The circuit is three rounds of four movements. The first movement is a toe touch deadlift. You may have also seen this one referred to as a staggered deadlift. The idea is that you are intentionally loading the front leg, more than the back leg. The back foot is only touching down enough to help you stay balanced. Focus on driving hard through your front leg to lift the weight. Be sure to do both legs for symmetry.

The next three exercises were chosen to blast your arms. Here they are: Start with a side-lying reverse fly. This is a unique exercise, and takes a bit of balance to stay centered on the bench correctly. The next one is a kettlebell halo. You can of course use a weight plate or dumbbell. The last one is a T Push-up.

You’ll find that this unique combo leads to an effective shoulder burner. It especially gets your posterior shoulder muscles fired-up. To be honest, it feels pretty awesome. I guarantee you’ll be walking with your chest puffed out and posture on-point afterwards.

Cool-down with some basic core strengthening of kettlebell press crunches and oblique crunches.

HOW I DID IT:

• Toe Touch Deadlifts with 235 lbs
• Side Lying Reverse Fly with 30 lb dumbbell
• Halos with 50 lb kettlebell
• Press Crunches with 25 lb kettlebell

Want more workouts? Checkout the archive HERE.

Get yourself ready for action with 100 jumping jacks and 50 tip toe squats. Feel free to bust out the jumping jacks and squats in one go, or split them up into a few alternating rounds. The order doesn’t matter.

The circuit you will perform is heavy kettlebell swings, loaded “suitcase” carries, and ring dips. If you don’t have rings hung outdoors or in your garage, try to find another flat surface where you can perform bar or wall dips. Ultimately, any dip, including bench or parallette dips will work.

For the loaded carry, you could use a heavy kettlebell, dumbbell, or even a barbell. I used this monster little adjustable dumbbell, that was able to take 100 lbs. If you can find one of those online, do yourself a favor and pick it up. They are the bomb.

Finish the workout with 3 sets of hollow rocks (15) and scorpion push-ups (6 per side/12 total).

How I did it:

• 70 lb Kettlebell Swings
• 100 lb Suitcase Carries
• Bodyweight Dips

See more workout ideas HERE

If you’ve got a garage gym, there’s no doubt those doors are swung wide open. If you’ve got a driveway and it’s not raining out, that’s a perfect place to do your daily fitness too.

But what if your house or apartment doesn’t have any clear outdoor space to exercise?

Enter the Playground Workout.

If you live near a park, and can manage minimal human contact, working out at a playground is a killer opportunity and can vastly expand your workout options. For example, given the low ceiling in our garage, I can’t safely do box jumps on our big plyo box. Muscle ups are out of the question too. Even burpees and squat jumps in the garage can be uncomfortable.

Access to a playground structure opens up a large array of movement opportunities. Besides swinging from the monkey bars, you’ll often have stairs, ladders, and low walls to climb over. The padding of wood chips and rubberized surfaces can be nice respite to your joints during high-impact motions. Other features like benches and low bars provide additional ways to strengthen your arms, chest, and legs.

Here is a simple three-exercise circuit to try next time you hit the playground. Warm-up with whatever rhythmic movements get your heart rate up and feel good. Butt kicks and knee bends are a nice start. After that, cycle four times through: Bulgarian split squats, box jumps, and bodyweight skull crushers. Instead of the plyo box and weight bench illustrated in the picture below, use a low platform or stairs to do the squats and jumps in this workout.

After you’ve cycled through the circuit, cool down with rowing crunches on a bench, and hanging trunk twists.

Enjoy and have fun out there!

See more home exercise ideas HERE

The warm-up is a few minutes of commando jacks and squat kicks. Try to accumulate 100 of the jumping jack variation and 50 of the squat variation. Those squat kicks are something from a martial arts workout. You’re going to dig them.

The circuit is 4 times through barbell back squats, dumbbell lateral raises (aka shoulder flyes), and single arm preacher curls. Bust out 8 squats, 6 lateral raises, and 7 preacher curls before starting over.

See the “How I did it” section below, to see what type of weight I used for each of the movements. Your starting point is going to be different, but the goal is to use enough weight safely that you are promoting muscle development through the overload principle. The idea is to gradually increase the intensity of your training so that you see the desired adaptations, like greater strength, more muscle mass, et cetera.

So, thus far the workout has some light agility, plus legs and pulling-type upper body strength training. What about pushing for the upper body? You’ll find the pushing component of this workout in the cool down. The aim is 3 x 10 plyo push-ups. If clapping push-ups are too challenging, scale down to regular push-ups. For those of you starting out, incline push-ups with your hands on a bench is a nice place to begin.

Have fun and have a great 4^th of July!

HOW I DID IT:

• 175 lb back squats
• 30 lb preacher curls
• 25 lb lateral raises

See more at-home workouts HERE

This workout has a super classic push-pull-leg circuit of back squats, pull-ups, and parallette push-ups. The extra push-up depth obtained with the parallettes is killer for a good chest pump. You’re going to dig it.

