There’s a lot of jargon and tricky-to-understand acronyms to decipher when deciding on protein powder. However, there are three words to look for: concentrate, isolate and hydrolyzate.

These terms all describe a way of processing whey, and will affect the price, nutrition and digestibility. 

During cheese production whey is the liquid portion that splits off from the milk. A selection of amino acids can be siphoned off from this and processed to create protein powder. This is whey concentrate. 

“Concentrate is filtered and isolate is even more filtered,” says Onnit supplements product development scientist Steven Kahn. “It’s considered more pure. Per gram you’re getting more protein, as well as fewer carbs and fewer fats.”

It’s also a solid option if you’re lactose intolerant or struggle to digest whey concentrate. 

“In the carbs section, [the amount of] lactose is much lower, so there are many times where people are able to tolerate whey isolate better than whey concentrate if they have issues with lactose.”

However, Kahn warns this extra filtration comes at a cost and whey isolate will almost always be a pricier option than whey concentrate.

“There can be a difference in texture too,” he says. “While you’re siphoning out those other ingredients, you do change the texture.”

Many people feel the extra fats and carbs in a whey concentrate shake help give it a sweeter flavor and a creamier texture, which is why Kahn says some prefer it for cooking and baking. 

There’s also a third option to consider: whey hydrolysate. 

“That one’s interesting because not only is it taken from the isolate but manufacturers are also using enzymes to break down the amino acids and make it even easier to digest,” says Kahn. “There is another layer of cost there, but a lot of the time people who have issues digesting whey tend to tolerate that a bit better.”

Which one should you spend your hard-earned money on? It really comes down to your microbiome and how your gut responds to different things.

“If you can tolerate whey concentrate and the slightly larger amounts of carbs and fat aren’t an issue, you can go for that. But the best one for you is whatever your body responds best to. I know some people get bloated when they take certain wheys. If you’re able to find a product that’s in-budget and doesn’t have any negative impacts on you, go with that,” says Kahn.

We make it our business to tell readers about notable deals on products we like, and scour the web for legit offers during Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day to help you save money.

But probably the greatest discount out there is available year-round, it’s not restricted to an older model that’s been superseded by a newer release and the product is legitimately life-changing.

The UK government’s Cycle to Work Scheme allows payroll employees to get their hands on any e-bike for commuting and have the cost taken out of their salary in monthly instalments before tax—like a buy now, pay later that you always have the funds to cover. Because it’s taken out of your salary before you’ve paid tax, you save between 28%, 42% or 47%, depending on which tax band you fall in.

There are many Cycle to Work Scheme providers, but Green Commute Initiative is one of the more straightforward and as a social enterprise it’s doing everything it can to get more people cycling—a mission Coach wholeheartedly supports. For instance, it doesn’t charge a 7% fee at the end of the scheme like some traditional providers do, you just make the maximum savings available to you.

It also has a plain explanation of how the scheme works for employees, as well as a more detailed step-by-step guide, because, to be honest, it’s pretty convoluted. But when there’s the chance to save hundreds or even thousands of pounds on a better way to get to work, that’s a minor worry.

Still not convinced? Here are four good reasons for cycling to work on an ebike, informed by my experience of testing a dozen-odd ebikes on my commute.

1. Riding An E-Bike Is Easy

I regularly cycle to work on a normal bike. It’s great and the three subsequent reasons to commute all apply, but it’s not always easy. Hills, wind and the tiredness that builds up after a long week can make some rides a bit of a grind. And even if I take it easy, I sweat enough to warrant a shower and a change of clothes once I arrive at work, which adds time to my commute and bulk to my backpack.

An ebike has none of those problems. Suddenly you just become really good at cycling and cruise into work without breaking a sweat. In fact, I’ve learned to wrap up warmer than I normally would because I’m not working hard enough to raise my body temperature.  Through Green Commute Initiative, you can add clothing to your bike package so you can get the right gear for your commute and make big savings.

I’ve also found that cycling an e-bike to work is the easiest, most reliable way to get into work as you’re far less likely to get caught in traffic or the delays that can plague trains.

2. It’s Healthy

Even though you won’t necessarily get sweaty riding an e-bike, it’s still exercise and you’ll still do yourself the power of good. There’s an aerobic exercise target, recommended by various health agencies around the world, of 150 minutes of moderate activity a week. You really don’t have to work that hard to start racking up the minutes—a brisk walk or riding an e-bike, say—but the benefits you get from clocking up this amount of time doing low-intensity steady state are immense. If there was a pill that could deliver the proven benefits of regular aerobic exercise, you’d pay through the nose for it.

If your weekly commuting time adds up to 150 minutes or more, you’ll be hitting this recommended target without sacrificing any leisure time. And because it’s easy exercise, it won’t leave you too tired to keep up any sport or activity you already do. In fact, you’ll probably end up cycling to that too for a warm-up—that’s what I do.

3. It’s More Environmentally Friendly

While most of our transport infrastructure still runs on fossil fuels, getting around under your own steam will lower your personal emissions and limit pollution. More than that, the more people who cycle, the safer cycling feels. Making a change to your commute can have a ripple effect, inspiring others to travel in a way that’s better for the environment.

4. It’s Good Value For Money

Cycling to work is not free, but there’s every chance it will save you substantial sums of money compared with driving or taking public transport. Obviously, using Green Commute Initiative to access the Cycle to Work Scheme can significantly cut down your initial set-up cost, and you can negotiate with your employer to spread payments to fit your monthly budget. Just make sure to budget for regular maintenance and replacement parts, as well as insurance against bike theft. All customers of Green Commute Initiative have access to special offers on insurance products. I also subscribe to one of the UK’s cycling membership organisations to access liability insurance and legal assistance in the event of an accident.

Most of us have no problem devoting time to thinking about what we’re going to eat after a run: it’s pretty much the only thing we do think about during those latter stages. However, considering what to eat before a run is arguably more important because getting fueling right is key to a successful run.

You can use sports supplements, such as the best running gels, energy bars and sports drinks to fuel before and during a run and these can be convenient options for long runs and hard workouts, but for most runs you can get what you need from your regular diet if you do some planning.

For expert advice on what to eat before a run, I spoke to Dr Samuel Impey, chief scientific officer and co-founder of Hexis, an app that creates personalized nutrition plans for sportspeople.

Mat Fraser is the fittest man in history, having won the CrossFit Games more than any other male athlete. My highest accolade to date is being the top goal-scorer for my under-12 soccer team. 

Put simply, the two of us are on very different levels. But that doesn’t mean I can’t learn a thing or two from his famously hardcore training routine. 

Fraser’s signature workout is a 40-minute EMOM—four moves, each performed every minute, on the minute for 10 rounds. 

If it’s good enough for the fittest man in history, it’s good enough for me, so I decided to give it a go. 

How To Do Mat Fraser’s 40-Minute EMOM

Every minute, on the minute, for 40 minutes:

• Minute one: Row x 15cal
• Minute two: Toes-to-bar x 15
• Minute three: Air bike x 15cal
• Minute four: D-ball over shoulder x 6 (150lb / 70kg)

In an interview with YouTube fitness content creator Zack Telander, Fraser described the EMOM above as “a typical, middle-of-the-road workout” he would use in his training. 

He says he did at least one 40-minute EMOM per week throughout his career and adjusted the intensity depending on at what point in the CrossFit season he was performing it. 

At the beginning of the season, he would incorporate shorter, higher-output efforts that left him more rest at the end of each minute. From here, he gradually increased the volume of work in each minute until he was close to “working for 40 minutes straight”, before tapering it back down right before the CrossFit Games.

My Takeaways From Mat Fraser’s 40-Minute Emom Workout

As we’ve already established, Mat Fraser and I are cut from very different cloth. And, while I’m a fixture at my local CrossFit box, I know the numbers above aren’t achievable for me.  

That’s why I scaled the workout down to 12 calories on the rower and the air bike, 10 toes-to-bar and five sandbag-over-shoulders. 

And for the first four rounds, I thought maybe I’d made a mistake. I felt good, finishing each exercise with time to take a decent breather before moving on. My toes-to-bar felt snappy and the sandbag moved smoothly. 

But this blissful start wasn’t to last. At the midpoint of the workout, my core and legs began to feel the effects of 390 reps, and my breaks at the end of each minute started to shrink. And it wasn’t just my muscles that were ready to pack it in.

“You’re only halfway, and you’re already struggling,” an unhelpful inner voice jibed. “Call it quits at the 24-minute mark and be done with it.” 

It was tempting and, while I was determined to reach the finish line, the next few rounds turned into a serious slog. My movement quality wasn’t what it had been 10 minutes before but after finishing the seventh round something funny happened. 

It was like my mind saw the light at the end of the tunnel, and a second wind helped me complete the workout without letting any of the exercises overrun their prescribed minute. 

Overall, I got lucky and picked numbers that provided a solid test for my fitness level, but Fraser says this type of workout takes some tweaking to get it right. 

“I did [40-minute EMOMs] so often, and so many times,” he tells Telander. “I did workouts that were too easy, I did EMOMs that were too hard; you have to f*** up to find out what’s right and find where those limits are.”

I’ve since made 40-minute EMOMs a weekly part of my training, experimenting with different exercises and targets in each minute. 

Admittedly, 40 minutes is a decent chunk of my total daily session to devote to a single training piece, but I’ve found the format can be adapted to help hit multiple goals. 

For example, you can make one of the minutes a higher-skill gymnastic exercise to practice technique and develop capacity in this movement. Or you could slip some bodybuilding in there to add a side-order of hypertrophy to the main course of conditioning. 

This way, the 40-minute EMOM becomes a time-savvy addition to your training, serving up skill, strength, muscle and endurance perks depending on how you structure it. 

I wanted to be a soccer player growing up, as did most people at my English school. I didn’t have the talent—few do—but some of those who have the requisite natural gifts still fly under the radar. 

That’s why the Under Armour Next Academy was created—to identify sports stars of the future with six simple athletic tests, open to all-comers aged between 16 and 20. And as a one-time aspiring athlete, I couldn’t resist giving them a go. 

My only expectation going in was that I would have a good time. But the tests actually revealed some weaknesses which have helped inform my training going forward.

What Is The Under Armour Next Academy?

The Under Armour Next Academy has been set up inside London’s Battersea Power Station, and assesses endurance, strength, speed, agility, power and athletic intelligence through six separate tests. 

Anyone aged 16-20 can apply online to take the tests for free, with top performers earning the chance to compete for one of 12 year-long Under Armour sponsorships.

Under Armour Next Academy Fitness Tests

Athletic Intelligence Test

 Many of the Under Armour Next Academy tests are ones you can try at home. This first one, not so much. 

I was faced with a wide panel containing thousands of LED lights. Green squares would flash up in front of me, turn red after a second or two then explode—my mission was to diffuse them with a simple tap, but it was harder than it sounded. 

After three goes, I’d hit a high score of 80, which I was fairly happy with. 

“Not to make you feel bad, but there’s one guy who came in and hit about 280,” the trainers taking me through the tests told me. I was just below average too—86 for males and 94 for females.

Strength Test

After hanging up my soccer cleats, I turned to CrossFit to satisfy my competitive streak. As a result, I thought the strength test might be right up my alley, but it wound up being my worst score. 

With my biceps by my side and my elbow at a right angle, I had to squeeze a grip dynamometer machine as hard as I could for a couple of seconds.

I tapped out just over 50kg—a little over half what a teenage aspiring American football player had hit recently, according to the Academy team. It was also slightly below the male average of 53kg.

I already knew grip strength isn’t a strength for me, but up to this point I’ve never given it the time of day in my training. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to improve your grip strength.

Power Test

When I think of a powerful athlete, my mind turns to World’s Strongest Man competitors shifting huge weights. What I often forget to consider is the speed element—power equals force times velocity, after all.

