Theresa Rowe leads you through a series of Total body exercises designed to increase your energy, strength, flexibility and endurance. Each exercise has a prayerfully chosen scripture to help strengthen our spiritual foundation.

Welcome to Shape by faith. A special series led by health and fitness expert Teresa Row. Get ready for an entertaining and spirit led adventure while learning ways you can become fit in your body, mind and spirit. Now here’s Teresa. Hi, I’m Theresa Rowe, Welcome to shape by Faith where we shape our bodies and hearts for God’s purposes. I hope you enjoyed this core workout that I put together in my home just for you. These exercises will strengthen your core and increase your energy, flexibility and endurance. Each core exercise has a prayerfully chosen scripture to help strengthen our spiritual foundation. You will only need a medium to light set of weights. Let’s get started, Go ahead and bring out your legs a little bit wider. Bring your arms up, let’s start rotating through the waist. Okay? We’re working on the core so we’re gonna rotate. We’re gonna tap a little bit commit to the Lord whatever you do and your plans will succeed. Right? So we’re gonna start out with that, we’re going to commit this workout to the Lord and he’s gonna help us all the way through. We’re gonna rely upon his strength and his breath leading us through, Keep reaching up, let’s go back to those rotations. Okay, again, we really need to warm up this core, Keep that belly pulled in, You can make it okay, you’re gonna be able to make this with me. Alright? It’s gonna be a little challenging exercise. But believe me, we can do this together, reach up again and breathe and extend. Get energized. This is gonna be a fantastic workout. A few more of these, one more each arm. Alright, let’s go ahead and let’s pick up our weights. Either light, medium heavy, whatever you wanna do, bring your legs out their belly is in bring the arms back just a little bit, we’re just gonna lean side to side, just like that. I need you to communicate with your waist. Just pull it in good and tell your belly to stay strong, to protect your back and your spine and your knees by his divine power. God has given us everything we need from living a godly life. He really has in his word as you open it up and you read it, I’m telling you what those words will jump off the page so many times when I read scripture, there’s one word for one verse. It kind of stands out to me and I just take that verse and I meditate on it all day long and it keeps coming back to me even when I’m in the bed at night and waking up, I remember that verse one more each direction. Good. This next exercise, you only need one weight, so we’re going to hold the weight at the end, we’re gonna bring the feet like you’re going into a squat position, right? So you’re gonna lower down and bring the weight up and around so you can inhale right there. Exhale, bring it up, modification. Just don’t rotate as much. Okay, just bring it over a little bit and bring the weight below the shoulders to progress. I need you to really reach up there. God who began a good work within you will continue it. He’s going to continue the work in utilities finished, right? He’s gonna stick with you all the way through it. He’s not leaving you. He never does, he never abandons us. He’s always with us. I know sometimes we feel alone, but you’re not alone. God is with you remind yourself of that one more of these chopped and then down good. Alright, let’s go to the opposite side, lower down in the squat chop up. Remember your modifications right here, Below your shoulders don’t rotate as much progression up. Good. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him. God is always working things out for us. He always is. We may not feel it and the situation may not seem like it, but he is always working things out for our good and for his glory. Are you breathing? You need that mouth open because the heart rate will be increased this a little bit on these chops working the waist. And we’re working the abdominals again. Be mindful of your modifications come up and go below the shoulders instead of way up over the shoulders and one more of these good work. Alright, let’s go back to those sidelines, pick up your other weight, bring your legs out nice and wide, pull the belly in and start to lean side two sides. Oh, that feels good. We’re working the waist, the obliques, those muscles that wrap around the core. We’re focused on the Word of God. Your word Lord is a lamp to guide my feet. Your word Father is a light from my path. I mean, that’s a prayer. I love the book of psalms. If you want to learn how to pray, open up the book of songs and just start reading them. They’re beautiful prayers and they’re honest prayers. King David wrote a lot of those songs a lot of times. He was down and out and he spoke that and then he came out of it with the strength of the Lord. Let’s do this one more each side, let’s go back to that chop. So hold one way lower down and then rotate good. Don’t let your heart be troubled. Trust in God! Trust in him. Don’t let your heart be troubled. Right? And you know, I repeat scripture to myself in my heart silently if I’m around a lot of people. And I start to get a little troubled. I talked to myself and I talked to myself with the word of God and I said, don’t be troubled, don’t be troubled. God’s got you. He’s with you. Alright? So we’re working the waist. Right, how are you doing at home? You’re doing good. You feel