20-Minute Low Impact Strength + Cardio Workout (One Dumbbell)

Hi, I'm Lindsey Baumgren of NourishMove Love. And today we're coming at you with a 20 minute low impact strength and cardio workout. I'm in my third trimester of pregnancy, but this workout is safe for all trimesters of pregnancy, which is why I have the awesome Rachel with. Hi. She's gonna be showing ways you can scale up or scale down. So you can follow along with me or you can follow along with Rachel. All you're gonna need for this workout is a set of dumbbells or even one heavy dumbbell. We're gonna be using one heavy dumbbell. You could always use two lighter dumbbells. I also have an awesome box here. You could use a bench, a couch, an OT accessible to you at home. I'm going to be using that for some step ups and some incline push ups. Okay, so your workout looks like this. It is quick and dirty. It's 15 minutes strength and cardio. Knock it out. You have four circuits, two exercises per circuit, one strength, one cardio. You're going to do each exercise for 30 seconds of work followed by 15 seconds of rest. And you're going to repeat it times three sets. So it's going to fly through these circuits. 30 seconds of work. Go hard during your work intervals and if you need to, of course you can always hit pause. Take it at your pace. Alright, you ready to do this, Rachel? Let's go. All right, let's do it. We're gonna get started with a quick warmup. So you're gonna go ahead. There's like a bubble in my throat there. Sounded funny. Take your feet right underneath your hips. Okay. Go ahead. Tuck your pelvis underneath your rib cage. Put your hands on your belly. Big inhale, belly expands, exhale. You're thinking about hugging the baby. In and up. Okay, one more big inhale. Exhale. I'm gonna take my feet a little bit wider. You're gonna do that and add on a squat. So inhale, exhale. Now I'm going to squat and stand. Inhale, exhale, Squat and stand. Let's just go to squats now. So you're just going to squat it out. Squat it out. Nice. We're going to add on. You're going to do a two pulse squat, two jacks. We're basically going to warm you up for the moves you're going to do. So pulse two. Tap right, tap left. Pulse two, tap right, left. Nice. Pulse two. Imagine doing this with a dumbbell between your legs. Adding a bicep curl A bicep curl. It's gonna be your first move of this circuit. Gonna warm up functionally showing you the moves you're gonna do today. Cause it's a quick and dirty workout. One more pulse. 2. Curl it, curl it. Now imagine taking that dumbbell right here and going press, jack, press jack, jack and tap, Jack and tap. Push, push. Raise that heart rate. Push side to side for eight, seven, six. You got it. And one. I'm going to come to an incline bench. Rachel can go to a kneeling position. You're going to push back down. Dog or child's pose. Inhale down, exhale high plank. Give me a push up kneeling or incline? Push back down. Dog. High plank. Push up. Nice. We're going to do some push ups today. Awesome job. You can take them from the ground or from an incline. Your option is always to hold, incline, plank or hold, incline, push up. One more. Nice. Go ahead, walk it off that bench. Come back to a standing position. I'm going to go box. Step up. So I'm going to step up on my bench. Rachel's going to give you a march in place. So I'm going to step up on my bench. Right there. I'm planting the heel, driving, planting the heel. Full foot on the box. Thinking about not pushing off the ground with my foot that's on the ground, but really driving through the heel that's on the box. Full hip extension at the top. This is our final warmup move. Right here, you guys. Nice. Go. 5, 4, 3, 2. And walk it off. All right, you ready to do this thing? Here we go. Quick and dirty, quick and dirty. We're gonna jump into your first circuit. Two moves. 30 seconds of work, 15 seconds of rest. Three sets. Okay, I'm gonna grab that heavy dumbbell. That move. We warmed up with two pulse squat, two walking squat curls. So it looks like this. Pulse two, tap, tap, pulse, tap, two curl, curl. That's going to be your strength move. It's also going to raise your heart rate because it's fast paced. You're going to go right from that. And we'll go right into setting the dumbbell down. Tap side to side to side. Strength, cardio. Strength, cardio. Ready to do this thing? Let's go. This is an aggressive prenatal workout, but I know you are up for it, so we are in it. It's only 15 minutes, you guys. We go in three, two. Let's go. Pulse, two, curl, curl. These are your 30 seconds, okay? Take them at your pace, your tempo. Pulse two, curl, curl. Nice. Pulse two, curl, curl. You got it. Come on. Sit low, stand, drive through the heels. 10 seconds here. Yes, you can. And up. Nice finish. 