That’s why the Academy’s power test is a max vertical jump, and it’s as straightforward as it sounds. From a standing start, jump as high as you can. The only conditions are that your hands have to stay on your hips and your legs must stay straight during the jump. 

The Under Armour team had a digital sensor to measure scores. You’re not going to find this at your average gym, but you could replicate it by jumping next to a wall while a partner marks the height your feet reach. 

Going in, I was told that anything over 50cm was good, average for men was 43cm and average for women was 33cm. I managed 45cm.

Apparently the record holder on this test was a teen, not much taller than five foot, who blitzed the competition with a jump nearly double mine. 

Speed Test

The speed test is a 15m sprint, with the Under Armour Next Academy’s sensors on hand to give me my time to a fraction of a second. 

I had been expecting this and after giving my hamstrings a very thorough warm-up I was excited to give it a try. 

The trainers on hand set a goal of 2.5 seconds and my initial attempts sat just below this at between 2.3 and 2.4 seconds. 

I was satisfied with that, with the average male and female times sitting at 2.42 and 2.7 seconds respectively. Then one freak score around the 2.2 second mark, which I’m choosing not to question, gave me my best result of the assessment as a whole.

Agility Test

The 5-10-5 drill tests agility by challenging you to move fast through a couple of changes of direction.

When I did it, there were three parallel lines each five yards apart—you can mark these distances out with cones if you’re doing it elsewhere. 

Start by standing at the middle line, facing along it, then turn 90° and sprint to one of the lines on either side of you. Touch your foot on the line, make an about turn, then sprint to the line furthest from you. 

Again, touch it with one foot as you turn back on yourself, then hare back to the central line to finish. 

This was the test where my former soccer obsession really came to the fore, and while I failed to note my exact time I know I managed to beat the averages of 4.95 and 5.4 seconds for male and female participants. 

Endurance Test

Whether you call it the bleep test, the multi-stage fitness test or hell on earth, chances are you’re familiar with this shuttle run test. 

Under Armour uses a variation. Start running on beep one, make it to a 15m marker before beep two, turn and return to the start point ahead of beep three, then rest for 10 seconds before going again. 

The interval between the beeps gets shorter as you progress through the levels. “Level 17 is good, level 19 is really good,” the trainers tell me. 

There’s a reason they leave this one till last. It feels like a walk in the park at first, but it quickly ramps up. 

I hit a wall at level 18, with my legs turning to lead and refusing to cooperate as I urged them to move faster.

What I Learned

After the last test, the Under Armour Next Academy team issued me with a scorecard showing my results. Rather than giving me my times and figures, it showed a score out of 100 for each one, as well as an overall result: 62.56. 

The trainers then showed me the leaderboard, with top performers achieving 80 and above. No late Paris 2024 push for me, then. 

But I did really enjoy myself. I’ve also been able to change my training since to address my weaknesses in strength, grip and power. 

I’m hoping my tweaked take on the 5x5 workout, plenty of loaded carries and a healthy dose of contrast training should do the trick. 

There are no shortcuts in running and when you see a dramatic drop in someone’s personal best for the marathon then it’s almost always down to a lot of hard work. That’s the case with Lululemon ambassador Anya Culling, who went from running 4hr 34min at the London Marathon 2019 to an astonishing 2hr 34min at the Copenhagen Marathon in 2023, when she represented England.

Prior to this year’s London Marathon, when Culling will take a place at the elite start, we spoke to her about her running journey and just how she got so quick.

How did you get into running and what was your first marathon like?

I ran my first marathon in 2019. That was the London Marathon. I did that for charity. It was a challenge. I’d never done much running before. I was sporty as a child. I played hockey and cricket, and my family is competitive, but I was never quite as good at sports as any of them.

I did some training for that 2019 marathon, but I didn’t do a lot. I went for some dog walks, which I would run bits of, or I’d run around the school rugby fields. I threw myself in the deep end. I didn’t know what I was doing—didn’t have carbon shoes, didn’t follow a plan, didn’t have a watch—didn’t understand anything.

It was the hardest and most painful marathon I’ve ever done. I didn’t catch the running bug and I downed tools with running for a bit longer. 

When and why did you start running again?

I didn’t like not being very good at it. I’d got to county level in hockey and cricket. I had to work hard to get there, but I felt like I succeeded. I felt like I hadn’t succeeded in the marathon. I wanted to commit and get good at it. 

Lockdown gave me the kick I needed to take up running. I downloaded Strava on the day we went into lockdown.

As we started to come out of lockdown, we were able to run with friends and do it more as a social thing. That was the only time you could see your friends so I always associated running with that. Then the more I enjoyed it, the more I wanted to do it. 

I was running around Battersea Park, in London, and I’d see the same man every day. That was Nick Bester. One day we just got chatting and he later became my first coach.

You ran 2hr 36min at the London Marathon in 2022, how did you progress to that point?

I did the Rome Marathon at the start of that year, and I did that in 2hr 43min. The one before that was Valencia and that was 2hr 52min, and the one before that was Manchester and that was 3hr 5min. So I was chipping away 10-15 minutes each time. It wasn’t that I just knocked off two hours.

When I ran 2hr 52min at Valencia 2021, I placed in the 1,000s because Valencia is such a big marathon. Then I did Rome in early 2022, and I came first European female and first non-elite, and I think I was top 40 overall, including the men. I thought, “Wow, l really performed there.”

Nothing changed with my training for London 2022. I just inched my way forward. I put my success down to the fact that the time and the PBs have always been secondary. I’ve just enjoyed running.

Along with gradually increasing training, did you change your lifestyle?

I’ve always just rolled with general life. I probably went out slightly less, but I’ve never changed my diet. When you get to doing the amount of running that I do, it’s about getting the calories in before worrying about everything else.

The biggest change has been training my brain like I’ve trained my body. That became a big thing in the weeks before a marathon. Working on my psyche and self-belief, and ways of canceling out any self-limiting beliefs. 

I also did more strength and conditioning. I think you can only get away without it for so long until something happens, and then you wish you had done a few calf raises! I didn’t want to get to that point before I started. I want to be in the sport for as long as possible, and the only way I’m going to do that is if I enjoy it, stay injury-free and be happy and healthy.

What would be your top tip for runners looking to improve?

Consistency. You just need to string together a block of good consistent running. It’s about piling it up and building layers on layers.

Kettlebell training is rarely given the credit it deserves. Unless you’re speaking to iFit trainer Hannah Eden, that is. 

“Kettlebells are my favorite training tool,” she says. “They’re so fun to use, and they’re a great way to build strength, develop power and work the cardiovascular system.”

Eden also likes how you can’t go through the motions when training with a kettlebell. 

Or in her words: “You have to be dialed in and focused on what you’re doing, otherwise you’re going to drop a weight on your head.”

To help you avoid that fate, she’s shared six of her favorite foundational kettlebell moves in this video for the Onnit Academy, describing in detail how to execute them with immaculate form. 

The kettlebell deadlift and squat in Eden’s video can be performed as standard muscle-building exercises where the weight is moved at a fairly consistent speed. 

Whereas the kettlebell swing and clean require explosive power to move the kettlebell. 

When performing these exercises, the location of the kettlebell’s handle means you’re rarely holding the weight at its center of mass. It’s continually pulling your body off balance, forcing stabilizing muscles in your core and around your joints to put in a shift as they work to maintain optimal body positions. 

That’s why Eden describes working with kettlebells as an “unconventional, ballistic” form of training. It will develop your stability, coordination and power, strengthening your muscles and joints to create a more robust, athletic body. 

So, next time you’re in the gym, consider giving the squat racks the cold shoulder as you make a beeline for the kettlebells in the corner. You can put what you learn in the video into practice with this beginner kettlebell workout or one Coach’s many kettlebell workouts.

The best running watches can do a lot more than track your workouts. Come race day your Garmin watch can help you stay on track and hit your target time, with a variety of features available to help you successfully pace a marathon.

I’ve run the London Marathon six times and used several different approaches when setting up my watch for the race, all of which were designed to keep me on track for my target time. That’s harder than in other marathons I’ve run because the GPS signal goes AWOL running through Canary Wharf and the tunnels on the course.

The simplest way to track your race is with your normal data screens, but I’d suggest adding lap pace to them, rather than current pace. Current pace is particularly susceptible to GPS trouble and will jump around a lot, while lap pace is your average pace for the current mile or kilometer split you’re running and is a more stable number to help you pace your run.

Even with lap pace the GPS problems you encounter in the second half of the London Marathon when running under high buildings and through tunnels can throw your watch off. I take manual splits when passing the mile/kilometer markers to get an accurate number for each to make sure I’m hitting my target pace.

A more advanced setting is to use the distance and time target setting on the watch. On your run page hold the menu button, select training, quick workout (or set a target depending on which model you’re using) and then distance and time. Select marathon distance and put in your target time and you’ll get two new data screens. One shows how far behind or ahead of your goal pace you are, and another gives a predicted finish time plus your average pace and distance remaining. 

The predicted time is handy as long as you take into account the distance your watch has measured compared with the actual distance you have left to run, with GPS inaccuracies included. Check the distance on the watch against a marker when you pass it and add any discrepancy in time to the predicted time on the watch. 

Another Garmin tool you can use is PacePro, which will give you a target time for each mile or kilometer of your race based on the elevation profile of the course, your overall goal and race strategy, as in whether you want to run even splits, or a negative split where you run the second half of the marathon faster than the first. 

I’d advise against this though. PacePro is brilliant but will be rendered near useless by GPS inaccuracy and is most useful on hilly courses like the Boston Marathon where your pace per split will rise and fall with the hills. PacePro can help you stick to target pace in the first half of the London Marathon, which has good GPS accuracy with few tall buildings, but once you hit Canary Wharf inaccurate pace readings will throw it off.

The most complicated and most accurate option you can use is a ConnectIQ app that allows you to correct the distance readings on the watch. I have used one called Peter’s (Race) Pacer to do this (Peter’s (Hi-Viz) Pacer is a simpler app that does the same thing). When you pass a marker on the course, hit the lap button and it rounds the distance measured by the watch up or down to be exact.

So if your watch reads 5.12km at the 5K marker, hit the lap button and it will correct to 5.00km, and then adjust the average pace and other stats on the watch. You can also set a target time with Peter’s Race Pacer and it will tell you how far ahead or behind you are.

I’m hoping Garmin will eventually make this a native feature on its watches—as it is on the Wahoo ELEMNT Rival watch—because Peter’s (Race) Pacer isn’t the most attractive data screen, but it has worked well for me in the past when GPS readings have gone wonky. Just make sure you try the app out in a training run to get used to the info being shown.

If you find doing endless crunches particularly torturous, you’ll be pleased to hear there are alternative exercises that will build core strength without being nearly as unpleasant. Meet the Pilates roll-up. It may not be as well-known as the crunch, but the roll-up is arguably even better at building strength in your core.

In the roll-up, you gradually move from lying on your back to sitting with your spine curved forward and your arms reaching forward. It’s performed slowly and with control, meaning there’s no momentum and you can’t help your abs by pulling on your head or neck. 

Although it’s hard work, I find the mindful movement can make it feel almost meditative, as you focus on peeling your spine off the mat. 

The slow and steady pace required in this exercise means your core muscles spend more time under tension. Studies such as this one published in the Journal of Physiology suggest that the more a muscle is loaded with tension to the point of fatigue the greater the protein synthesis, which can lead to muscle growth.

“The roll-up is one of my favorite exercises to do and to teach,” says Pilates instructor Millie Shiers, who teaches mat and reformer classes at Core LDN. “Practicing the roll-up can improve the flexibility of your spine and increase your abdominal strength. The roll-up also teaches your body how to control spinal articulation.”

