A Lower Body Circuit for Strength and Cardiovascular Fitness

Hey there, and welcome back to my channel! I'm Sarah Grace SG, and today we're going to work on our lower body circuit. This routine can be done in the comfort of your own living room or at the gym, and it's a great way to improve strength, cardiovascular fitness, and overall health.

First, let's start with the equipment needed for this routine. If you have a medicine ball and hand weights, that's awesome! However, if not, don't worry – we can still get an amazing workout using just our body weight. The first exercise in our circuit is lateral lunges. To do this correctly, hold the medicine ball out in front of your chest with both hands.

As you begin to perform a lateral lunge, make sure that your knee and toe are pointed straight ahead, like in this illustration. Take that step forward with one foot and push your hips back, keeping your chest up and avoiding letting it fall over your leg. Push off the heel of your back foot to start moving forward, then bring your front foot back to meet the other foot. Continue alternating legs for a total of 20 reps on each side.

Lateral lunges are great for targeting the glutes and working as a whole-body exercise that engages the core, shoulders, and legs. When you perform this movement, make sure all your weight is in your heel and focus on pushing off with the back foot. As an additional challenge, you can press the medicine ball above or below your head to increase the difficulty level.

Once you've completed 20 lateral lunges, move on to the next exercise: forward lunges with rotation. To perform this movement, follow the medicine ball around with your eyes as you take a step forward with one foot and lower yourself into a lunge position. Try to keep that knee stable in front of you and avoid letting it wobble.

Forward lunges also target the glutes but are more challenging because they require coordination between different muscle groups, including the core and shoulders. As an added challenge, try extending the medicine ball out in front of you for a greater range of motion and to work your shoulders more effectively.

After completing 20 forward lunges on each side, we're ready to move on to reverse lunges with rotation. Begin by standing up and preparing for the movement. Reverse lunge positions are slightly different from regular lunges; instead of pushing off with your front foot, you'll bring your back knee forward, so make sure to put weight onto your back leg as well.

When performing a reverse lunge, alternate legs in such a way that you can press the medicine ball at the end, and also feel how it involves engaging not just one part of your body but multiple parts simultaneously. Make sure not to lean forward too much or put all your weight on your front leg – this is harder for people with weak glutes.

To complete the circuit, we're going to do 20 reps of each exercise (lateral lunges and reverse lunges) three to four times through. As you progress through these exercises, you'll see an increase in intensity due to increased blood flow to your muscles and heart rate rising – this is a great sign that you're getting the most out of this lower body circuit workout.

To get started, simply begin with one side and work your way up from there until both legs are equal. And don't forget to stay hydrated throughout, listen to music or podcasts that keep you motivated, and let's make it simple – we can do this in our living rooms at home without needing any equipment other than a ball if needed.

As I finish speaking today, you'll be aware of how quickly these exercises increase the difficulty level based on your fitness progression. Stay healthy, stay fit, and get ready to join me next time!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey this is Sarah Grace SG training zone I'm here today at Beyond fitness and health I wanted to give you guys a lower body circuit so I'm going to go through it and show you guys uh this kind of routine that you can do you can do it in your living room at home or you can do it in the gym too now if you have a medicine ball cool if you have hand weights that's cool too if you don't then no worries you can just do it with body body weight which for some people might be challenging in itself so um the first exercise in the routine you're going to do lateral lunges okay lateral lunges holding the ball out here in front of your chest now you want you want to do is make sure when you laterally lunge I think I've mentioned this in some of my other videos that your knee and toe is pointed straight ahead okay see how it's lined up just like that so you want to take that step and push your hips back keep your chest up don't let it fall over your leg okay so you're going to do 20 total that' be 10 on each side lateral lunges okay these are great for your glutes all your weight should be in your heel push off that heel and come back if you want to press the ball you can press the ball in front of you above you just to make it more advanced once you've done 20 of those you're going to go 20 forward lunges forward with the rotation okay follow the ball around with your eyes trying to keep that knee stable in front don't be letting it wobble around okay 20 of these that's 10 on each side you feel it in your core too when you rotate you want to keep your abs nice and tight a little bit more advanced would be to extend the ball out in front of you I'm already getting out of breath okay also you work your shoulders as well once you've done 20 of those then you're going to go 20 reverse lunges okay reverse bring the knee up reverse bring the knee up okay what you can do uh is alternate back and forth so we one two three and you can press the ball too four five sit again bringing that knee up however you want to do it or just hold the ball out in front of you you can press it this way involve the shoulders too making sure when you reverse lunge you've got to put some of that weight onto your back leg you can't keep all of it forward that's hard for people especially if you have weak glutes so make sure you put weight onto the back too allow that back knee to bend okay so um that'd be 20 reps of each go three to four times through you're going to see I'm already out of breath you'll get your heart rate up this is something that you can do in your own living room keep it simple all right SG training Zone get in the zone my zonehey this is Sarah Grace SG training zone I'm here today at Beyond fitness and health I wanted to give you guys a lower body circuit so I'm going to go through it and show you guys uh this kind of routine that you can do you can do it in your living room at home or you can do it in the gym too now if you have a medicine ball cool if you have hand weights that's cool too if you don't then no worries you can just do it with body body weight which for some people might be challenging in itself so um the first exercise in the routine you're going to do lateral lunges okay lateral lunges holding the ball out here in front of your chest now you want you want to do is make sure when you laterally lunge I think I've mentioned this in some of my other videos that your knee and toe is pointed straight ahead okay see how it's lined up just like that so you want to take that step and push your hips back keep your chest up don't let it fall over your leg okay so you're going to do 20 total that' be 10 on each side lateral lunges okay these are great for your glutes all your weight should be in your heel push off that heel and come back if you want to press the ball you can press the ball in front of you above you just to make it more advanced once you've done 20 of those you're going to go 20 forward lunges forward with the rotation okay follow the ball around with your eyes trying to keep that knee stable in front don't be letting it wobble around okay 20 of these that's 10 on each side you feel it in your core too when you rotate you want to keep your abs nice and tight a little bit more advanced would be to extend the ball out in front of you I'm already getting out of breath okay also you work your shoulders as well once you've done 20 of those then you're going to go 20 reverse lunges okay reverse bring the knee up reverse bring the knee up okay what you can do uh is alternate back and forth so we one two three and you can press the ball too four five sit again bringing that knee up however you want to do it or just hold the ball out in front of you you can press it this way involve the shoulders too making sure when you reverse lunge you've got to put some of that weight onto your back leg you can't keep all of it forward that's hard for people especially if you have weak glutes so make sure you put weight onto the back too allow that back knee to bend okay so um that'd be 20 reps of each go three to four times through you're going to see I'm already out of breath you'll get your heart rate up this is something that you can do in your own living room keep it simple all right SG training Zone get in the zone my zone\n"