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. I'm gonna set that dumbbell down just in front of me, just like this. Use that back head as my marker. I'm gonna push side to side, side to side. You don't have to tap the dumbbell. We're gonna push left in 3, 2. Let's go. Push left, tap, tap, tap. I can always reach for my knee. Just push side to side. I could stay up here. Don't even have to reach for anything. Okay. Or can reach for that dumbbell. Push, push, push, push. Come on. You got it. Yes, you can. Nice. I was like, I think I'm using my wrong hand. There we go, there we go, there we go. I gotta get in that rhythm of it. Push, push. Five, four, three, two, one. Walk it up. Whoo. That's set. One. Two more sets just like it. We're really gonna raise the heart rate in this first circuit, okay? Two squats, two Paul or two pulse squat, two jacks. Three, two. Let's go. Pulse two, Jack jack. Come on. Pulse two, Jack Jack. Nice. Pulse two up. Nice. Curling that bicep right up to the shoulders. Driving through the heels, transferring weight from side to side, Lot going on. Big, complex movement to start with. You can't think too hard about it, you know? Come on. Five seconds. Yes. Go. Three, two, one. Set that dumbbell down. We'll go ahead, take a giant step left. We'll push right. So push right, then left. That's what I want to do. Opposite hand. Had it mixed up last time. Here we go. In three, two. Let's go. Push, Push. That feels more natural. There we go. Try it right. Oh, that's not quite it. It felt so awkward the last set. Almost there. I was like, why does this feel so weird? There you go. Come on. Again. You don't have to reach for that dumbbell. It's just an option. Push, push. Go. 10, nine, eight. You got this. Seven. Yes, you can. Come on. Right here. Finish final four. Three, two, one. That feels much more athletic. I feel like myself again. Okay, rest last time through, you guys. Third set is the best set. Best set in three, two. Let's go, let's go. Pulse two, curl, curl. Pulse two, curl, curl. Come on. Last time you're going to do these moves right here. Nice work. You got this. Yes, you do. Come on. Down, two up. 10 seconds, guys. Finish it right here. Nice. Last three, two and one. Legs are feeling it. Here we go. Dumbbells down. We're gonna push left, push left, let that heart come down. Squats are cardio these days. We got it. Push left, push left. 30 seconds in three, two. Let's go. Push, push. I did that opposite hand thing again. There we go. Opposite hand, opposite hand. There we go. There we go. Nice. It only took three rounds, right? This is why we have to repeat it three times, right? Right here. I'm gonna call this Pregnancy brain. Or I'm gonna call it Rachel Brain. Relaxing. The other day, I tripped, and I was like, I swear, I feel so clumsy pregnant sometimes. And then I read my pregnancy app. It was like, if you feel like you have two left feet, it's because of relaxant. I was like, thank you. Three, two, one. I was like, I feel validated. I feel validated. I'm supposed to feel awkward. Okay, water up. Circuit one. In the books, that was legs and biceps. Now we go legs and shoulders. We're gonna drop down to a 15 pound. I'm gonna squat to the backs. Rachel's gonna do an air squat with a front raise. So as I squat, lift the dumbbell up to shoulder height. Stand up, exhale, inhale, stand, exhale, lift, inhale, stand. Okay, you're gonna brace your core. You're gonna feel this in the core. If you don't love it, you can always just hold the dumbbell right here at the shoulders. That's move one, move two. Those press jacks that we warmed up with right there. Okay, 30 seconds. Remove three times through, see if we can master them this time. Here we go. We go in three, two. Let's go. So I'm squatting to the box, lifting right up to shoulder height. You're exhaling opposite of what you would normally do with a squat. Normally, I exhale on the way up. I'm going to exhale on the way down to really brace that core as I lift that weight up to shoulder height. So we call distal core training. Hello, abs. Feel them turned on. Shoulders, abs, and legs. They're all working for you. Yes, they are. Right here. Go for four. Three, four, two, and one. We're gonna push those little shoulders. Here we go. Press jacks. You're gonna front racket. You're gonna tap, tap and tap. Okay, I'll start tapping, right? You can do whatever feels good for you. Whoo. All right, we go in three, two. Let's go, let's go. 30 seconds. Your pace, your tempo. Push, push. This is all low impact cardio. Come on. What's Raising my heart rate. Pushing those arms above my heart. Adding a weight makes it harder. Just keep moving. The motto of the third trimester. 10 seconds. Here we go. Push it. Push it. Yes, you can. Last five, four, three, two, and one. Nice work. Rest for 15. And we go. Here we go. You're gonna give me that squat front raise, lifting that dumbbell right up to shoulder height. Yes. Take a deep breath. Big inhale, big exhale. We're going three, two, let's go. Squat to the box. Lift up to shoulder height. Nice exhale on the way down. Drive through the heel, stand, exhale down, drive through the heels and stand. You got it. One rep at a time. You can do anything for 30 seconds, right? Feel those shoulders. Holy shoulders. There they are, my little. Come on. You got it. Stay with it. Last five. Four, Three, two, you're out. Press jacks. Press jacks. Roll those shoulders out if you need to. 15 seconds. Set that dumbbell down. We're gonna jack and tap. Pushing that weight overhead is optional. Okay, it's optional. You do it. Feels good for you today. 