How To Do The Pilates Roll-Up

Lie on your back with your legs extended and together, and feet flexed (toes pointing up to the ceiling). Extend your arms up with your palms facing your feet. As you exhale, lift your head and chest, slowly peeling your spine off the mat and reaching your arms forward. As you do so, slowly peel your spine off the mat. Once you’re reaching as far forward as you can, take an inhale to pause, then exhale and use your abs to gently roll down again, articulating your spine back onto the mat.

“Focus on squeezing your legs together and sliding your ribs towards your hips as you roll up,” says Shiers.

Roll-Up Modifications

If the full roll-up is too intense, there are plenty of ways to make it easier as you develop the strength to do the whole movement. “You can modify the roll-up with props to make it more accessible,” says Shiers. “One way to do this is to wrap a band around your feet and hold either end of the band—the band acts as an extra abdominal muscle. Another prop you can use is ankle weights to give you a bit more support in anchoring your lower body to the mat.”

“I also like to teach modified versions of the roll-up without props,” says Shiers. “For example, I will get clients to practice both halves of the roll-up separately—the forward flexion and then rolling down—until they can smoothly lift their body with no momentum.”

To fully master the roll-up, there are clever cues to help you do it as effectively as possible. “In Pilates, we love to make exercises as challenging as they can be by ensuring you properly connect to your muscles,” says Shiers. “To really feel the roll-up, think of pushing your heels away from you and drawing your ribs back in the opposite direction. This opposition will help you connect to your abs.”

To run a marathon successfully you need a plan, a few good months of training behind you, and a whole lot of kit for the day itself. You need good shoes, comfortable clothes, and nutrition and hydration products, all of which you’ve hopefully tested out during your marathon training.

Peloton instructor Ben Alldis is running the London Marathon for the second time this year, and when we spoke to him about his kit for the race it was clear a lot of careful thought and testing had gone into picking it out. That means there’s a lot to be learned from his selections if you’re not sure about your own marathon kit just yet.

Are you excited for the London Marathon?

“I’m so excited because I’ve done it before and I know what I’m letting myself in for,” says Alldis. “I was overwhelmed with the support last time, the fact that at London there are people cheering at every single spot. When you’re in it, it’s so amazing.

“Things have also come on a long way since I ran it in 2018. All the hydration and nutrition, the trainers and the kit has all evolved so much. It’s been fun trying different things out and testing things along the way.”

What running shoes are you using for the marathon?

“I was going to go for a racing shoe, but I’m actually going to stick with the Hoka Arahi 7,” says Alldis. “I’ve been training in them and they feel great. I’ve got slightly wide feet and a lot of the race shoes are quite thin. I have tried the race shoes and they do feel good, but I just don’t want to get injured because of the job I do. I’ve got to teach a class on Wednesday!” 

What nutrition products are you using for the marathon?

“I’ve tried quite a few things,” says Alldis. “I don’t eat a lot of sugar, so when I started with some of the gels, they were so hard on my stomach. They do work, but I get a bit of a stomach ache.

“The ones that I’ve actually loved using are from Veloforte. I’m using a mixture of the gels, the energy chews and also the energy bars, just because too much of one thing is a bit much for my stomach. Mixing up also keeps it interesting across however long it’s going to take.”

I rate Veloforte’s products too and they feature on my selection of the best running gels. Just remember, you should never try a new gel for a marathon—stick with what you’ve been using during training. 

“I also like to suck on the SaltStick electrolyte fast chews,” says Alldis. “I take a lot of electrolytes for my general life and my job, but obviously you can’t really get the tablets out and put them into bottles [during the race]. These are little tablets that you can just suck on. You have maybe two every half hour or something and it just keeps salt levels up. This has helped me massively, because the last marathon I did, I started to cramp up. I think that was because I tried to just survive on one jelly baby a mile! When I look back, that’s probably why I was cramping up because the salt levels in my body were probably low.”

If this is the first you’ve heard about electrolytes, find out what you need to know with our guide to electrolyte drinks.

How are you carrying all this?

“I’ve been using a Peloton running belt in training,” says Alldis, “but I’m actually going to use a CamelBak one because you can put water in it. Obviously, there are water stations along the way, but it’s helpful just to have a little bit on you.”

What other running gear will you be wearing?

“I’m going to be wearing the Lululemon X Peloton collaboration gear—it’s super soft and super light,” says Alldis. “It doesn’t get too much sweat in it. I also like to wear under shorts just to keep the compression on the quads and the hammies. Lululemon also do amazing socks with compression.”

Are those knee-high or ankle-high compression socks?

“I’ve tried both,” says Alldis. “I think it depends how hot it is on the day, because it can get a bit claustrophobic sometimes when you’ve got too much compression. If it’s a bit warmer, I’ll just go for ankle-high, but if it’s a bit cooler, I might wear knee-high, or I might wear compression sleeves.

“I used to be a sprinter and so my typical running style when I get lazy is on my toes, so my calves get a battering. To have a bit of pressure on them helps a little bit.”

I’ve looked ahead to the London Marathon weather forecast and Alldis might be better off going for ankle-high socks.

What running watch and headphones do you use?

“I’m going to be wearing an Apple Watch,” says Alldis. “I’ve been training with it, and I use the Apple Watch Ultra 2. I’ve always liked the Apple Watch. I wouldn’t say it’s the best of the best watches out there, but it’s the watch that I wear and it’s really helpful for me. It just helps you pace yourself, which is good.” It’s a good choice in my book, I’ve reviewed the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and rate it as the best smartwatch for running.

“I’ve been training with Apple Airpods,” says Alldis, “but I’ve just been recommended this brand of headphones called Shokz which sit on the back of your head and it means you can still hear the crowd.” Shokz makes bone conduction headphones that transmit sound through your cheekbones to your inner ear, keeping your ear free to hear other sounds.

“It’s about getting a balance between trying to take in the crowd versus having a bit of motivation,” says Alldis. “I like to listen to a mixture of podcasts and music. Four hours of dance music can get a bit repetitive! So a good podcast and some music for the end.”

Burpees aren’t the be-all and end-all of conditioning moves. There are plenty of ways to test your muscular endurance and cardio capacity without repeatedly dropping your chest to the floor. 

“My absolute favorite thing that I do with all of my athletes is something called a leg circuit,” says Wendy Batts, a National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) master instructor and assistant professor in exercise science at PennWest California. 

It’s a combination of four different leg exercises performed as a circuit without any rest. 

“It will increase your heart rate, it will make your legs burn, and if you can do it without any rest it will absolutely crush you. You can thank me for that later.” 

How To Do This Leg Circuit

Three rounds of:

1. Prisoner squat x20
2. Alternating lunge x10 on each leg
3. Power step-up x10 on each leg
4. Tuck jump x10

Perform the exercises above as a circuit as quickly as you can without sacrificing good form. 

If you’re new to Batts’ variation of prisoner squats, it’s worth noting that you need to keep your hands on your head throughout and come up on to your toes at the top of each rep to activate your calf muscles. 

As demonstrated in the video above, you can also vary each exercise in this workout to train different planes of motion: sagittal (moving up, down, forward and backward), frontal (moving from side to side) and transverse (rotational movements). This will more accurately mirror both everyday and sporting movements, helping you develop functional strength and athleticism. 

To prioritize the frontal plane, keep the rep scheme the same and perform side-to-side squats, lateral lunges, sideways box step-overs and skater jumps. For a transverse plane workout, add a rotational element at the top of each movement.

Tips For Tackling This Workout 

This workout is a race against the clock. It challenges you to complete a high volume of work with minimal rest, putting your heart and lungs to work while testing the muscular endurance of your legs. But you should never sacrifice technique for speed.

“You’re doing it as fast as you can control, not as fast as you can,” says Batts. “I think that’s super important, because anybody can do something, but are you doing it correctly? You need to be very intentional with your movement patterns.”

Batts also advises ensuring you can perform each of the individual components of this routine with perfect form before bringing them together for an added challenge.

“It’s definitely a more advanced workout,” says Batts. “You want to make sure you can go piece by piece first. This is a very advanced leg circuit that you can do at home, but even advanced athletes need to be prepared for being a little sore the next day.”

With the CrossFit Open disappearing in the rear view mirror, it’s time to look ahead to the next stage of the competitive CrossFit season, the CrossFit Quarterfinals, which will decide which athletes progress to the Semifinals. 

Like the Open before it, this is an online competition. Unlike the Open, it’s invite only. To qualify in 2024, you needed to finish in the top 25% in the CrossFit Open. 

Whether you’re a regular participant, first-time qualifier, hopeful for next year or just curious about the format, I’ve gathered a quick-and-dirty guide to the CrossFit Quarterfinals.

CrossFit Quarterfinals FAQs

CrossFit Quarterfinals Equipment List

Ahead of both the Open and Quarterfinals, CrossFit usually releases an equipment list that tells affiliated CrossFit boxes what needs to be provided to athletes taking part. Participants often comb these lists for clues as to what the workouts will be.

But in 2024 CrossFit has not released an equipment list in advance. Instead, it says “all required equipment can be found in a typical CrossFit affiliate”, although “some workouts may require a specified distance between equipment for safety concerns”. 

The floor plans and equipment list will be posted on the CrossFit Games website after the release of the four CrossFit Quarterfinals workouts on Wednesday, April 17.

CrossFit Quarterfinals Leaderboard

The CrossFit Quarterfinals can be hard to follow as a fan. This is because, while the Open has the live announcements and both the CrossFit Games and CrossFit Semifinals have been live-streamed on YouTube, there are no live updates for this portion of the season. 

If you want to stay on top of the latest results, the best way to do it is to keep an eye on the CrossFit Quarterfinals leaderboard on the CrossFit Games website. Many athletes also post updates on their social media channels, if you want extra information on the competition. 

CrossFit Quarterfinals Workouts 2023

CrossFit Quarterfinals 2023 Workout 1

For time (15-minute time cap): 

1. Front squat at weight one (heaviest) x9 
2. 25 ft handstand walk x9
3. Front squat at weight two x15
4. Muscle-up x15
5. Front squat at weight three (lightest) x21
6. Chest-to-wall handstand push-up x21

Men’s weights: 225lb/102kg, 185lb/83kg, 135lb/61kg

Women’s weights: 155lb/70kg, 125lb/56kg, 95lb/43kg

CrossFit Quarterfinals 2023 Workout 1

As many repetitions as possible (AMRAP) in 12 minutes of: 

1. Dumbbell snatch on arm one x8
2. Overhead walking lunge steps on arm one x8
3. Dumbbell snatch on arm two x8
4. Overhead walking lunge steps on arm two x8

Men’s weight: 70lb/32.5kg

Women’s weight: 50lb/22.5kg 

CrossFit Quarterfinals 2023 Workout 3

Five rounds for time (10-minute time cap):   

1. Burpee box jump-over x5
2. Clean and jerk x1

Men’s: Barbell at 275lb/125kg, box at 30in

Women’s: Barbell at 185lb/84kg, box at 24in

CrossFit Quarterfinals 2023 Workout 4

As many repetitions as possible (AMRAP) in 20 minutes of: 

1. Row x1,000m
2. GHD sit-up x50
3. Row x500m
4. V-up x25 

CrossFit Quarterfinals 2023 Workout 5

For time (15-minute time cap):

1. Deadlift at weight one (lightest) x21
2. Chest-to-bar pull-up x21
3. Deadlift at weight two x15
4. Bar muscle-up x15
5. Deadlift at weight three (heaviest) x9
6. 15ft rope climb x9 

Men’s weights: 225lb/102kg, 275lb/125kg, 315lb/143kg

Women’s weights: 155lb/70kg, 185lb/83kg, 205lb/93kg

Get help choosing which is best for you with our guide to the best CrossFit shoes.