stronger, we should be getting stronger together, let’s do that a few more times, working the chop, working on this one side, working the waist, nice rotation. One more good job. Let’s go to the opposite side again. Lower down here, remember your modifications right there, so as you modify, don’t rotate as much and keep that arm below your shoulder progression. Bring it up for God has not given us a spirit of fear or timidity but of power, love and self discipline. That’s what God’s given us. He’s given us that joy in our heart. He’s given us a way to be disciplined, keep it going. Exhale our prayer. Life is a life of discipline. Just getting used to praying all throughout the day. Just make it a practice. Just start one day at a time, just practicing your prayer before God silently in your heart out loud He’s praying one more. Whoa, okay, you did great. Go ahead and position yourself on your powerhouse, pull your belly in, elbows directly underneath your shoulder. Now we’re gonna do some challenging planks so I need you to pace yourself and rest. If you need to modification go ahead and pull up and go to your knees. Try not to push the knees into the floor. Just pull in that belly button, navel to the spine and hold, I want you to focus on this first, you are God’s masterpiece alright? You are God’s masterpiece and you are his unique design progression. Go ahead, take your toes and lift off that mat and hold right there, forearm plank. You’ve got this just hold all right now focusing on your breathing, keeping the navel to the spine, inhaling exhaling good. You are God’s masterpiece. You are very unique, very special. Let’s go down to the knees, transition to your side on your forearm. Bring both legs out. This is a side plank so you can stack your feet just like this to modify this, bring your knees in front and just lift the hips off the floor and bring that arm up right, just right there progression extend your legs fully out there, lift off that floor and hold, come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, and you will find a life. I love that verse. Come to me listen and you will find life. So this is a basic forearm plank again, I need you to pace yourself. Okay? So if you need to rest, you rest, these are hard to hold but they are so good for the body, not only for the abdominals, but also for the upper body and that lower body. Alright, let’s come out of that right there. Now, this next one, you’re gonna come up on the hand and I’m gonna show you the modification on the knee and extend this one leg out in this one arm up. Just hold right there good. Alright, so for the side plank and thread the needle, you’re gonna stagger your legs, hold right there, bring the arms through and then bring it right back up, remain in me and I will remain in You love that verse out of the book of john remain in me and I will remain in you keep going. This is called thread the needle, it strengthens the obliques, the core, the entire body. Remember you can modify you can go down to that knee position and hold your plank. Let’s do that one more time. Nice work. Let’s come down and let’s stretch. Just stretch back, breathing, inhaling and exhaling. And the word of God says, I am the vine and you are the branches, we are an extension of jesus, right, let’s go ahead, let’s transition to the opposite side. So what we’re gonna do here is we’re going to place our forearms on the mat, bring the legs out. But remember your modification, the knees are bent out in front of you and you’re gonna just lift up right there and bring your arms up. Remember that one. Okay, so the progression bring the legs out, lift up and hold right there. The Lord is my shepherd, I have everything that I need, you’ve got everything you need, it’s inside of you and you’ve got God and you’ve got the word of God and he goes with you and he goes before you keep holding and breathing. You’ve got this nice work lower down, next position, you can bring your knees out in front and come up and hold just like that. Or you can come up on the hand, place that one knee down opposite leg out, rotate the hips open and hold thread the needle progression. Go ahead and stagger those legs. You’re ready inhale to prepare, exhale, go ahead, bring that arm through, draw close to God and he will draw close to you. Isn’t that so true? He draws so close to you as you focus in on him. And I’m thinking about him right now. Yes, we’re doing this thread, the needle, we’re breathing or strengthening the body so that we can go out and do what God has created each one of us to do with excellence and energy. I need you to hold right here, hold it. We’re gonna go back to that basic plank. Okay, so let’s go down to the knees, let’s transition down to the belly, elbows under the shoulders. Remember your modification just right here, hold right there, remember the progression, lift up and hold and breathe. Just kind of reflect on the scripture verses that we’ve gone over today remain in me and I will remain in You draw close to me and I will draw close to you. Just hold right here, breathing, staying focused and not necessarily on how hard this is, but how excellent you’re going to be as you strengthen your body and you go out there and you’re strong and you’ve got plenty of energy and you’re like, I’m so glad I practiced that plank. Keep holding and breathing. God is the light of our life. Right? He lights us up, Go ahead and bring the knees down. I need you to gently stretch now with me stretch all the way back and hold deep