Full Body Circuit for Beginners

Maximo Pascual here, and before we get started, I just really wanted to thank Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey for their amazing commitment in promoting health education, and also for allowing me this opportunity to help share these valuable fitness tips with you.

Now, today, I wanted to go over a simple full body workout routine that can be done from the comfort of your own home.

Now, not only are these exercises going to help uplift your mood, it’s going to help you release stress, but it’s also going to help boost up your metabolism.

And the great thing about this routine is that you do not need that much space, and there’s no equipment necessary because we will only be using our own bodyweight.

All right, guys. Let’s get started with the first exercise.

For jumping jacks, we’re going to have our feet together and our arms at our sides. As I open up my legs, I’m also going to open up my arms, and then I’m going back to that standing position.

So legs together, arms together, legs separated, arms separated. Once you get back down then you can start doing it faster.

For the knee pushup, we want to put our arms on the floor, and we want to make sure that our shoulder is right above the wrist.

So if you put both arms on the floor with the shoulder right above the wrist, you should be with the perfect gap in between your hands.

Now, in between that gap, you want your chest to go in between your hands, as I’m doing here. So if my chest is going in between my hands, that means that my head and my face is well above my hands here.

So if I show you from the side view, shoulders above wrists, hands are separated. As you can see when I lower myself, my chest is going in between that gap, and look how ahead my head is.

Now, it’s possible for me to do the pushup in this wrong position where my face is in between my hands.

Yes, I could do the pushup, but we are not working out the targeted muscle group, and I’m going to put a lot of strain on my shoulders.

So I need to make sure that I position myself where my chest can be lowered. Another common mistake that happens is that when people lower themselves, sometimes they leave a gap here.

And that’s not good. You want to make sure that your knees, your thighs, your hips, your lower stomach and your chest is all coming down at once, and you’re coming back up.

Now, many of you might not be strong enough to go all the way down - and that’s completely fine.

If for right now you can only go down half an inch, we’re only going to do that.

I promise you guys, if you keep on doing this consistent enough, eventually, session after session, you’ll be able to get lower, lower and lower until you finally reach the floor and come back up.

Okay, for the bodyweight squat we want to get into a shoulder width apart stance with the feet.

We want to make sure that the feet are either pointing forward or slightly outward - not too much out, just slightly outward.

And I’m going to stick my hip out first. I’m keeping my legs straight, and as I’m sticking out my hip, my thighs will get wider as I’m squatting all the way down.

And I’m sticking my hands out for counterbalance. Once I get to the bottom I’m going to push the floor away to stand up.

Now, what’s very important here is that you stick out your hip first. If I just initiate the squat, notice what happens to my knees.

Right away you’ll see that my knees are passing my toes, and this might put some strain on my knees here.

So to avoid that, I’m going to stick my hip out first, I’m going to make believe I’m sitting in an imaginary chair that’s about a foot away from me.

So hips out first, as I’m squatting down. Now I start to bend the knee, and I’m trying to keep my hips and knees as back as possible while opening up my thighs.

I’m going to get as low as I can, and now I’m going to use my whole foot to press the floor away to stand back up.

What’s very important here is that you keep your whole foot on the floor, especially your heel. Never lift up your heel.

So once again, hips out, knees back, thighs wide, hands out for counterbalance, get as low as you can, and then press the floor away to stand back up.

For the stationary lunge, we want to make sure that we start off about shoulder width apart with this space in between both feet.

I’m going to grab one leg and I’m going to put it in front of me while still maintaining this gap. That way, I’m properly balanced.

If I do not maintain this gap and I put the leg in front of this leg, I’m already going to be off balance. So again, start off with this gap, put this leg in front, as long as you possibly can comfortably.

And now we’re going to lunge down and come all the way back up and lock out both legs. Now, I want to concentrate mostly on this front leg. The back leg is more of a base.

But I still have to bring this leg down, so as soon as I initiate the movement, both legs start to bend.

And I’m trying to get as low as I can and see if I can lightly tap the floor with the leg that’s behind and then stand back up.

From the side view, again, I want to put one leg in front, I want to have a long stance. If I have too much of a short stance, similar to the squats, my knee is going to start to pass my toes - it’s going to put a lot of strain on my knee.

So I need to make sure again I have the space here, and I do a long stride, stick out my hand for a counterbalance, and I’m going to bend both legs at the same time.

I’m going to try to lightly tap the floor with the leg that’s behind me, then come all the way back up.

Similar to the squat, I want to make sure that my whole foot is pressing the floor away, especially my heel. So try not to lift up your heel. Do not do that. That’s going to put strain on your knees as well.

Hands out, lean back a little bit, try to have your upper body going down the center. Lightly tap the floor, then come all the way back up.

If you cannot go all the way down, then just go as low as you can for right now. Eventually as you get stronger, you’ll be able to get down lower and lower and lower, until you can lightly tap the floor and stand back up.