There are a dizzying number of arm workouts out there for you to try, which can feel intimidating when you’re just starting out. Fortunately, there’s no need for beginners to overcomplicate things and the best, most effective workouts for them will be very simple.

“Beginners should avoid starting with very heavy weights and overly complex movements,” says Jayke Izli, personal trainer at The Body Lab London. “It’s crucial to build a solid foundation with basic exercises and gradually increase the difficulty with range, tempo and weight.”

That’s what our beginner gym workout does, suggesting you start with one exercise per body part, doing one set of 20 and building up from there. But if you’d like to give your arms more attention, Izli isn’t going to stop you.

“Strengthening the arms is not just about aesthetics. It’s crucial for enhancing overall upper-body strength, improving joint health and performing daily activities more efficiently,” says Izli. “Strong arms also contribute to better posture and reduce the risk of injuries.”

To get you started, Izli recommends this four-move beginner arm workout which alternates between a biceps exercise and triceps exercise.

How To Do This Beginner Arms Workout

To do this workout you’ll need dumbbells and a weights bench or other stable knee-high platform. (If you don’t have any dumbbells, try this no-equipment upper-body workout instead).

Izli has given a range of reps to do for each set. The first time you perform the workout choose the lowest number of reps using a dumbbell weight that makes the last few reps of each set a challenge. Rest as needed between sets.

The next time you perform the workout, add one rep to each set, using the same weight. Once you’ve hit the top of the rep range, go back to the beginning and increase the weight of the dumbbell.

Once you feel ready to move on from this session, try this superset dumbbell arms workout and keep training until you feel ready for this all-in arms workout plan. 

Beginner Arms Workout Overview

1. Biceps curl 3 x 8-12
2. Triceps dip 3 x 8-12
3. Hammer curl 3 x 8-12
4. Overhead triceps extension 3 x 8-10

Beginner Arms Workout Form Guides

1 Biceps curl

Sets 3 Reps 8-12

Stand with feet shoulder-width apart holding dumbbells in front of your thighs, your elbows touching the sides of your torso and palms facing forward. Inhale, then exhale as you contract your biceps to bend your elbows and lift the dumbbells to your shoulders. Your upper arms should remain in place next to your torso. Pause and squeeze your biceps hard, then lower the dumbbells under control.

2 Triceps dip

Sets 3 Reps 8-12

Sit on a weights bench or chair with your palms flat on the bench either side of you. Extend your legs so your heels are on the floor. Move your butt off the bench, then bend your elbows to lower until your elbows are at 90°. Push down on the bench and extend your arms to raise your body to the start. To make the exercise easier, bend your knees and bring your feet closer to you. The closer your feet, the easier it will be.

3 Hammer curl

Sets 3 Reps 8-12

This exercise is very similar to the biceps curl. Instead of beginning with your palms facing forward, your palms should be facing and remain facing throughout. 

Stand with feet shoulder-width apart holding dumbbells in front of your thighs, your elbows touching the sides of your torso and palms facing. Inhale, then exhale as you contract your biceps to bend your elbows and lift the dumbbells to your shoulders. Your upper arms should remain in place next to your torso. Pause and squeeze your biceps hard, then lower the dumbbells under control.

4 Overhead triceps extension

Sets 3 Reps 8-10

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding the end of one dumbbell above your head with your palms facing up and your elbows pointing forward. Keeping your upper arms still, bend your elbows to lower the dumbbell behind your head. Extend your arms to lift the dumbbell back to the start.

Mat Fraser has been named the fittest man on earth five times—more than any other male CrossFitter. As a competing athlete he kept his cards close to his chest, but since retiring he’s let slip some of the secrets of his success. 

In a recent interview with YouTube content creator Zack Telander, Fraser gave my favorite insight into his training methods yet—three fitness tests he used to make sure he was ready to reclaim the CrossFit Games crown.

The best bit is that anyone can use these CrossFit workouts (with some sensible adjustments) to deliver strength and fitness gains galore, as long as you follow Fraser’s advice for how to progress the workouts over time.

So if you ever wanted to try training like the fittest man on earth, now’s your chance. Just don’t try and match his numbers—take a look at our scaled recommendations and start from there. 

Mat Fraser’s Fitness Tests

1. Rowing Intervals

Sets 5 Time 1min 40sec Rest 20sec

Rest 1min

Sets 4 Time 1min 40sec Rest 20sec

The aim for this workout is to hold a target pace through all nine rounds. For example, Fraser’s end goal was to row at an average pace of 1min 40sec/500m. 

He describes it as a mental test, saying he would do it in his parent's shiplap-lined basement. For the whole thing, Fraser tried to stare at a single knot in the wood in front of him.

“If I could stare at that knot for the entire 20 minutes, I knew I was in a good place,” says Fraser.

I wouldn’t recommend trying to match Fraser’s pace straight out of the gate. Instead, pick a goal that’s challenging for you and make this progressively more difficult as your fitness improves. 

This goal doesn’t have to be pace-specific either, according to Fraser. 

“You’re always trying to progress,” he says. “[And you might] have to use a different metric, because going from 1min 40sec/500m to 1min 39sec/500m is a pretty aggressive jump. 

“But I know that a 1min 40sec split when I measure it in watts gives me this X value, so I’ll try and bump that metric up a little bit, and then I’ll jump over to calories and try to bump that up.”

Over time, these incremental gains helped him chip away at his overall pace. Another way to master rowing for CrossFit is with these expert tips.

2. 40-Minute EMOM

EMOM for 40 minutes:

• Row x 15cal
• Toes-to-bar x 15
• Air bike x 15cal
• D-ball over shoulder x 6 (150lb / 70kg)

Fraser says he did at least one 40-minute EMOM each week throughout pretty much his entire career. 

This helped him get a feel for how he moved and the paces he was able to hold, both fresh and under fatigue. So, when competition time rolled around, he was ready for anything. 

He would also vary the content of the EMOMs throughout the year to help him peak for the CrossFit season. 

“At the beginning of the season you have these quick bursts of high output work [in each minute] and lots of rest,” says Fraser. “As you get closer and closer to the season, I tried to move that time domain so it’s almost like I’m just working for 40 minutes straight. 

“And then, right before the competition, I’d tailor it all back to the sprints to get that fast-reflex [stimulus].”

Again, I’m not going to hold you to Fraser’s standards. If you want to give this a go, pick a lower-calorie target on the rower and bike that you can hold for all 10 rounds. From my experience of 40-minute EMOMs, the first four rounds should feel fairly routine. The rest, not so much. 

You can also lower the number of toes-to-bar reps, or substitute them for V-ups or butterfly sit-ups. 

Finally, if you don’t have a D-ball, use a lighter sandbag or perform dual dumbbell cleans instead. 

3. Back Squat EMOM

EMOM for six minutes: 

• Back squat x 6 (315lb / 143kg)

If you want to develop your squat endurance, this is the test for you. Fraser would progress it over time by playing with the variables of time, weight and reps. 

This began with adding an extra minute to the workout. When he could complete the prescribed work for eight minutes he’d strip it back down to six minutes and increase the number of reps he was doing to seven. When he could do this comfortably, he started adding weight.  

“By the end of it you’re doing six sets of eight reps on the minute at 335lb,” he says 

If I was giving this a go, suffice to say I wouldn’t have 315lb on the bar. Instead, start with 60% of your one-rep max and build from there.

It’s Boston Marathon weekend! If it’s your first time running the race, you may be feeling somewhere between a bit nervous and overwhelmed, even if you’re there for a victory lap rather than trying to throw down a new personal best. Being well prepared is an effective way to keep you on the “bit nervous” end of the spectrum, so here are a few things I would have found useful to know before I toed the line in Hopkinton for the first time in 2023.

1. Take The T Everywhere, Even If Staying Downtown

I used to live in New York City, where I would walk whenever I could rather than take the subway—especially since subway stations were usually so close to each other. In Boston, however, trips like walking the distance of one subway station to another if going from, say, a Boston Common area hotel to the expo and back, add up. Stay off your feet as much as possible, especially since it’s a long weekend with the race being on Monday.

2. Don’t Go To Too Many Events Before The Race

Easier said than done with the overabundance of brand and media events. Being out all day every day from Friday morning can be physically and emotionally draining, so I recommend picking one event each day, and try to time one with a visit to the expo to pick up your bib. 

It’s also worth bearing in mind that the group shakeout runs can be quite large and crowded. I found a good balance was to go to one group run on Saturday and then do my Sunday morning shakeout alone. It really was nice to be at peace and alone with my thoughts around a quiet Boston Common for my final miles before the big day. 

3. Prepare Yourself Mentally For The Race’s Late Start

My first Boston wasn’t my first rodeo. I’d run another World Marathon Major—the New York City Marathon—three times by that point. This meant I knew to expect a later race start than I was used to with my beloved Houston Marathon, which starts at 7am (the perfect race start time, in my opinion) and with the fact that I start most of my long runs by 6am, especially when the weather is on the warmer side. 

Even though my qualifying time of 3hr 30min 14sec was nearly five minutes faster than my age-graded standard, I was still seeded in the third wave of runners, which meant I was set to start at 10.50am. Even starting a run at 8am feels late to me, so starting at almost lunchtime was a shock to the system, to say the least. I did know to pack snacks for a second breakfast in between leaving my hotel for the bus to the start village and waiting in the start village, but I am glad I also made plans to ride the bus with a friend from home. If I had made the trek alone, I probably would have sat there quietly, overthinking my race. Chatting with my friend really helped take the edge off and made the hours in between fly by.

4. Know The Walk To The Start Is About A Mile Long

That’s right — when you get off the bus at the start village in Hopkinton, you still have a bit of a journey to the starting line, something I hadn’t heard or read about before my first race. While there’s nothing you can do to avoid the additional time on your feet and it’s certainly not going to affect your ability to have a good race, I think it’s an important detail to be aware of because it will help you avoid lollygagging too long in the start village. You can also plan for things like getting in one last bathroom stop before leaving, because the chances are you’ll be worried about making your start time and the long lines for the last bathrooms on the way to the start will feel  too risky.

5. Training For Downhills Is Just As Important As Training For Uphills

Did you know the Boston Marathon is net downhill? Most people brush off that fact and fixate on the notoriously difficult Newton hills, a series of climbs from miles 16 to 21. Uphills have historically been one of my biggest weaknesses, so that was what I spent the most time preparing for. 

Even though I didn’t get carried away on the faster, downhill first half of the course and stuck pretty closely to my plan, my quads still suffered from dealing with more downhills than they were used to. It made those Newton Hills hurt even more, even though I didn’t slow down that badly on them. This is probably the biggest thing I’m filing away for training strategy if and when I run Boston again.

6. Don’t Judge Your Progress By Landmarks

Even if you haven’t spent much time closely analyzing the course map, when you think about the Boston Marathon course, you likely know about famous spots like the Wellesley Scream Tunnel, the Citgo sign, and the famous “right on Hereford, left on Boylston.” 

For one thing, you will hear the scream tunnel long before you come across it, and there is a significant downhill that precedes it, before you hit the halfway point. Don’t let yourself get carried away there. 

As for the Citgo sign, you will see it long before you pass it after mile 25, so don’t further torture yourself if you’re having a tough race. 

Lastly, know that the final stretch down Boylston is nearly half a mile long, so don’t expect to sprint immediately there, even though you can see the finish line.

Any of the best running watches can help you pace a marathon, as long as the GPS accuracy is on point. By using the lap pace in particular you can judge your pace for each mile or kilometer split and ensure it’s in line with your overall goals, and stop yourself from going out too fast at the start.