inhale right here, inhale and exhale. Let’s do that again. Deep inhale and exhale now. You can bring one arm through and hold right there. This is also called thread the needle so you can hold it right there, hold that stretch. I wait quietly before God, I’ll wait quietly before him switch out those arms. Hold, breathe nice work. Won’t go ahead and position yourself on your back, pull that belly in, you can use a weight or you don’t have to, these are reverse curls. I’m gonna show you the modification, bring the weight back start to bring one leg back at a time. Just take your time and breathe through this as the leg comes back. Just exhale. The progression is a tabletop position with that belly pulled in rock back a little bit and then bring your arms towards your legs. Rock back Good. That’s right. For the word of God is active. Did you know that God’s word is so active, progression. Go ahead and lift the shoulders off the mat, looking towards your legs, navel to the spine breathing. God’s word is active. It goes out and accomplishes exactly what God wants it to accomplish. So let’s keep speaking the word of God. Let’s keep reading the word of God, depositing the word in our hearts. One more nice. Okay, the next exercise is called the crisscross and I’m telling you it’s hard, it’s challenging, but you can do it, place the hands back behind you modification, go ahead, come up, rotate, bring the foot down, opposite leg rotate, bring it down. Now, here’s the harder part. Go ahead, rotate one leg fully extended and rotate right there. There is no condemnation for those who belong to christ jesus. None. So don’t guilt yourself. All right now, there’s a difference when the holy spirit convicts us and we go to the Lord, we’re asking for forgiveness, but there’s no condemnation, no guilt, no shame, keep going through this with that belly in. This is the number one exercise to flatten that belly, so keep it pulled in, keep working through the core, keep extending the legs out. You’ve got this one more each leg, Last one. Nice. This next exercise, you can place your hands underneath your hips a little bit and the modification would be legs are up and then place one leg down, lower that leg down and lift it right back up. The progression, bring the legs up, lower them down and hold and then bring them back up. Okay, I need to focus on God’s word right here, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power good. You can also lift the head off the mat and look towards the legs, keep breathing. You can also bring the hands back behind the head. These are called leg lowers. Remember your modification one leg at a time, right, breathe through this, doing this with me, I hope right? You’re not just watching, you’re doing this with me, keep it going, let’s do this one more time. Whoa! Bring those knees in just for a little break right here, next exercise, fully extend one leg out, okay, I need you to take your opposite arm, you’re gonna cross over as that leg comes up, so just come on up, cross over and down progression. Go ahead, lift off the floor right there, you know, God’s word tells us to go and make disciples, right? So how do we do that? Well, we go out and we share our testimony, we share our story with others and we just share with them what jesus has done for us. So that’s one way of really sharing what God has done for you, your testimony and people will take notice, believe me as you share what God has done for you, they will remember that because your story is your story, it’s unique, right? Keep moving. So we’re working through the core in this leg one more time, you’re doing fantastic nice job, okay, opposite leg extends out, opposite arm up, right? So modification. Just stay on the mat right here, you can also just bend the knee right there. Alright, so another progression for this one like we did on the other leg is lift and lower, exhaling and inhaling, jesus replied, high in the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry. That is so true. I think so many times we look for other things to satisfy us. Maybe it’s food, maybe it’s certain movies or books, you know, but none of those things truly satisfy us, only jesus does. So we go to him and we pray. We have this piece that you can’t conjure up her makeup like christ places that in our hearts for us when we thirst after him. One more. Great. Okay, let’s go back to that. Crisscross, remember your modification here, one ft and one leg come back lower down and then switch out, let’s go into that progression flexed in one leg and then switch out alternating legs. God showed us his great love for us by sending price to die for us, right? I mean while we were still sinners a lot of times, I call myself a smoke like Teresa, you’re such a smug look and I know we’re not supposed to be talking about ourselves like that, but I’m like, I’m such a sinner and hide is such a good father that he forgives me of all of my sins and he went to that cross for my sins and he paid the price for my sins and for your sins. Keep moving. Remember this exercise is challenging. It’s so, so good for the abdominals and the entire body. One more of these. Whoa! I’m ready for a break. I hope you are too is a backstretch modification would be Place one ft down gently from one knee back towards you and just hold let’s switch out. Trust in the Lord with all your heart lean not on your own understanding from puff like santa progress, rock a little bit in all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct our paths. He