3, 2. Let's go, let's go. Push it. Push it. 30 seconds to raise your heart rate. Low impact strength and cardio. We love the strength maintaining muscle. We love the cardio strength training for our heart. Yes. We got what, like 30 to 50% more blood volume pumping through our pregnant bodies. That's not it. Hearts got to work harder right here. Strength training for the heart. Three, two, one. Walk it off. One more time through that set, you guys. One more time. Squat with the front raise, press jacks. Burn out those shoulders right here. They get a break. Kind of, sort of. We go to incline push ups next. That's a real shoulder burner. Three, two, let's go. Rachel and I always say shoulders, I think, are just constantly sore. Always. Right. Should give them more rest days. But they're just so involved in so many everything. Yeah. So many movements. You plank, you push up. It's shoulders, right? Right here. Legs and shoulders. 10 seconds. Yes, you can. This is where you grit your teeth, squint your eyes, make your ugly face. Get through it for four. Three, two, you're out. Roll the shoulders back. Last time on the press jacks. Last time on the press jacks. You can always drop that dumbbell, you guys. No shame in just punching that air. All right, here we go. Rack them. Press Jacks in three, two. Let's go, let's go. Push it. Push it. 30 seconds. Yes, you can. Come on. So stinking strong. That's what you Are right here. Go. Come on. Big finish. You got this. Nice. Come on. Nice work. Stay with me. Stay with it. What would it look like If I said 10 more seconds? Yes, you can. Yes, you can. Right here. Finish it. Let's go for 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Whoa. Nice work. Roll those shoulders down and back. Set the dumbbells down. Off to the side. Grab a quick sip of water. Circuit number three. Incline, push up, box step ups. I'm going to do 30 seconds of incline push ups. I'll add a down dog, press back as I need to and then 30 seconds of box step ups. Rachel's going to give me a march option to hold the dumbbell at your chest for box step ups. Push ups. Your option is always hold the plank, incline, plank or kneeling plank. Yes, hold, plank or bear crawl. 30 seconds of push ups. We go in three, two, three. Let's go. I'm gonna do one push up one push back down dog. I'm gonna do one push up one push back down dog. If you got it in you say you go all push ups yous can choose whatever feels good for you today. Push ups are always so stinking hard for me. I tell my husband, it's like having a 20 pound dumbbell strapped to the front of your body as you're doing a move. That is already so stinking hard for me. But chest strength is so important for motherhood. You got this. Yes, you do. Come on. 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1. Nice work. Going right into 30 seconds of box step ups option Rich is going to hold the dumbbell at her chest and march it out. You can always just give me a march and press, press. You decide. We go in three, two. Let's go. Come on. If you're with me, that full foot plants on the box. Drive through the heel that's on the box. Try not to use the leg that's on the ground too much to push off. Okay. You can always slow it down or speed it up. Nice work. You can always lessen that incline. Could find a staircase at home. Hit the bottom step. Whatever feels good for you. This is your 15 minutes, guys. Your 15 minutes. Keep moving. Last five, four, three, two. And recover. Nice work. Back to push ups. I'm gonna do the same thing. One push up, one down dog. I know I can get through three rounds of that. Trying to mentally pace myself. Sustainable. Sustainable. We go in three. Come on. Set it up. Two. Let's go. One push up, one down dog lead with the chest. Elbows fall back towards the body. Nice work. Come on. Yes, you can. Yes, you can. One rep at a time, right here. Remember when you said this can be a break for the shoulders, right? And then I saw it and I was like, oh, no. Push ups. 10 seconds, guys. Those shoulders are gonna still be working for you. All your upper body push muscles right here. Chest, shoulders, triceps for three, two, and one. Nice. So I get step ups in between our marches. Give that little upper body a break. Breathe it out. You're gonna march it out or step it up? Yes. Can you step up that game? We go in three, two. Let's go. Right here. Box. Step ups are one of my all time favorite pregnancy exercises. Makes me still feel athletic. Box jumps don't feel good anymore. In this third trimester, step ups still feel good. So I'm going to rock them out. Still. Get that heart rate high. Use those legs to power you up. 10 seconds, let's go. Come on. Come on. You got this. Last four. Three, two, recover. There we go. One more set in you. One more set in you. Yes, say, yes, I can. Right here. Say, yes, I can. Come on. Here we go. Set it up. We go in three, two. Let's go. One push up. One down, dog. One push up. One down dog. Come on. One push up. One down dog. You got this. Stay with it. Nice work. Nice work. Come on. So stinking strong. That's what you are right here. So stinking strong. Stay with it. Last five, four, three, two, and one. Walk it off. Step ups. I'm looking at the timer. I'm like, how did this work out? In my head, I thought it was 15 minutes. We're already at 