However, Garmin’s PacePro tool goes beyond this by offering a pacing guide that’s tailored to your target time, the way you want to run the race and the course you’re going to run. That last part in particular makes it perfect for the Boston Marathon.

That’s because the Boston Marathon route is not the pancake flat course you get at other major marathons like London, Berlin and Chicago. Boston has hills, with the most famous being Heartbreak Hill in mile 20, and you need to judge your effort on the uphill and downhill sections of the course carefully to hit your target time.

With Garmin’s PacePro tool you set the course you’re going to run and an overall target time, then you choose one of three race strategies and how hard you want to run any uphills. The race strategies are even pacing, a negative split (where you run the second half of the marathon faster than the first), or a positive split. 

If picking a negative or positive split, you also choose how much of a difference you want between the two halves of the race. You could start slowly and set yourself up to sprint home, for example, or just aim for a minute or two difference across the two halves. You also select how hard you want to run uphills, but if you ease off you’ll have to make the time up on flats and downhills.

This is the magic of PacePro, in that it will give you target times for each mile or kilometer split of the race based on your preferences, target time and the elevation of the course during that exact split. For example, if you set up a target time 2hrs 50min for Boston, plus a negative split where you take it easy on uphills, you’ll be given your fastest split targets for the downhills that come after the famous Newton Hills, with a slower target for the mile that includes Heartbreak Hill, or any other incline.

This allows you to ease off in the early stages of the race, and on any uphills, knowing that the race plan will have you hitting your overall target time by attacking the easier downhill miles on the course. The Boston Marathon has a lot of downhills, so you can judge how much time to make up in those sections well to allow you to be slower on the uphills.

During the race the PacePro screen will show your target time for the exact mile or kilometer split you’re running, plus your current split pace, how much distance is left in the split and the total time you are ahead, or behind, your overall goal.

You will need to use a Boston Marathon route within the Garmin Connect app to get a PacePro strategy, but these are easy to find in the app or on the website by searching for Hopkinton, the town where the race starts. There are several Boston Marathon routes to pick between and you can use them to create your PacePro strategy and then send it to your watch. 

The routes are all slightly longer than the exact marathon distance, because they are probably created from the routes people actually ran—it’s hard to run the perfect racing line at a big marathon because of the crowds.

Most of Garmin’s current range is compatible with PacePro, even if the watch doesn’t have maps or breadcrumb navigation as a feature. The Garmin Forerunner 55 is the cheapest watch to have the feature, and you can be assured that any more expensive watch launched in the past couple of years will also have it. You can check if your watch is compatible on the Garmin website by typing it in and selecting your watch.

Garmin’s PacePro tool is useful for lots of races, but is best for hilly courses and also those that don’t spend much time in the center of big cities with tall buildings, because the GPS accuracy that dictates the pacing info on the watch is affected when you’re in the heart of London or New York, for example. It’s perfect for the Boston Marathon as a result, and may well be just the thing for getting you up and over Heartbreak Hill still on course for your PR.

How To Set Up PacePro For The Boston Marathon 

1. Go to Training & Planning>Courses
2. Search for Hopkinton and select a Boston Marathon course from the list
3. Click ‘create a PacePro strategy’
4. Pick your target time or pace
5. Choose between mile and kilometer splits
6. Choose your race strategy and uphill effort
7. Check the individual splits to see if they make sense for you, then hit save
8. Send the route to your device

You can find the PacePro strategy in the training and workouts section of the running app on your watch. Make sure you select it before you start the race. You can also create a PacePro strategy on the watch for any route you have saved on there, but it’s easier to do it in the Garmin Connect app or on the website.

A lot of people deal with aches and pains in their back, and the time spent hunched over desks, and mobile phones, as well as lounging on the sofa for box-set marathons only exacerbates the issue.

Incorporating mobility and strengthening back exercises into your routine is one of the best ways to support a healthier spine. Daily stretches can also help keep your spine mobile, as well as provide relief if you're experiencing tightness or tension. 

If you’re in need of some go-to stretches to mobilize your back muscles, try the five level 3 personal trainer and yoga instructor Emily Mouu shared in her Instagram Reel. Mouu also provided some extra form tips exclusively with Coach, so you can get the most out of each exercise.

A few of the stretches in this routine are twists and rotations, which encourage the spine's natural range of motion, according to Mouu. This includes the first stretch in the routine, the seated reach-over. “Sitting comfortably, with one knee bent and one leg extended, take your opposite arm to the knee that’s bent then reach your other arm over to the side. Take it to wherever feels good,” says Mouu.

Exercises like the down dog chest to thighs are great for stretching and strengthening the muscles in the back, and opening up the chest, shoulders and back, helping to ease aches and pains. Mouu recommends thinking of a downward dog as moving your body into “an upside down V shape”. Then, to do the exercise, “lift up onto your toes, bend your knees and squeeze your chest to your thighs,” she says.

Puppy pose is another yoga exercise in this routine that you might not have tried before, but it’s great for releasing the muscles in the back. “Begin in tabletop on your hands and knees with the palms of your hands underneath your shoulder blades and your knees underneath your hips,” says Mouu. “Walk your hands as far forward as you can, keeping your hips over your knees. When you can’t walk your hands any further forward, exhale and take your head and chest towards your mat."

Try to do these exercises a few times a week to increase your mobility, maybe at the start of the day or after working out. You can also try these back stretches and these exercises to relive back pain.

You go to the gym for a reason, and if that reason is to build muscle we’re sorry to say you’re going to have to push yourself. If it’s not challenging, there’s no reason for your muscles to adapt. 

If you finish your next leg workout with more to give, wrap things up with this finisher from personal trainer Alex Rice, which is made up of three dumbbell leg exercises. It perhaps has more in common with a short strength training routine than a workout finisher, which tends to include a conditioning component, but the addition of isometric holds is a surefire way to finish your legs off.  

Take a look at Rice’s Instagram Reel to see what’s in store.

The routine consists of goblet squats, followed by single-leg hip thrusts and conventional hip thrusts. Performing an exercise with proper form is always important to gain the most from the movement and avoid injury, but it’s always harder at the end of a workout when you’re fatigued, so here are some helpful cues to keep in mind if you try this session. 

In our guide to goblet squat form, functional fitness and nutritional coach Karl Bratland shares a helpful technique tip: “Hold the dumbbell by one end as close to your chest as you can,” he says. “If you hold it away from the body you won’t be able to support as much weight, so keep it close to the chest under your chin.” 

Bratland also advises keeping your chest facing forward and your heels flat on the floor so your weight is evenly distributed.

This routine also involves single-leg hip thrusts and regular hip thrusts. For more form tips, you can take a look at our guide on how to do the hip thrust, where strength and conditioning coach Andrew Reay shares some expert advice.

One of Reay's top tips helps you avoid putting too much pressure on the lower back, which is common if you overextend at the top of the lift. “Tuck your chin down to your chest. This keeps you in a position where you can’t overextend,” says Reay.

The push-up is one of the most common bodyweight exercises programmed into full-body and upper-body workouts, but it’s not a movement most people can do without building up strength first.

Thankfully, this is relatively straightforward to do once you know how. “Building up the muscles necessary for a push-up involves targeting the chest, shoulders, triceps, and core,” says Amanda Place, personal trainer and founder of Sculptrition.

You can do this by using other exercises to develop the muscles used to perform the movement combined with practicing easier push-up variations, such as a negative push-up where you only perform the lowering portion of the movement as slowly as you can, an incline push-up where you place your hands on a raised platform, or a push-up on your knees.

“Aim to practice push-up variations and related exercises at least three to four times per week,” says Place. “Consistency is key to building strength and muscle endurance. Track your progress and gradually increase the number of repetitions or the difficulty of the exercises as you get stronger.”

Here are four strength exercises Place recommends to improve your ability to perform push-ups or help you achieve your first one. It’s also worth familiarising yourself with our expert guide to proper push-up form.

1 Plank

“Planks help strengthen the core muscles, which are crucial for maintaining stability during a push-up,” says Place.

Lie on your front, brace your abs and lift your body off the floor, supporting yourself on your forearms and the balls of your feet, with your elbows under your shoulders. Keep your body in a straight line from your shoulders to your heels.

2 Dumbbell bench press

Lie on your back either on the floor or on a bench, with your feet on the floor, holding dumbbells by your chest, with your upper arms at a 30°-45°angle to your torso. Extend your arms to press the weights up, then lower under control to the start.

3 Overhead triceps extension

Stand or sit on the end of a bench holding the head of a dumbbell in both hands above your head with your arms fully extended. Keeping your elbows pointing forward and your upper arms still, bend your elbows to lower the dumbbell behind your head, then extend your arms to return to the start.

4 Cable flye

Attach D-handles to the high anchor points on a cable machine and stand in the middle of the weight stacks. Move forward until there is tension in the cables and your hands are out to the sides at shoulder height with a slight bend in your elbows. Adopt a staggered stance and engage your core, then bring the handles in front of you. Pause, squeeze your chest muscles, then return to the start under control.

Any five-minute workout is better than no workout at all, but there’s one way to get more out of short sessions—go hard. That’s what you get with Tabata training, a favorite of iFit trainer Hannah Eden. 

“This workout and I go way back,” says Eden. “We used to have a gym for a long time and we had a theme for each day.

“Tabata Tuesday was the most popular day and it’s one of my favorite intervals to work with, especially for high-intensity interval training. It’s hard to stay in those high heart rate zones where you’re at an RPE nine or 10, which is true interval training, but this format allows you to do it.”

How To Do Hannah Eden’s Five-Minute HIIT Workout

1A Russian kettlebell swing

Sets 4 Work 20sec Rest 10sec 

1B Alternating kettlebell snatch 

Sets 4 Work 20sec Rest 10sec 

“It’s 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off,” say Eden. “We couple two exercises together, alternating between them for four minutes with a 60-second rest afterward.”

There’s only one catch: If you want to reap the rewards of this workout, you have to step on the gas. 

“HIIT is about a burst of exertion,” says Eden. “Technically speaking, high-intensity interval training should be done at about 90% of your max heart rate, which is impossible to keep up for more than 20 seconds, maybe 30 seconds if you’re a killer athlete.”

If you’re going to work that hard, it’s more essential than ever to make sure you’ve warmed up properly before starting this workout. Begin with gentle cardio that gradually increases in intensity, then perform this gym warm-up routine. It’s also worth honing your kettlebell swing form and kettlebell snatch form with a few sets using a light weight. If you haven’t mastered the snatch yet—for instance if you bang your wrist with the kettlebell as you press—you can sub in kettlebell cleans instead.

Ready to go? Press play on this video of Tabata timings.

Benefits Of This Five-Minute HIIT Workout

The best thing about this format is that it naturally scales to any fitness level, because you’re working for a set amount of time, rather than a prescribed weight or number of reps. As long as you work hard, you’ll hit the stimulus. 

“I always say that you can do anything for 20 seconds,” says Eden. “It’s not a minute. You can easily just chomp off little bites as you go. It’s doable, it’s digestible and it’s for anyone.”

Eden’s choice of free-weight—kettlebells—also brings a unique combination of benefits. “It’s unconventional because kettlebells are an explosive, ballistic form of training,” she says. “It’s going to spike your heart rate, but that’s not all it’s doing. It’s a mixture of strength and conditioning, so you’re working both systems.”

Doing some kind of strength training is one of the best ways for runners to improve their performance and injury resilience, and Pilates is a fantastic low-impact way to cross-train and support your running.

For more information on how to best incorporate Pilates for runners into your training routine, we spoke to Liz Patient, certified Pilates instructor and founder of the Pilates for Runners app.

What’s a good way for runners to start Pilates?

