15 Minute Circuit-Style Workout

I was inspired to write this post after I read Coffee, Cardio, and Kale’s “Your Best 21 Minute Workout!”

My friends and I are going to the beach for Spring Break and they’re wanting to get ready for that. I want to switch things up a bit in my routine and focus on functional fitness and strength training (although this is more cardio/functional fitness than strength training) and have a bit of fun with these Saturday boot camp workouts my friends want me to plan out for them.

I warned them the entire week leading up to our boot camp Saturday workouts that this was going to be a challenging workout, but it’s going to be amazing. So, taking from Coffee, Cardio, and Kale, I’ve put together a little 3-circuit, 15-minute workout that you can do at the gym if you’re looking to switch things up.

How to do this workout:

Do each circuit for 5 minutes. Stop after each circuit and take a 1-2 minute break. Or, honestly, until you feel recovered.

Do all three exercises in the set and repeat the set until the 5 minutes is up.

Take breaks as needed, but push through as much as you can.

Let’s get that blood flowing!

Circuit 1

250-meter row
12 walking lunges (6 each leg)
25 Russian twists

Circuit 2

25 battle rope alternating single arm swings (both arms count as one rep)
12 tricep dips
25 mountain climbers

Circuit 3

25 bodyweight squats
15 burpees
10 plank walks

NOTE: We did 5 minutes for beginners, but if you want more of a challenge, increase the times for each circuit. I think 7-8 minutes for each round would be a wonderful, sweaty experience. If you’re really wanting to push yourself, 10 minutes per circuit would be #KILLER.

Here are my thoughts on this workout. I wanted to keep the heart rate up and incorporate some strength movements. This kind of goes along with HIIT (high-intensity interval training) workouts, but I wouldn’t really consider this a HIIT workout. I tried to keep this workout similar to something my trainer made me do when I first started working out. I hated him for making me feel like death during the workout, but I loved the results!

To be honest, I tested out this workout over the weekend, and it was awesome! It was a nice switch up to my regular lifting split, and I’ll definitely be adding more of these “fun” days to my routine!

Let me know if you try out this workout! I’m definitely going to be keeping y’all updated with the workouts I’m putting my friends through because they’re beginners just like most of you and they’re just getting started on their fitness journey. Have you done workouts like this before? What do you think of them?

~abigail gray