This 5-day challenge will help you build a strong and balanced foundation of fitness that fuels a sustainable routine long-term. In addition to a daily workout, daily question prompts will help cultivate a healthy mindset and relationship with exercise that lasts well beyond these 5 days.
Who is this challenge for?
Foundations with Nicole is a great way to either return to fitness in an approachable way, challenge yourself to get consistent with exercise, or simply shake things up in your current routine! What makes this challenge approachable is the low-impact nature of all of the exercises as well as the level 3 rating for most workouts.
You can benefit from this challenge with a variety of health and fitness goals. Whether you want to lose weight, improve body composition, gain strength, or create a consistent exercise habit, it all starts with a solid foundation you can build on. That being said, all challengers will find an improvement in total body strength, cardiovascular endurance, and muscular endurance. If you are seeking a balanced program with approachable yet scalable exercises that allow you to meet yourself where you’re at each day, join me!
What to expect
Over the course of 5 days, you’ll be presented with 5 new workouts — all between 30-40 minutes in length and completely low-impact (no jumping). You’ll be getting a healthy balance of strength training, high-intensity interval training (HIIT), and cardio, along with bits of mobility and core to round it out. Most of our workouts are level 3, with the exception of one level 2 recovery-style routine. I do want to offer that these workouts are all very scalable; some simple swaps can easily take these workouts a level higher.
Here’s an overview of the week at a glance:
- Day 1: Lower Body Strength with Cardio Bookends
- Day 2: Upper Body Strength with Core Intermissions
- Day 3: Low-Impact Bodyweight HIIT Ladders
- Day 4: Total Body Bored Easily Strength with Core Finisher
- Day 5: Steady-State Cardio with Balance and Mobility Work
Since one element of having a sustainable fitness routine is your mindset, I offer you a question prompt each day of the challenge. These daily question prompts serve as a way to get grounded in your “why” and ditch the all-or-nothing patterns so you can set yourself up for a sustainable long-term relationship with movement, well beyond these 5 days.
Equipment needed
The main piece of equipment is dumbbells — I recommend a range of light, medium, and heavy (for you) weights — if possible. Occasionally, a mat or comfortable space on the floor will be needed. Two of our workouts are completely bodyweight.
I hope this challenge is exactly what you need to refocus and regain motivation for your exercise routine! Let’s get to it.