“The low-impact nature of Pilates means it can be done anytime without impacting your running training,” says Patient. “You can get started with short but regular and consistent sessions tagged onto your runs or existing strength sessions. Start with just 10 minutes 3-4 times a week to see results, and from there you can scale and adapt your sessions around your running.”

Beginner Pilates Workout For Runners

1 Swimming 

Sets 1 Reps 12-15 each side

On all fours, extend your opposite arm and leg away from the body as far as you can. Lift them, pause, and then return to the start position. Repeat on the other side, alternating sides with each rep. Imagine you have a tray of very full drinks balanced on your back, so when you move you keep your torso as still as possible and don’t let your belly drop as you lift the arm and leg.

Progression: Once you’ve extended and lifted your arm and leg, move them out to the side away from the body, still trying to keep your torso as still as possible.

2 Round the world

Set 2-3 Time 1-2min each side

Stand and lift your arms out to the sides to shoulder height to help you balance. Lift one leg and bend the knee of the standing leg to lower into a single-leg squat, tapping the floor with your other foot as far in front of you as you can. Straighten your standing leg, then repeat the movement tapping the foot to the side. On the next squat tap your foot behind you, then finally move your leg across and behind you on the other side of the body. Keep your torso as stable as you can over your standing leg as you do this exercise.

Progression: Interlace your fingers in front of your chest so you don’t use your arms to help you balance.

3 Leg pull

Sets 3 Time 30-45sec

On all fours, tuck your toes then lift your knees just off the floor, keeping them as low as you can. Lift one foot at a time off the floor keeping your knees and torso as still as possible. Lower your foot back to the floor and repeat on the other side. Imagine that full tray of drinks balanced on your back again.

Progression: Lift the opposite hand at the same time as you lift the foot and tap the opposite shoulder.

4 Single-leg hip hinge

Sets 2-3 Time 1-2min on each leg

Stand and lift your arms out to the sides to shoulder height. Hinge forward the hips, tipping your chest forward so it faces the floor and raising one leg behind you as high as you can. Pause, then return to the start. Try to move as smoothly as possible.

Progression: Bring your arms over your head at the start to increase the challenge to your balance. 

5 Side kick

Sets 1 Time 1-2min on each side

Lie on your side with your knees bent and your body resting on your lower arm. Lift your hips so your body forms a straight line from knees to shoulders, and extend your top leg. Lift the top leg to hip height to start. Lift it as high as you can while maintaining the position of your hips then lower under control. Try to keep the knee and foot of the moving leg facing forward, or slightly turned down, rather than turning towards the ceiling. This is to target the lateral hip muscles.

Progression: Try doing this same leg movement from a kneeling position with a straight, rather than bent, arm.

With the right combination of isolation exercises, you don’t need to spend long in the gym to build muscle in your arms. This dumbbell arms workout from personal trainer Adam Enaz pairs triceps and biceps exercises in antagonistic supersets to maximize efficiency and intensity.

“An antagonist superset is a strength training technique where you perform two exercises back-to-back that target opposing muscle groups, known as antagonistic muscle pairs,” says Enaz. “This approach allows you to work different muscles while giving the opposing muscle group a chance to rest between sets, maximizing efficiency and intensity in your workout.”

How To Do This Dumbbell Arms Workout

Work through the three supersets below, taking minimal rest. Enaz suggests that you aim to build up the weight you use by 1-2kg every six weeks to progressively overload the muscle and stimulate growth.

1A Dumbbell biceps curl

Reps 10-12

“Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding a dumbbell in each hand with your arms fully extended,” says Enaz.“Bend your elbows to lift the dumbbells towards your shoulders, keeping your elbows close to your body. Squeeze your biceps at the top of the movement, then slowly lower the dumbbells back to the starting position.”

2A Dumbbell lying triceps extension

Reps 10-12 

“Lie on a bench [or the floor] with a dumbbell in each hand and your arms extended straight up,” says Enaz. “Keeping your upper arms stationary, bend your elbows to lower the dumbbells towards your forehead. Extend your arms back up to the start, squeezing your triceps at the top.”

2A Dumbbell hammer curl

Reps 10-12 

“Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding a dumbbell in each hand with your palms facing,” says Enaz. “Bend your elbows to lift the dumbbells towards your shoulders, keeping your palms facing each other throughout the movement. Slowly lower the dumbbells back to the starting position.”

2B Dumbbell overhead triceps extension

Reps 10-12 reps

“Stand or sit with a dumbbell held overhead in both hands and your arms fully extended,” says Enaz. “Lower the dumbbell behind your head by bending your elbows. Extend your arms to lift the dumbbell back to the start, fully engaging your triceps.”

3A Alternating dumbbell curl

Reps 10-12 each side 

“Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding a dumbbell in each hand, with your palms facing forward,” says Enaz. “Bend your elbow to lift one dumbbell towards your shoulder while keeping the other arm stationary. Alternate arms with each repetition, focusing on controlled movement and keeping tension in the biceps.”

3B Dumbbell triceps kick-back

Reps 10-12 

“Hold a dumbbell in each hand and hinge forward at your hips, keeping your back flat,” says Enaz. “Bend your elbows to bring the dumbbells towards your chest. Extend your arms straight back, squeezing your triceps at the top of the movement. Slowly lower the dumbbells back to the starting position.”

About Our Expert

Need help choosing which weight to buy? Check out our selection of the best dumbbells.

Training for a running event of any length is challenging and it’s not true that the longer the event the harder it is. That was one of the first things I noticed about training for my first ultra-marathon last year: I found it less intense than marathon training. A lot of that is down to expectations, though. I’m usually aiming to run a PR when marathon training and do a couple of hard workouts each week, whereas with my first ultra-marathon I was just aiming to finish and enjoy the process as much as possible.

The event I completed was a local one, in Epping Forest, London, where I ran 10 five-mile laps in just over eight hours. Things got pretty dark towards the end of the event, literally and figuratively, though overall I enjoyed the experience. If you’re tackling your first ultra-marathon this year, here are a few things I picked up that are worth knowing.

1. You Have To Walk And Take Breaks While Feeling Good

The biggest lesson I learned and the hardest for me to take in. I’m used to running races all-out, so the idea of taking a walking break from the relatively slow paces you run at during an ultra-marathon seemed odd.

However, during my main training run—a 50K around the Gower in Wales—and the 50-mile ultra-marathon I should have taken more walk breaks on the uphills in the first half, and longer breaks to refuel, even though I was feeling fresh. I hit the wall hard in the ultra-marathon, having to walk a lot of the last 20 miles, and a more conservative first 30 miles would have helped avoid or reduce the impact of that.

2. When You Hit The Wall In An Ultra-Marathon There Can Be A Long Way To Go

I’m no stranger to hitting the wall in a marathon, but when that happens I usually only have a few miles to go to the finish, and a mix of running and walking will get me home without spending too much more time on my feet. In the ultra-marathon I had to start a mix of walking or jogging with 15 miles to go, which took three hours. Hopefully, better pacing can help you avoid this, but it’s worth mentally preparing yourself for a long slog in the second half of the event, even if you are still running OK.

3. Keep On Fuelling. No Matter How Hard It Is

Fuelling consistently is vital to success in ultra-marathons, but it’s hard to keep eating and drinking when you’re feeling rough after a few hours of running and your stomach is churning. I pretty much gave up on eating after 35 miles of my ultra, which was not smart when I had three more hours of activity to fuel. I learned that I couldn’t be trusted to make smart decisions after that much running, so having a more regimented nutrition plan in place before I started would probably have helped me force down food at appropriate intervals.

4. I Enjoyed Eating A Variety Of Food On The Run

When I run marathons, or shorter events, my fueling is entirely made up of sports drinks and gels that I can consume while running fast, but with ultra-marathons you have time to stop and chew, and usually have aid stations where you can stash bigger items. I enjoyed eating crisps and fresh fruit, and drinking flat cola, and also used energy chews and bars—saving me from gels, which are not the most appetizing thing to have for several hours in a row.

5. Time On Feet Was My Main Training Target

When marathon training I’ll do a lot of speed sessions and work to hit certain paces, but with ultra-marathon training I was just trying to get used to spending a lot of time on my feet. I did a 50K in five hours training, and slowed down a lot on my Sunday long runs to run at the pace I would start at on race day. 

6. Uphills Take Much Longer Than You Think

I didn’t do a particularly hilly ultra-marathon—there was about 3,300ft of climbing over the 50 miles—but even then the hills became the biggest factor in the second half of the race. This was also true on my long run in Wales, which was hillier and had big climbs in the final few miles.

It’s hard to believe how long climbs take when you’re struggling, and it’s dispiriting to think that even if you only have a few miles to go if they’re hard uphills you can still be out there for hours. Check your ultra-marathon course for hills and practice accordingly, and if there are a lot of downhills practice those too because your quads will have to deal with that.

7. Practice With All Your Gear Multiple Times

This is something you should do with any long race, but in an ultra-marathon any minor problem with your shoes or kit will be amplified because you’ll have to endure any rubbing, or annoying flapping, or whatever the issue is, for several hours. My problem was a water bottle with a leaky valve that kept getting sticky sports drink on my hands and chest. A minor problem, for sure, but something I didn’t enjoy dealing with for eight hours. You might not do an ultra-marathon in training, but ensure you get out in all your kit for a couple of hours a few times, just to minimize issues on race day.

How’s your posture? Did you catch yourself slouching as you read that? If there’s room for improvement you should try barre. Barre is a challenging style of workout that combines ballet-inspired movements with Pilates-style strength work. It’s a tried-and-tested combination for improving your posture.

Qualified barre instructor Gen Greensted runs online barre program The Barre Coach and offers classes from her studio in Cobham in the UK. As well as explaining how barre can help with posture, she has also shared a five-move barre workout with Coach so we can all work on improving our posture.

“Barre workouts focus on alignment, balance and core strength, all of which play important roles in improving posture,” says Greensted. “The emphasis on controlled movements and maintaining a neutral spine helps strengthen these muscles while also promoting flexibility and mobility—all components of good posture.”

Five Barre Exercises For Posture

If you want to see changes, you’ll need to do workouts like this one regularly. “I’d aim to incorporate posture-focused workouts like Barre classes into your routine two to three times a week,” says Greensted. “With this level of consistency, you’ll start to notice you are standing taller and moving with more ease in day-to-day life in as little as four weeks. Beyond the physical benefits, improved posture can have an amazing impact on your mental and emotional well-being, giving you a greater sense of confidence.”

1 Barre-style bent-over row

Reps 10-12 each side

Stand with your feet hip-width apart holding a pair of light dumbbells (1-3kg). Step one foot back to adopt a staggered stance for a little extra glute work in this exercise. Hinge at your hips to bring your chest forward, keeping your back flat and core engaged. Bend your elbows and pull the dumbbells towards your ribcage, squeezing your shoulder blades down and in towards your spine. Lower the weights with control and repeat. Make sure you switch legs and repeat the exercise if you opt for the staggered stance.

“This is great for targeting your upper back and core while working on shoulder blade stability,” says Greensted. “It helps counteract the effects of sitting for extended periods.”

2 Barre-inspired Superman variations

Reps 10-12

Lie face down on a mat with your legs straight and arms stretched out in front. 

Keeping your neck in a neutral position (chin very slightly tucked, looking down at the floor), slowly lift your arms and legs a few inches off the floor, engaging your back, glutes and core. Hold at the top, squeeze your shoulder blades down and in towards your spine as you bend your elbows and pull them towards your feet, your hands passing the top of your head. Extend your arms in front and lower your arms and legs to the mat. You can progress this exercise by holding a resistance band, held shoulder-width apart in your hands.

Come up onto all fours and perform a few cat/cows (spinal extension and flexion) after you’ve finished this exercise to get some movement back into your spine.