17 minutes. We're gonna make it a full 20 because we got one more circuit we're gonna do. Twice through. Here we go. We go in three, two. Let's go. Step ups. So your quick 15 minute turned into a quick 20 minute. But this is the point in the workout where you're like, I feel good. Right? It was hard to start, but now I feel good. Those endorphins are pumping. That energy is coming to me. Some days it's hard to move. Pregnant. Trust me, I totally get that. I do not pop out of bed every morning, like, let's rock this thing. Energizer bone wins me. Yeah, not always. Come on. Last three, two, recover. Tell my husband that. He'd be like, no, there are days. Trust me. She's like, it's so hard to be pregnant. It happens sometimes. Okay, last circuit, twice through. Yes. Once per side. Stagger. Deadlift. Row. We got to Hit the legs and the back. Back is big and strong. Here we go. Left foot forward, right toe popped. Hinge row on the right and stand. Stake or deadlift row is your first move. And set that dumbbell right on the ground. Tap it. Run. Tap, run. Tap, run, tap, run. Those are your two moves. You only do it twice. Once per side. Yes. And we're out of here. 30 seconds per side. Knock it out. That is two minutes of work. Here we go. Yes. I can grab that weight in the right hand. Majority of the weight in that left front foot. Right toe popped. Hinge row in three, two. Let's go. Hinge row. Nice stand. Driving through that front heel strengthening. Big lower body muscles. Big upper body muscles right here. Hamstrings, glutes, back, low back, mid back, upper back. It's all working for you right here. Come on, come on. Yes, you can. You only got to do each side once. If I was going to go heavy, this would be the time. Right here. Grab that heavy weight. Get after it. You could always double up the weights if you really wanted to. Come on. Last three, two, one. Hinge all the way over. Set that dumbbell right there in front of your right foot. Your left foot's going to be in line with the back head. You're going to tap the dumbbell. Drive the knee. Tap, drive, tap, drive. Yeah. Let's hit it. Three, two. Let's go. 30 seconds. Come on, run it. Bigger the arms, bigger the heart rate. Yes, you can. You are strong and athletic. Let's go, let's go. Come on. You got this. You feel that burn in that front glute? Dig into it. Dig into it. Each side once. That's it. Let's go. 10 seconds here. 10 seconds here. Come on, push, push. Pace. Let's go. Last five. Five, four, Three, two, one. Woo. Walk it, walk it. Nice work. One more time. Both moves on the left side. Grab that weight in the left hand. Right foot forward. Left toe popped, hinge row left. 30 seconds in three, two. Let's go. Hinge row, stand tall. Hinge row, stand tall. You got it. Come on. Hinge, pull. Nice work, you guys. Right here. Nice work. Come on, stay with it. Last set. Right here. Nice work. Let's go, go, go. Come on. Yes, you can. Right here. So close. Last four. Three, two. Set that dumbbell down right there. Lines up with my right foot. My left foot is gonna go back. I'm gonna hit it with my left hand. Drive that knee. Your last 30 second push. It's right here. What do you got Left. Push it out. Three, two. Let's go. Tap. Come on. Boom. Boom. You don't have to hit the dumbbell. You don't have to. It's an option. Drive, Drive. How low can you get in that front standing leg? Make that front blue work for you. Let's go. Come on. Yes. What would it look like If I said 10? 9, 8. You got this. 7. Stay with it. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2, 1. Nice work. Crushed it, Rachel. Absolutely crushed it. Dumbbells off to the side. Let's stay standing. Big inhale. Reach up nice and tall. Big exhale, baby back bend. That felt good, right? Take the hands behind the back. Big inhale. Big exhale. Pull the knuckles away from the tailbone. Let that heart rate come down. Flap the wings. Nice work. Let's go. Reach this arm up overhead. Reach the left hand down my left thigh. Big side body stretch. So proud of you guys for sticking with it. Absolutely crushed this workout. Back to center. Switch it out. Right arm slides down right thigh. Left arm overhead. Big side body stretch. Nice work. Awesome job. So, so proud of you. Back to center. Big inhale. Both arms reach up. Can widen that stance if you need to drop down. Right here. Nice low squat. Just gonna shift side to side. Awesome job. That is your quick and dirty low impact strength and cardio. If you want more stretchy, we'll add that on at the end of this workout. Okay. We'll show you where you can do that. Otherwise, thanks so much for joining us. You guys absolutely crushed this workout. If you want to find more of our pregnant friendly postpartum or just our workouts in general, you can find them all@nourishmovelove.com have a great day. Thanks so much for joining me for that strength and cardio workout. I hope you loved it. If you did, I'd be so grateful if you dropped and subscribe to my YouTube channel. And as promised, if you want some more of those stretches that would relieve those common pregnancy aches and pains, you can find stretching workouts here. Otherwise, you can find all my prenatal friendly workouts in this playlist right here. Have a great day.