For the sit-ups, I’m going to give you two variations to do. The first one is, you’re going to lay down with your legs completely flat on the floor.

You want to make sure that your toes are pointing towards your knees. We’re going to have our arms all the way back here.

And you want to make believe that you have a big ball that you’re about to throw across the room. So I’m going to sit all the way back up, and I’m going to throw the ball with momentum.

As I stand up, I want to be as tall as possible. So I want to have chest out, shoulders back, and a tall back. And I’m coming back down slow.

Again, I’m going to throw the ball hard and fast, and I’m going to stand up as far as I can. What’s really working on the abs here is on the way down.

So it’s important that you just don’t flop down to the floor. You throw the ball hard and fast, as far as you can, and now you come back to the floor slow.

If this version is too hard for you, then we’ll go into crunches, where you’re going to lift up your legs, put your knees together; you’re going to put your hands on your temple.

And you’re just going to do a crunch, almost like you’re going to touch your knees with your forehead. Hold it, and again you retract slow. All the way up both, retract slow.

For leg raises, we’re going to put our hands underneath our glute lower back area.

We want to have our legs completely straight and locked out, and we want our toes to be pointing towards our knees. Now, we’re going to lift up both legs at the same time about halfway.

We’re going to come all the way back down slow and controlled, and right before you touch the floor, you’re going to come back up.

Now, it’s unnecessary to come all the way up here. You’re only going to go up halfway. This will make sure that you’re feeling it more in your lower abdominal area.

Very important that you don’t do this very fast either, because then your legs are going to take over too much. And the purpose of this exercise is to hit the lower abdominal area.

So again, we come up, we come down nice, slow and controlled, and then back up. You always have to show that you have control of the movement.

For bicycle crunches, our starting position will be both hands on our temple, and our legs completely straight.

Now I’m going to cross the opposite side, elbow and knee together, and then I’m going to come back to the starting position which is at the floor. And I’m going to do the other side, cross and come back to the floor.

Now from the front view, same thing. I cross the right elbow and the left knee, and I come back to the floor at the same time. Left elbow, right knee, and I come back to the floor at the same time.

Okay, now for the plank, not only is this exercise great for your core, but it’s also great for all the stabilizers of your body. So it’s almost like a full body workout here that we’re doing.

So to get to the proper position, we want to make sure that our arms are a shoulder width apart, so you should have a gap in between your arms - never have them together like this.

And you want to make sure that your shoulder is right above your elbow, so that’s very important - you don’t want to be like this because you can easily slip and mess up your shoulder there.

So shoulder right above elbow, hands separated, and then you’re going to stay in this flat position for as long as you can.

Now, from the side view, again, shoulder above elbow. You want to have shoulder width apart gap in between.

Your face should actually be in between both of your fists, and you want to be as flat as you can with your body.

As you get tired, sometimes what might happens is your hips might sag down. You cannot let that happen, you have to stay up. You also might want to put your hips up.

You can’t do that either. You have to be as flat as you can and maintain this position.

For the squat thrust I’m going to give you two different variations: the regular version, and then an easier alternate version in case the regular version right now is too difficult for you.

So what we will do is, we’re going to put our arms about a shoulder width apart, we’re going to place them on the ground, and then we’re going to jump back with both legs until you’re in the push up plank position.

Then we will jump back in with both legs and stand up. So once again, hands down, jump back with both legs, jump back in, stand up.

Now, if this is too difficult for you, no problem. Hands on the floor. Instead of jumping back with both legs, then go one leg at a time, come in one leg at a time, and stand up.

Hands down, one leg back, left leg back, leg back in, leg back in, we stand up.

From the front view, again, shoulder width apart, you don’t want to have your hands too close together or too far apart. Shoulder width apart. Jump back, jump back in, stand up straight.

Easier version: hands down, step back, step back in, stand up.

For the mountain climber we’re going to put our arms on the floor, shoulder width apart. Want to make sure your shoulder is above your wrist. Hands are separated.

You’re going to put yourself in a push-up plank position, and from this position we’re only going to use the leg. We’re going to run in place using the legs.

And your goal is to maintain this speed throughout the whole exercise. And from the front view, again, shoulder width apart, make sure shoulder is above wrist.

Make sure you completely straighten up, push-up plank position, and you bring the knees. It’s almost like you’re trying to bring the knees through this space at your chest here.

Now, some common errors that some might make is, you might be in an elevated position like this. This is no good. You have to make sure you’re completely flat.

And from this position, you start bringing the knees in. This is how my feet are moving. See, I’m pushing the floor away.

We just went over each and every exercise of this routine, and I’m pretty sure you’re feeling a lot more confident about doing this routine alone at home.

Now, one big tip I can give you is, remember, you are a beginner, so you might not be able to master each and every exercise on Day 1.

But I promise you, if you’re consistent enough, eventually you will get stronger, more mobile, more agile, more flexible, and you will be able to master each one of these exercises.

All right guys. Till next time.