Good morning! Who out there had a lovely weekend? Mine was lovely in the truest sense, but I plan on sharing all that later. Right now I want to talk workouts.
You all know how much I love sharing strength training workouts. I shared two just last week even – Animal Style Circuits and Ladder Sets. I want to take things a different direction this week, though. We’re going for the cardio burn today! And these workouts should make your legs burn a bit. Or “bark” as Kaitlin would say.
Many times we hear intervals and automatically think of sprinting on the treadmill. Not today. Today, the speed should stay slower…and these intervals work really, really, really well as LOW IMPACT. Walk on that treadmill. Hop on the spin bike. Find an elliptical. No need to go all out on the speed front. In fact, your speed should probably stay at a steady, more moderate pace.
Let the INCLINES and RESISTANCE do the talking to your legs. Let them lead your workout intensity. Low impact does not mean low intensity. We should have those legs barking in no time.
LOW IMPACT INTERVALS WORKOUT 1 – CLIMB THE MOUNTAIN
LOW IMPACT INTERVALS WORKOUT 2 – BURNING LEGS & LUNGS
LOW IMPACT INTERVALS WORKOUT 3 – HIGHER & HIGHER INTERVALS
There you have it! 3 new cardio interval workouts to try geared for lower impact, higher resistance, higher intensity! Use Rate of Perceived Exertion (how hard you feel you’re working on a 1 to 10 scale) to determine your personal inclines/resistance levels and speeds and then play around as you go through the workout. It’s hard to give a specific guideline since it varies so much based on equipment, personal fitness level, etc. And leg length too since I know one particular lady that can WALK at a 5.0 on the treadmill with her long legs. 
Do each a few times and eventually you will find that sweet spot that challenges you every time.
Your Turn – Do you ever do lower impact, higher resistance cardio style workouts? When I can’t make it to spin class I have broken out intervals like these above before for some treadmill walking as my cross training. Always a good challenge!
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Mother. Wife. Personal Trainer. Exercise lover. Blogger. Woman of faith. Striving for fitness inside and out. 
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I do sometimes…Im asked by friends about them ALL THE TIME.
I shall send my people yer way
So many workouts, so little time!!! I must try one of these!
Hope you are well!
Lol I could never walk at 5.0! Haha 4.0 is enough for me, especially at an incline! And since I’m not running I might give these a try, my knees are getting tired of the elliptical!
i’ve been incorporating walking intervals probably once a week because i wanted to “give my legs a break” but i’ve realized that these workouts are almost harder for me than running! inclines kill me! and it boggles my mind that courtney can walk at 5.0…when she posted that the other day i was thinking, “she must be crazy!” it’s all i can do to manage a 4.0 at any incline.
I love, love, love hill/interval workouts. Feel those hamstrings and glutes – whoa!
These look so greattt! Treadmill intervals are my favorite way to work up a sweat on the treadmill. I do something resembling your ‘climb the mountain’ fairly frequently. Just yesterday, in fact! Maybe I’ll take it up a notch and try the other two, making it more interval-like and incorporating sprints. Thanks!
I try to do hill walking 1-2x’s/week. It is NO joke. I am sweating and breathing harder after 10 minutes than I do on an entire 5 mile run. Plus, my booty thanks me;-)
low impact intervals? itz like you read my mind this morning with what i needed! can’t wait to try it out!
After being roomies and all, I have creepy powers like that.
Bahahaha!! You made me laugh Miss Tina! To be fair, I do usually only do the 5.0 when I’m walking close to flat. My inclines are anywhere between 3.5-4.5, if that helps?
I love doing low impact high resistance for good variety, it certainly leaves you winded! Thanks for the shout out
I love these since walking has been my thing these days! Can’t wait to try them out!
My Pinterest board looks lovely after pinning these workouts. Now I need to stop collecting them and start accomplishing them.
Thanks for sharing!
Oh thank you Tina. I love this. I haven’t been doing intervals for BBB mostly because I keep thinking of them as sprints. But I totally forgot about hills and inclines!
Thanks so much for sharing these! Last week’s interval workout on the treadmill was miserable for me because I felt like I couldn’t keep up, but I think I’d like something like this a lot better. Can’t wait to give it a whirl on Thursday!
I actually did intervals on the spin bike this morning. I try to do intervals twice a week: once on the spin bike or rowing machine and the other running on the treadmill. Always a great workout and fun because you have to stay focused and things keep changing.
these intervals look great! a few years ago we loved walking uphill on a treadmill, miss that! always felt it really helped trim up the legs and butt
Thank you for this! I’m kind of bummed right now because all I can do is very low impact due to some pretty bad knee problems I’m dealing with. I read about these awesome intervals workouts on various blogs and so badly want to try them, but can’t. But I can certainly add these to my short list of workouts I CAN do. Must focus on what I can do and now on what I can’t
Thanks for this, Tina! I can’t wait to incorporate some of these workouts into my training. My hips and knees often get super sore after hard runs, so low impact workouts would be an amazing alternative.
Love interval workouts
I also love, LOVE spinning and attend 3 classes a week during the winter months
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