will sometimes we feel lost and we’ve got to reset our focus. So I remind myself, what are you thinking about? What are you focused on? Get your mind back on things above. Not on yourself on the situation or on the problem. Go ahead and grab a weight. We’re gonna start with the modified reverse curl, bring it back behind the head, bring one leg in towards you, pull the belly in and bring that leg down. Let’s go ahead and switch with the other leg. So what you’re going to be doing is alternating your legs to modify the reverse curl to progress the reverse curl, bring your legs up in tabletop, pull the belly in, roll those hips back and bring your weight towards those legs. Let’s do that again. Bring them towards the legs for the word of God is alive and active and it certainly is. Let’s go ahead and lift off that mat. I can really feel this right in my belly strengthening the abdominals and that’s what we’re doing right now, you rest if you need to take a break, okay, breathe through this. We’re going to stay focused on the word of God. God’s word is active. God’s word is alive. Going into the vertical leg stretch. Place your weight down, hands under your hips and legs can come up so go ahead and reach up just a little bit and lower down. And then you can bring those arms up and lower reach and lower. You can place the hands back behind the head. You can modify bring one ft down. If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful. And just to forgive us. So, going to God asking him for forgiveness, you know, forgiveness is a big thing. It really is. Um when we hold unforgiveness in our heart, there’s just something that happens. I mean, we’ve become kind of bitter and maybe a little resentful. So, if you need to forgive someone because God so easily forgives us, ask God to help you forgive them. All right? See that one more time, reach up and lower down. All right, go ahead and leave one leg out and bring your opposite arm across. What you’re gonna do is lift that leg up, cross over and bring that arm back. Or just simply lift the leg and lower down if you want to to progress, you can come all the way up and lower down, exhaling and inhaling. Remember we are called to go out and share with others what jesus has done for us and I know Jesus came to me right where I was at, in the middle of a fitness class when I moved back to Kentucky, I had no idea what was coming, but God did. He positioned this lady in my path and she prayed with me in my heart, had a total radical transformation. I wanted to know more about jesus and his love, one more. Alright, go ahead, switch out, bring that opposite arm across. So be obedient to God is God is nudging you to go over and talk with someone or to go over and pray with someone. You may feel kind of awkward, kind of strange to do it Anyway, Obedient to God because of this lady’s obedience. I’m right here with you today, working out with you always work enthusiastically for the Lord, right? That’s why we’re doing this for him so that our bodies can be strong so that we can go out there and share with others what he has done for us with lots of energy and forgiveness in our hearts, right? That forgiveness is a big deal asking God to help us forgive others who have hurt us or maybe someone’s talking behind your back and you found out about it now hurt your feelings. Go to God, don’t let it fester. Right? One more exhaling and inhaling Now this next exercise is my favorite. I know I keep saying these exercises are my favorite, but this one really is, it’s called the bridge. It’s for the back and the spine pull the belly in, go ahead, roll up through the spine, each vertebra at a time, hold right there and then roll back down. Do you know there’s no condemnation for those who belong to jesus christ hon you just go to God allow him to do the work that needs to be done. We’re all a work in progress, right? Like I don’t have it perfected the way I should be. But I trust God that he is working on me every single day. He’s shaping and molding me and he’s teaching me also every single day I’m learning something as I opened his word and I read it. It’s like I read the word years and years ago, like I do every day. But maybe today this one scripture verse is really sticking out and I’m like, Lord, what are you trying to say here? Please show me? And he does. And maybe it’s about forgiveness. Maybe it’s about working on my mouth because sometimes I say things that aren’t so great and bring it back down. Let’s go into a back stretch. Just bring one knee in. This is a modified back stretch and home, but my life first. And I don’t know if you have a favorite verse but one proverbs 35 and six. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways, In all your ways acknowledge God and he will direct your path and he will keep holding, keep breathing this backstretch. We probably should be doing this every single day and then carefully come on up, work on that breathing. Thank you for allowing me in your home today. I hope you’re motivated to continue preparing yourself to be the best you can be as we continue exercising and praising God together, he will bless our bodies and hearts for his purposes. It is God who made us and breathes his spirit in us so we can encourage others to live for him. Until next time, my friends may the Lord bless you and keep you safe, healthy and strong in your body, mind and spirit tune in next time as we continue shaping bodies and hearts for God’s purposes with Teresa Row as we all become shaped by faith