rel=0&hd=1]

Moderate Cardio & Bridge Lifts

I always recommend performing moderate cardio after each resistance training routine. Interval training is great to burn fat, but we need moderate cardio as well because not only it also burns fat, but it helps us to achieve an overall training effect, which is why we exercise. Take your time here, you don’t have to be in a rush, and repeat 3-4 rounds of the following:

Exercise	Reps	Comment
Free Style Jump Rope	100
Bridge Lifts on a balance ball	15 per leg	If you don’t have a balance ball, you can substitute it with a chair

After your workout, perform 15 minutes of light stretching (see middle of this article).

Day 2

Remember, this was just the first day and one half of the total workout! We are not finished yet! Take a breath and prepare for Day 2, which you can find right here!