You don’t need expensive fitness equipment to get a stunning physic. The truth is that your body weight can provide sufficient resistance to tighten, tone and reshape your whole body. You can create endless workouts using only few, simple, but challenging body weight drills that will deliver incredible results.
One legged squats is probably the best body weight exercise for your legs and butt that requires balance, strength, flexibility and coordination. In this workout, I am doing 5 reps on each leg. Half way down I do a short pause to make this exercise harder and I do the same thing half way up. Take your time and focus on achieving perfect form. All your muscles should be under tension. After this exercise I move on directly to high knees with jump rope and I do 50 of them. The faster you can complete the 50 high knees the better.
As you can notice already from the first part, this workout is combining strength training and cardio conditioning. Strength training = body toning. High intensity cardio = fat loss. Make sure to check back for the second part of this Body Weight Workout.
Best,
Zuzana.
Hey Zuzana, I scheduled a workout program for myself. I picked all the routines I liked from your website and put them together. They are a little overwhelming but I do these exercises throughout the day and not all at once. Can you please tell me if these routines are too much or if they are not enough. I would appreciate any advise.
Sunday: 20 Minute Cardio,
Rock your body Fitness Routine (1-8),
Summer Fitness Exercise Program-15 Minute Weight Training I and II.
Monday: 20 Minute Cardio,
Running,
Abs Attack (1-2),
Summer Fitness Exercise Program-20 Minute Cardio and Core.
Tuesday: 20 Minute Cardio
Upper Body Workout Compound Set
Lower Body Workout Compound Set
Summer Fitness Exercise Program- 15 Minute Weight training I and II
Wednesday: 20 Minute Cardio,
Running,
Butt and Abs Workout (1-5),
Summer Fitness Exercise Program- 20 Minute Cardio Core.
Thursday: 20 Minute Cardio,
Rock Your Body Fitness Routine (1-8),
Summer Fitness Exercise Program- 30 Minute Circuit Workout.
Friday: 20 Minute Cardio,
Abs Attack (1-2),
Butt and Abs Workout (1-5),
Summer Fitness Exercise Program- 20 Minute Cardio and Core.
Saturday: 20 Minute Cardio.
Yikes! I tried this and I can barely go down! I thought my balance was okay, too. Any modification tips in the mean time?
Hi Kristina, you can hold on to something, you can try box squat and as you get better you can go deeper in the squat, or you can jump up on a table and do the one leg squat with your leg straight down instead of extended in front of you. What is surprisingly helpful for the balance is holding a dumbbell or kettlebell.
hey zuzana after your summer fit and some other exercises i lost 4 inches in less than 4 weeks!!!!! i’m so happy :)
but i read that i shouldn’t be doing the same workout routine for a long period.so i went through your page and i kinda made my own schedule :.
so i was wondering … is it ok to work your abs for 5 days,your legs for 3 days,upper body for 2 days, and 20 min work out for 2 days?
i hope you can give me an answer
and i’m looking forward to lose 4 more inches.
HI Janet,
congratulations to your progress! Feel free to change up your training every 4 to 6 weeks. It seems that you have become more self confident about putting your own program together which is really important. Try your system and keep track of your progress. If you are trying to loose fat and tone up, you have to burn more calories than you eat and that is basically the whole trick. So watch your diet and keep up the good work.
hi zuzana, i would like to ask you? if you had any problems doing this exercise the first time you did it. i do not seem to have the balance or strengh to go right down, is there any other exercise i can do to help me achive my goal thankyou your, fan.x
Hi Elaine, ofcourse I couldn’t do even one rep :) my husband neither, but it gets really easy if you practice. Try this exercise trough out the day. Just one set at the time and hold on to something if you have to. You will be surprised how fast you will make progress. Don’t you even think to give up on this exercise, because this is really one of the very best ones and one day you will be thankful that you have incorporated it into your training.
Hi Zuzana, I am wondering if doing the rock your body worckout 5 days a week is too much. I want to do something monday to fri .
Hi Megan, it is not too much if you vary the intensity of the workout from one day to another. You can vary the sets, reps, weight, and pace. One day you can make this workout shorter but harder, the next day you can do the whole workout with lighter weights, or you can incorporate some cardio in between each set or exercise.
My goodness Sara, are you Bionic? lol
Hi Zuzana,
My knee can’t help but go beyond my toes when attempting this.
Any advice for beginners?
HI Angeline, make sure that you lean forward enough and keep the weight on your heel.
Hi Zuzana!
I love your website, I saw all your videos and I often do some of your exercises at my gym. You’re a great teacher! :-)
I know I am very curious, but I would like to ask you something: how many hours/week do you exercise? What is your routine? Do you work out everyday?
Thank you so much!
Hi Joanne, I workout every day and the length of my workouts vary from 15 minutes to 1 hour max. I have been doing a lot of body weight drills lately, but I do slightly different routine every day.
Hello Zuzana, It seems to be a good excersice but when I tried to do it, I feel pain in my knees, do you think that’s normal when you first?
Hi Isis, It is not normal to feel pain in your knees. I am not a psychic so I can’t tell you what causes the pain, but as I suggest to everyone, consult your doctor if you have any concerns.
Hi Zuzana,
I’ve watching your videos since- well your hair ws shorter :). These one leg squat look killer, there’s no way I can go that low but you do inspire me to try!