The cool down is a bit unconventional with a loop of Cossack squats and sissy squats, but it’s fun mix things up. Remember, since these are part of the cool-down, you aren’t necessarily doing these for strength training. Think of them as light mobility drills, and a nice way to keep the blood going after the heavier stuff.

How I did it: 

• 135 lb back squat
• 30 lb on the pull-up (dumbbell between the legs)

See more workouts HERE

The gradual recovery plus the end of Spring is getting me PSYCHED. Summer adventures are just around the corner! It’s all the more reason to stay as fit and conditioned for fun as you can.

On that note, this Strength Mob workout brings the heat with some single leg strength. Pistol squats and other unilateral lower body drills are ideal prep for the rigors an adventurous life. Bounding down a trail run. Pushing through your foot to reach a new grip while climbing. Cutting across the field during an ultimate game. All of the radness during sport depends on a strong and stable set of legs.

The rest of the session targets your upper body with some kettlebell bent presses, and landmine rows. If you don’t actually have the little landmine attachment to keep your barbell secure on the ground (I don’t), just tuck it into the corner of the wall. Similarly, if you are struggling with the mechanics of the bent press, switch it up by leaning your torso to perform an angled shoulder press.

Give it a shot, and let me know what you think of this workout. PEACE.

HOW I DID IT:

• 50 lb kettlebell for bent presses
• 30 lb pistol squats
• 90 lb landmine rows (two 45s on the bar end)

It didn’t make it into the article, but it’s a good workout nonetheless. The idea was to come up with a simple session that people could do at home during quarantine. The intended audience wasn’t necessarily someone with a garage gym at their disposal. Floor space, and a yoga mat were the main constraints.

Rather than using barbell like in the pictures, people were supposed to load up a backpack or duffle bag with some textbooks or other heavy items from the house.

Let me know what you think of the changes. Do you like having fewer warm-up and cool-down exercise? It’s good idea to mix-up your routine every now and then. I might start playing with the format of Strength Mob workouts based on your feedback. Let me know your thoughts!

Staving off depression is one reason. But as it turns out, regular exercise can also help fight off complications associated with ARDS. Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS for short), is one of the reasons Covid-19 is so deadly. This link was found on Reddit, but it reports on a NIH funded study out of the University of Virginia. It looks like exercise helps increase an important antioxidant that assists in the maintenance of lung health.

Since you are already the type of person searching online for at-home workouts, you’re definitely ahead of the curve for staying healthy. If anyone in your circle of friends or family is struggling with their own motivation for exercise, point them to this research.

You never know – perhaps it could help save their life!

For today’s Strength Mob circuit workout, you’ll be doing 3 main exercises for 8 reps each, 4 times through. The movements are: sumo deadlift high pulls (SDHP), dips, and windmills. The SDHP are really the meat and potatoes of this workout, targeting your legs, back, and arms. If you don’t have access to a barbell, load up a duffle bag or something similar. A heavy kettlebell will do the trick too.

For the dips use rings, a dip station, or if you don’t have access to those, try your kitchen counter top.

The windmills are in there as a bit of a treat. Think of them as a mobility helper for your back and hips. As the saying goes: “You’re only as young, as your spine is flexible.” Wise words.

How I did it: 

• 125 lb sumo deadlift high pulls
• 30 lb dumbbell for the windmills
• Dips were done with parallettes on top of a plyo box

DOWNLOAD THIS WORKOUT AND OTHERS FROM STRENGTH MOB

Raise your hand if this is NOT how you anticipated Spring 2020 to be rolling out. Covid-19 has taken a steam roller to life as usual.

As we’ve all quickly learned, quarantine life blows. All you can hope is that you stay healthy and that your friends and family do the same.

Considering that you might not have access to your normal workout gear, this at-home circuit training session is designed with minimal equipment. Two of the movements – the squat clean and shoulder curl – call for additional resistance, so load up a backpack with some old text books. A couple of jugs of water can add  decent weight too. Look around your house to see what you can throw together.

Have fun and stay healthy everyone!

BTW, if you are looking for more of these Strength Mob workouts you can now see the entire archive with downloads at www.StrengthMob.com.

Here is a recent burner from the man cave:

Start your session with a few minutes of rhythmic warm-up. High stepping and twist jumps are a few standards to get the blood pumping.

Once you’re sufficiently warm, load up your barbell and find the kettlebells or dumbbells that you want to use. Today’s circuit entails forward lunges, single arm preacher curls, and single arm thrusters.

Once you’ve jammed through four rounds of those three movements, move on to the cool-down. See what you think of the side plank with your lower leg raised. It adds a nice abdominal burn. Some uneven push-ups are the last bit of punishment to round-out the workout.

How I did it:

• 125 lb for barbell forward lunges
• 30 lbs for single arm preacher curls
• 50 lbs for the single arm thrusters.