“This exercise is all about strengthening your lower back, core and glutes, all key muscle groups in improving posture,” says Greensted.

3 Static lunge with chest opening

Reps 10-12 each side

Kneel on your mat then place one foot on the floor in front of you and your weight slightly shifted forward so your front knee is over your ankle. Hinge forward from your hips so your chest moves closer to your front thigh and tuck the toes of your back foot under. Bring both hands to the side of your head with your elbows pointing forward and round your shoulders slightly.

Take a deep breath in, and as you exhale, push up through your front leg until your back knee comes off the floor into a lunge and open up across your chest by pulling your elbows wide. Return to the start with your knee on the mat and repeat, moving slowly and with intention.

“This exercise is amazing for building total-body stability as you’ll have to work hard to find your balance,” says Greensted. “You’ll build glute strength, core stability and work on opening across your chest and reducing any forward rounding of your shoulders.”

4 Four-point leg extensions with resistance band

Reps 10-12, then 10-12 with reduced range, each side

Begin on all fours with your shoulders over your wrists, hips over your knees and your pelvis in a neutral position. Secure your long resistance band to the floor under both hands and loop the middle part around the back of one flexed foot. Inhale as you hover your knee off the mat. Exhale, engaging your core and squeezing your glute as you extend your leg back, finishing with your heel in line with your hip.

Repeat this exercise for the 10-12 reps, then perform the same movement but reduce the range of movement by half, so you’re extending your leg, then bringing it only halfway back, completing another 10-12 reps. Then switch legs.

“This exercise is great for shoulder and core strength and stability while building glute strength and working on hamstring flexibility, all of which are important for improving overall posture,” says Greensted.

5 Four-point arm and leg extension

Reps 10-12

Start on all fours with your shoulders over your wrists, hips over your knees and your pelvis in a neutral position. Place one hand on the side of your head with your elbow out to the side and slide the opposite leg back until it’s extended with your toes pointed, touching the floor.

Take a deep breath in and lift your back leg while drawing the opposite elbow a little higher towards the ceiling. As you exhale, slightly round your back and pull your knee and elbow in towards your core, engaging your core muscles as you do so. Inhale to return to your extension.

“This exercise is all about stability,” says Greensted. “It helps build core and glute strength, while opening your chest and helping reduce forward rounding of your shoulders.”

We hope you never experience knee pain, because it can not only stop you from working out, it can feel so uncomfortable it disrupts your everyday activities.

It’s always worth seeking help from a qualified practitioner if you have acute knee pain, but if you have low-level aches, one of the best ways to reduce your knee pain, or to avoid it altogether, is to strengthen the muscles that support the joint.

Physical therapist and run coach Bonnie Wilder recently shared an Instagram Reel with three exercises she prescribes for knee pain and I got in touch with her to find out more.

“These exercises are best for muscular associated knee pain, which is usually an achy or dull pain, arthritis and any type of sports injury such as ligament sprains,” says Wilder.

To perform these exercises, you’ll need a kettlebell or another type of free-weight, something to elevate your heels on such as a weight plate, and a short resistance band.

Wilder recommends performing three sets of 10 reps for each exercise, but you’ll need to repeat these exercises regularly and increase the difficulty by using a heavier weight or completing more reps to see a reduction in knee pain.

Take a look at Wilder’s Instagram Reel where she demonstrates each of the exercises.

The exercises in this routine will target the quadriceps, the muscles located at the front of your thighs, and the glutes—the large muscles in your buttocks.

“Bulgarian split squats and heel-elevated squats target the quads which are a critical component for reducing knee pain,” says Wilder. “This is because the quads attach to the patella [the kneecap] and help improve stability and reduce unwanted movement.”

The final exercise is a hip clock, which targets a specific part of the gluteus muscles. "The hip clocks work by improving the side glute—the glute medius—which stabilizes the knees and reduces translation [movement] of the knees inwards,” Wilder says. “This improves stability as well and keeping the knees in alignment.”

Try incorporating these movements into your routine a few times a week, and once you’ve built strength with these exercises, move on to these knee-strengthening exercises and these preventive runner’s knee exercises.

Most of us need a snack or two during the day and not only is it completely normal, it’s an opportunity. A well-chosen snack can stave off brain fog and give you the energy boost you need to keep going until the next mealtime, and it can also contribute to the nutritional variety of your diet. However, snacking has a naughty, indulgent aura around it (thanks, marketing) and when we’re trying to eat well it can be easy to assume it’s healthier to skip snacks altogether.

According to Emily Wood, clinical nutritionist and weight loss coach at Voy, a medicated weight-loss program in the UK, not snacking when we need to can lead to problems.

“The biggest mistake people make is trying to avoid eating when they are hungry,” says Wood. “People can feel that they shouldn’t be honoring their hunger cues.”

Why is that an issue? Because you may find yourself overeating or making bad choices later. “You’ll probably be more prone to choosing calorie-dense foods just because your brain’s seeking out higher-energy foods to compensate,” says Wood.

So how can we avoid falling into the trap of failing to realize we need a snack? “Listening to the body’s natural cues is the key to effective snacking,” says Wood. “A lot of people are a bit out of kilter with their hunger cues, especially when they’re busy.” To dial in to your hunger cues, it can be worth developing your own hunger scale, as explained in this guide to mindful eating. 

As well as listening to your hunger cues—such as feeling hungry, thinking about food and getting distracted by the idea of food—it’s worth assuming you will need a snack at some point during the day. “I recommend planning for some nutritious snacks and making sure they are accessible,” says Wood. “Focus on whole, plant-based foods rather than conventional snack foods, and try to incorporate a variety of macronutrients, including protein, carbohydrates, fiber and fats into your snacks.”

It would be a mistake to choose something purely on its nutritional value though. “Choose snacks that you enjoy, too—not something that you find absolutely awful. So, for example, have some apple and peanut butter and maybe some dark chocolate on hand.”

Wood has provided some more examples of well-balanced snacks that she recommends to her clients.

• Chopped vegetables such as carrots, red pepper and cucumber with hummus and wholegrain pita bread
• Full-fat Greek yogurt with frozen raspberries, banana and honey, topped with mixed nuts or seeds
• Glass of milk with a bagel, nut butter and raspberries

When Is The Best Time To Have A Snack?

It may sound obvious but when you’re feeling hungry is probably a good time for a snack, and it’s best not to leave it too long, according to Wood. “It is beneficial to have something before you start to feel absolutely starving,” she says.  

Everyone is different, so see what works for you. “There is a bit of trial and error involved,” says Wood. “If you’re always starving by 4pm then having a snack around 3pm might be a good way of making sure that you’ve always got a bit of energy and that your brain’s working at its best.”

That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to be snacking at all hours of the day or night. “There is some evidence to suggest that snacking later on in the day—past 9pm—can be associated with less good health outcomes,” says Wood. “So try to avoid late-night snacking.”

But it will also depend on your activity levels throughout the day. “Snacking is really helpful with refueling after exercise,” says Wood. “Somebody who goes to the gym often might find that they need to have more meals across the day than the traditional three meals. Or they might have a bulkier snack or a second breakfast after a morning workout, perhaps including more carbohydrates and protein.”

Voy is a weight loss program that includes clinically-proven medication, personalized programs and access to clinicians and lifestyle coaches.

Effective strength workouts don’t have to be complicated, especially if you’re relatively new to resistance training. Incorporating a few compound exercises that target a range of muscles with a weight that challenges you is one of the best ways to increase your muscle mass, particularly if you follow the progressive overload method by making one variable harder each time you repeat the workout.

Health and fitness coach Chris Hover recently shared a workout in that mold. It's made up of four kettlebell exercises but targets the quads and glutes in your legs, the lats in your back, and your shoulders.

It's an EMOM-style workout, which stands for every minute on the minute. This means you have one minute to complete the reps required for one exercise, resting for any remaining time, before moving on to the next exercise.

Hover recommends aiming for three or four rounds in total, which makes for a quick but effective workout that should take between 12 and 16 minutes.

Watch Hover's Instagram Reel where he walks through each of the moves in the workout.

Ideally, you’ll have access to a kettlebell rack or an adjustable kettlebell (you can also use dumbbells if you have them), because to build muscle you want to choose a weight that makes the final few reps of each set a challenge. And, if you’re like most people, your legs will be able to comfortably squat more weight than your shoulders can press.

Coach has exercise guides that explain each movement in more detail. The crucial thing to remember with the Romanian deadlift is that you should only lower as far as your hip hinge allows without rounding your back. Focus on keeping your chest up during the goblet squat, and lifting the weight straight up, not letting it drift to the side, during the kettlebell press. Finally, the key to a successful one-arm kettlebell row is a stable starting position

If you’re after more short workouts, try this 10-minute kettlebell workout next.

Use our guide to the best kettlebells to choose the right weight for you.

I’m usually pretty active with running, cycling and strength training generally featuring in my week. However, pregnancy changed things somewhat. I took it very easy for my first trimester—mostly because I felt nauseous unless I was eating toast.

By my second trimester the nausea had passed and I wanted to do more exercise, but didn’t know where to start. Without guidance from a qualified prenatal fitness expert, it’s hard to know what’s safe in pregnancy and what could potentially injure you (simply coughing while lying in the wrong position would send me into spasms of round ligament pain). I scoured the timetable at my gym but there were no pregnancy-specific fitness classes. I began weekly pregnancy yoga at my favorite yoga studio, started swimming once a week and occasionally doing some very gentle running. But most days I didn’t move much, and I still felt pretty sedentary.

So when I had the opportunity to test and review online fitness program The Bump Plan I was keen to give it a go. Offering a combination of Pilates-style strength training and cardio workouts, the subscription-based fitness platform caters to those trying to conceive, as well as those who are pregnant and postpartum. You can join at any point, even late in your pregnancy or after having your baby.

How Much Does The Bump Plan Cost?

Membership costs £35 per month, with a discount if you pay for six months (£180) or a year (£240) upfront. When you sign up you have the option to buy a £15 starter pack that includes a Pilates ball and resistance band—other than a mat, that’s all the equipment you need for the classes.

What Do You Get With The Bump Plan?

The Bump Plan gives you six workout videos to complete in a week, with the same videos to repeat weekly before you get a new set of videos (these currently change at weeks 12, 18, 24 and 30). Six workouts per week may sound like a lot, but they are all 20 to 30 minutes long, so I found them easy enough to slot into my day, and together they add up to the 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week recommended for pregnant women (and indeed all adults aged 19-64) by the UK government.

All the videos are created and led by Hollie Grant, an award-winning Pilates instructor and personal trainer, and were recorded while she was pregnant. In each of the videos, she is at more or less the same stage of pregnancy as the viewer. I found this immensely helpful—everything felt all the more achievable and encouraging thanks to a feeling of being in the same boat, plus Grant’s down-to-earth teaching style and her frank discussions of the physical challenges of pregnancy were very welcome.

Weeks 18-24 of the program gave me access to two 20-minute Pilates sessions, three cardio-Pilates sessions and a 10-minute stretching session. Each workout also contains a short pelvic floor exercise session at the end. I know how important it is to do pelvic floor exercises but (confession) I never actually do them unless I’m being told to, so having them scheduled into my workouts was ideal.

There’s also a weekly live class, led by Grant, that you can join as part of the program. It was nice to catch a glimpse of some of the other prenatal mamas following along, and it was also good to be able to connect with Grant before and after the class and ask any pressing questions. These workouts are recorded (minus the chit-chat) and become bonus workouts available alongside your weekly workouts.

The Bump Plan also offers more than just workouts. In the education hub section of the website, subscribers also get access to a library of articles by qualified health experts, as well as video interviews and recorded webinars on topics ranging from pelvic girdle pain and sciatica to hypnobirthing, cesarean sections, and baby and toddler first aid. I found it an informative and helpful place to explore and learn more about issues that are often little discussed—there’s even an expert interview that tackles “the post-birth poo”!