Thanks for the videos and healthy eating tips.
its sounds great to me……… I would also like to know what Zuzana’s workout routine is for the week for herself (how much cardio and what type and how much weights she is doing, which exercises) .
I never know when Zuzana’s showing part 1 through to part 4,5 or 6 if its a one day routine or just part one is a routine for the whole day with some cardio attached to it……. or is it that its broken into intervals because of the short recording window.
Please explain as i am confused!
Regards,
Rav
Hi Ravi, the complete workout has 5 parts as I mentioned in the video and in the text. This is only part 1 of the whole workout that has 5 parts. I am not posting all of the parts of my workout routines all at ones. To follow this workout routine you have to wait until I upload all of the parts.
Hi Zuzanna
Totally impressed with the workout routines, have you ever used suspension training equipment such as the TRX?
touch base soon
David
awesome Z~
can’t wait for the rest of the series. thanks!
R
WOW
How do I get that low with out falling over?
You have a very important website that will help a lot of people gain new strength and improve their health.
Rav
i keep reading,that people are not understanding the layout of the site, i was like you this is how i get round it. when i have video come though, i have opened a file for zuz vids save each one, when i want to exercise go into the file click on anyone, go to top of page click on workouts ,list of workouts come up, chose work out it should have the full work out routine if posted, do nub 1, then go to left corner of page click back arrow it will then take you to the full work out routine again. this is how i work round the site it may help you. elaine
Thanks Zuzana! I’ll give that a try with my routine tomorrow.
Been doing Tabata (for 20 min) about 4 (sometimes 5) times a week for my third week now, and noticing a REALLY big change in muscle tone and some inch loss. It’s incredible. I’m so thankful I found your site or then I wouldn’t have known about it otherwise!
Hi Zuzana
This workout seems very challenging. I am very slim and really want to gain mass in my legs and butt. since u do not use any weights with these squats, will i be gaining mass or just toning?
Hi Yeni, if this exercise with your own body weight is not challenging for you anymore then you can add more reps or weight. You can do 3 to 6 sets of 10 reps with your own body weight or you can do 10 to 20 sets of 5 reps which will allow you to increase the weight. Both methods are sufficient for muscle growth, but remember that if you won’t feed your muscles, then you will just get a nice tone. You have to eat enough so that the hypertrophy can take place.
I’ve seen these done before only where the free leg, the foot rested on a chair. I’m going to keep at it though.
You should be on Ninja Warrior.
Hi Zuzana,
I have noticed muscle growth on the front part of my thighs after doing your exercises, but I still notice that my inner thighs are still flabby.
Do you have any advice for this?
Hi Angeline, you can really work the muscles of the inner thighs with exercises such as sumo squats, sumo dead lifts, wall sits, step ups, and hip adductions.
[...] Zuzana – BodyRock.Tv wrote an interesting post today onBody Weight Workout 1: One-legged squats | free <b>fitness</b>, and <b>…</b>Here’s a quick excerpt [...]
Zuzane, is there a way I could get personal trainning from you, a routine at least every month?
Hi Zuzana
I like the one-legged squat a lot and only after a few days I can already feel more low-body strength. The problem is this exercise really puts a lot of pressure on knees. I can hear my knees cracking sometimes. Could you suggest something which gives similar results but less punishing on knees. Thanks a lot.
Hi Zhen,
you don’t have to worry about noisy knees unless it hurts. You should also make sure that you stretch after your workouts, because sometimes your quads can be too tight due to lack of stretching and pull on your knees which is uncomfortable and sometimes even painful.
[...] Go here to see the original: Body Weight Workout 1: One-legged squats… [...]
Hi Zuzana,
I like the 1 legged squats, but i am reaching my mid 30’s and my knees are killing me. can you show how we can still work the quads minus the knee and how do you nurse a bad knee?
PS: you look great, keep up the good work, you’ve motivated us all!!!
rgd,
johnny
Hi Zuzana,
Those one legged squats are tough. Are they easier for women? My boyfreind is pretty strong (upper body anyways) and works out (so do I). I showed these to him. I could do 4 but he could not do one. He could not get up again. Would that be because of balance, leg strength or both? His upper body weighs probably 50 pound more than mine but I think my legs are bigger than his. Any advice I can give him? Do alot of guys have trouble with this exercise (because of the physics) or does he need to strengthen his legs?
HI Sally,
it is not in muscle mass. It is the connection between nerves and muscles. It is just a practice. This one legged squat is a move that most people have never practiced and that’s why they feel that they don’t have the strength for it. It is actually not true. We have strength to do things that we can’t even imagine. It’s just a matter of the electric impulses that your brain sends to your muscles. Look at it this way, if you can do 50 regular squats with weights in your hands ( and I believe that you can and your boyfriend most likely too) then why shouldn’t you have the strength for one One Legged Squat? I couldn’t do it either but for me it was fast. I was able to do 3 squats the very next day.
Hi Zuzana,
That was a fantastic programme of exercises. I managed 3 sets with 5 reps of each exercise, and doing the moves really slowly was very hard. The reverse push ups were so difficult, but I guess I just need to practice. Other moves like the pushups and also skipping gave me great difficulty to start with, but regular practice has paid off. Your site is so inspiring, thanks!