Open Floorplan Bodyweight Routine
There’s a giant empty room I do some of my training in. It’s literally just a giant room with mirrors and wooden floors (placed on top of concrete sub floors.) So I said to myself “self, lets put together a bodyweight routine that takes complete advantage of this room.” So I did. And now we have the open floorplan bodyweight routine.
While performing this routine I found that it goes from fairly easy to difficult towards the end. Your milage may vary depending on what parts of your body have the most mobility / flexibility / strength.
Warm up timer is as follows – 45 seconds of work with 0 rest inbetween exercises.
- Open the gate
- Close the gate
- High knee huggers
- Rotating toe touches
- Arm circles forward
- Arm circles back
How big should the arm circles be? Go small to larger as time goes by. I honestly stuck this on the list as a movement to walk around the giant room. They’ll help warm up the shoulders, which is going to be beneficial for the second piece of work you’ll be doing at the end of the circuit.
Get your tabata timer ready for the routine – 20 seconds of work with 10 seconds of rest inbetween. 8 rounds total. ( * I wrote the routine for 8 rounds total. When I did this routine with real, live people we got started late so I had to modify it down to 6 rounds total. *) Each exercise should be performed for the set prescribed number of rounds (8 as written, 6 when performed live.)
Side Band Walks
Yes, you’ll want therabands for this to increase resistance. You can do it without, but its more enjoyable / feels better with the band. Place the band around your ankles, feet slightly further than shoulder width apart. Take a step to the side to tighten the band, keeping your feet facing forward. Step in with your other foot keeping the distance your starting point. Rinse and repeat.
Forward Band Walks
Yeah, this is pretty much how it sounds. Band goes around the ankles and you walk forward with one leg to create tension on the band. Once you feel tension, step with the other leg.
Alternating Forward Lunges
Left leg goes forward bending at the knee while right leg goes behind you, bending at the right knee. At the end of the movement your left knee will be at 90 degrees, left foot flat on the floor, right knee is bent at 90 touching the ground with your right toes also touching the ground. Now alternate with right leg going forward while left leg goes back.
Deadlift Death March Walk
I tracked down a second video for this one besides my own. The man in the video is holding weights, but you can do this with just your bodyweight. This would also be useful in a warmup routine. This is a hip hinge exercise so you’re pushing your hips back and forward. Keep your spine neutral hinging only as far forward as you can while maintaining a straight spine. Slightly bend your forward knee while keeping your back knee straight.
Side band walks (2:50), lunges (1:30), and the march (46 seconds in) are all covered in the video below
Bear Crawls
These are fun when you have a huge room to move about. While browsing youtube be mindful of the fact that there are a lot of people filming videos that may describe things improperly. I ran across two of those videos while looking for a “how to” on this one. Get into a crawling like position with your hands and feet on the ground. Hands to shoulders should be a straight line. Slightly lift your knees off the ground to be in a “hovering” position off the ground. Move your left hand forward and bring your right leg forward. Alternate to right hand, left leg. Keep the core engaged as you move about.
Inchworm Walkouts
Tabata inchworms and warm up inchworms are two totally different beasts. From a standing position hinge at the waist walking your hands out until you’re in an extended plank position. Walk your feet forward to meet your hands, then walk your hands back out. Rinse and repeat across the room. The word “walkout” is important as it implies the feet are also going to be walking.
Chimp Walks
This is a side shuffle animal walk movement. Get yourself into a seated squat like position with your hands planted into the floor. Shoot both your legs off to the side while planting your weight into your hands. Catch your hands up with your body and repeat. Feet can go as low or as high as you feel comfortable with. Check out the video for some variations.