Members can also access weekly live clinics with experts including a women’s health physio and a lactation consultant, where you can ask questions.

What Are The Bump Plan Workouts Like?

By the time I began the program during my 19th week of pregnancy, I was doing a small amount of mostly low-impact exercise. Plus I was dealing with the demands of work and family life, with a six-year-old keeping me on my toes. But, I still felt like I was missing some form of more structured exercise that raised my heart rate, and I felt rather feeble and got tired easily. Usually I felt shattered in the evenings, even when I’d barely left the house.

When I began the workouts, I found them very manageable—they’re not too long and there’s an emphasis on keeping effort levels moderate and not getting too out of breath. The videos I followed had no dynamic movements: all cardio was low impact.

There were a lot of squats though—at my stage in the second trimester the program focuses on strengthening your legs and glutes to help with proper posture and support for your back, as well as preparing you for an active labor. I really felt it in my quads and hamstrings after the first couple of workouts. But when I returned to those same videos in the second week, my muscles coped fine and I had no soreness afterward. By the third week I was progressing as suggested by holding a light pair of dumbbells for many of the exercises.

The six workouts for the week felt well-planned, targeting different areas of the body in the safest possible way. There are lots of modifications on offer for those experiencing symptoms such as pelvic girdle pain, or ways to take it down a notch if you’re getting too out of breath.

I found the live workouts a particularly worthwhile addition. Having got to know Grant through the videos it was motivating to interact with her live and do some different exercises. In the live sessions I attended there were options for more dynamic movement if you wanted it.

I asked Grant why the live classes involved dynamic exercises, while the recorded classes do not. “Version one of the Bump Plan was filmed five years ago while I was pregnant with my daughter and back then the guidance was that you should avoid impact while pregnant,” says Grant. “But since then there has been so much research done and new guidance published. And awareness of the fact that actually impact is fine during pregnancy as long as your pelvic floor is comfortable with it, and you're comfortable with it. Baby is completely cushioned and safe.”

“I refilmed the Bump Plan while I was pregnant with my son [who is now one year old], and it's just about to go live in a few weeks,” says Grant. “You’ll get more workouts, they change more regularly and they’re more challenging. I do encourage you to jump and bounce around as long as it's comfortable for you. And there’s loads of information about pelvic floor strength. Things like pressure management in the core, all sorts of things like that. So if you want to be challenged, you can be.”

Is The Bump Plan Worth It?

Within a week of starting the plan I felt stronger and more energetic. I could go on a long walk without feeling heavy and exhausted by the end, and I could carry my bike up the steep front steps to my house with confidence. Three weeks into the plan (and halfway through my pregnancy) my glutes, legs, core, chest, arms and shoulders feel stronger, and even as my bump seems to expand by the day I feel better equipped for the movements and challenges of daily life. I’m getting fewer back twinges and I’d even say my mood is more stable.

I’ve found that having a schedule of six short workouts a week is really helping me stay more active. It’s a challenge to get them all done but because each one is only 20 or 30 minutes long, fitting one in nearly every day feels achievable, and I don’t beat myself up if I miss a couple of sessions here and there. The workouts themselves feel like they’re making a difference and yet they’re never too taxing.

The videos do get slightly repetitive after a while and I would prefer to have a wider range of videos to choose from or for the videos to change more often, and I’d like the option to include more dynamic moves in the workouts, but these changes are on their way, with the Bump Plan update planned for mid April 2024.

Grant herself is very available and responsive to subscribers, encouraging people to email with questions, or stay and chat at the end of live sessions. There’s also an active closed Facebook group where she’ll respond to comments. With her enthusiasm and openness, it’s like having your own cheering squat rooting for you.

I think it’s absolutely worth paying the monthly subscription, and I’m intending to keep following the program for the rest of my pregnancy and beyond—the postnatal program sounds excellent too, with different videos depending on whether you had a vaginal birth or C-section. Progression to the next phase is entirely dependent on when you feel ready.

There’s a week’s free trial to see if The Bump Plan is right for you before committing. But if you don’t fancy paying a monthly subscription and you’d rather devise your own workouts along the same lines, it’s worth reading Grant’s book, The Bump Plan, (£16.99 / $22.99) published in 2023. It equips you with the knowledge of what kind of exercise is safe and most beneficial at every stage of pregnancy and why, and has examples of suitable workouts.

As always when trying something new, especially when pregnant, it’s important to check with your healthcare professional to be sure that this kind of exercise is safe for you.

Sign up for a free trial of The Bump Plan on the website.

Whether or not you’ve tried yoga, you’ve probably come across a move known as downward-facing dog. It’s often used in the warm-up before fitness classes and it’s one of the best movements for stretching and strengthening your hamstrings, hips and shoulders.

To do a downward dog, begin on your hands and knees, then move your hips up and back, and extend your legs to form an inverted V with your body. 

It seems simple, but it’s a pose that requires flexibility and mobility. Some people will find it uncomfortable to begin with while others will be unable to bring their heels to the floor. 

I asked Helen O’Leary, physiotherapist and clinical director at Complete Pilates, what you can do to improve your range of motion and make the movement more comfortable.

“It is important to realize that it may not be possible for everyone to touch their heels to the floor simply due to their own genetic makeup and what range they have within their skeleton,” says O’Leary.

Even if you’re one of those people, moving your feet closer to the floor in the downward dog pose is a good goal to set yourself, in order to get the most out of the exercise.

“Generally to improve your downward dog, you need to do mobility work around your calves, the backs of your legs and the lower back,” says O'Leary.

O'Leary recommends dynamic exercises instead of static stretching to strengthen and lengthen the muscles in the back of your body. Here are three to get you started.

1 Romanian deadlift

Reps 8-12

Hold a barbell or two heavy dumbbells in front of your thighs and stand with your feet hip-width apart. Keeping a slight bend in your knees, a straight back and the weight close to your body throughout, push your hips back to lower the weight until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings, then push through your feet to return to the start. Aim to lower slowly and return to the start powerfully. 

2 Thread the needle

Reps 4-5 each side

Start on your hands and knees. Thread your right arm between your left arm and leg, rotating your torso to reach as far to the left as you can. Bend your left elbow so that your right shoulder reaches as close to the floor as possible. Return to the start then repeat on the other side, alternating sides with each rep.

3 Lateral lunge

Reps 8-12

Stand with your legs wider than shoulder-width apart. Bend your right knee and sit your hips back as you lower to the right, while keeping your left leg extended. Push through your right foot to return to the start and repeat on the other side, alternating sides with each rep. 

Building muscle isn’t easy. If it was, a lot more people would look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. But there are techniques you can use to make the most of the time you spend in the weights room. 

Take myo-reps, for example. It’s an approach created by top trainer Borge Fagerli and it delivers the same gains as a lengthy lifting session in a fraction of the time. 

Myo-reps can be used by anyone, Fagerli tells me. He’s seen success with bodybuilders, powerlifters, everyday gym-goers and himself, with all parties reporting improved strength and muscle mass. But it’s a particularly handy tactic for busy people to have in their back pocket. 

“It will have people in and out of the gym in 15-20 minutes,” Fagerli says. “I’ve had personal training clients who would come in for a lunch training session and get a good workout in. And they kept gaining and gaining off just two workouts per week. 

“Whereas before they were doing three to four workouts per week, lasting 60 to 90 minutes each, and not getting the same gains.”

But for myo-reps to be effective, you have to push yourself.

“Some people spend a long time in the gym without pushing themselves,” Fagerli says. “If they’re doing a 20-minute workout that’s really tough, much harder than they’re used to, then they will make great gains from it.”

How To Do Borge Fagerli’s Myo-Reps Workout

Complete one myo-reps set of each exercise below, resting two minutes between moves.

1. Leg press
2. Leg curl
3. Incline bench press
4. Dumbbell shoulder press
5. Lat pull-down

A myo-reps set involves multiple sets. Begin with an activation set of eight to 15 reps, using a weight that leaves you with two reps in reserve. After this, put down the weight and take three to five deep breaths.

Now choose a target number of reps from three to five. Fagerli says getting the right number of target reps here can take some trial and error, but as a rule of thumb, strength-oriented lifters tend to favor three reps while muscular endurance-minded athletes prefer five. After you complete the deep breaths, pick the weight back up and complete a set with your chosen number of reps. 

Put the weight down again, take another three to five deep breaths, then attempt another set of three to five reps. Once you can no longer complete a set of yours  target number of reps, the myo-reps set is done. Rest for two minutes and move on to the next exercise. 

How To Train Using Myo-Reps

Fagerli says your training frequency will determine how you should use them as they can be demanding on the body. 

“If you’re doing two workouts per week, I would do full-body sessions,” he says. “If you’re doing three or four, you’re more likely looking at some sort of alternating upper/lower or push/pull split. This would have a slightly lower training frequency [per muscle group] so you have a better chance of recovering.”

If you want to follow a two-day workout split and you’re on the hunt for a second weekly myo-reps workout to cycle with the one above, Fagerli has some suggestions there too.

“To train the legs, you pair either a compound exercise for quads and an isolation for the hamstrings, or the opposite,” says Fagerli. “So another combination is a straight-leg deadlift, or other deadlift, and a leg extension.”

He also suggests including a row variation, like a seated cable row, as well as one chest exercise and one shoulder exercise. 

“If you wanted to, you could also add in a biceps and triceps exercise, but at that point you’re already training those muscles indirectly with the compound lifts,” says Fagerli.

See more tried-and-tested options in my guide to the best protein powder.

Finding time to train can be tricky, but beginners in particular can get a lot of bang for their buck from just two trips to the gym every week. 

These sessions don’t have to take an age either. Top trainer Luka Hocevar has created a two-day workout split with just three moves per workout. With a warm-up and warm-down each one will take less than 30 minutes. 

“These exercises cover the main movement patterns that we need to build as humans and they involve using a lot of muscle,” says Hocevar, who’s also a brand partner for booking service Vagaro.

“This means they'll help you build strength and lean muscle, while also improving your movement within daily life activities."

How To Do Luka Hocevar’s Two-Day Workout Split

Do each workout below once a week, leaving at least one day between them to allow your body to recover. 

For the final exercise of each workout, Hocevar lets you choose between any variation of the lunge and single-leg Romanian deadlift. 

This gives you the flexibility to use whatever equipment is free and available. You can also incorporate different planes of motion in the first exercise by opting for a lateral/side lunge or curtsy lunge. 

Two-Day Workout Split: Day One

Click or press the exercise name for how to do each exercise.

1 Trap bar deadlift

Sets 3 Reps 5-6 Rest 2min

2 Push-up

Sets 3 Reps 8-12 Rest 60sec

3 Lunge variation

Sets 3 Reps 8-12 on each side Rest 60sec

Two-Day Workout Split: Day Two

1 Goblet squat

Sets 3 Reps 5-6 Rest 2min

2 One-arm dumbbell row

Sets 3 Reps 8-12 Rest 60sec

3 Single-leg Romanian deadlift variation

Sets 3 Reps 8-12 on each side Rest 60sec

How To Progress These Workouts For An Eight-Week Two-Day Workout Split

If you want to build muscle, you need to repeat workouts and make them progressively harder over time. Hocevar has also provided the optimal way to progress this two-day workout split over eight weeks. 

For the first exercise in each workout, which focuses on building strength, he recommends lifting slightly more weight each week. 

With the second and third exercises, he takes a slightly different tact. 

“Add a rep a week for four weeks, then drop back down to the number of reps you did in week one and add weight. 

“For example, if week one was eight reps, add a rep a week until you get to 11 reps in week four, then drop back down to eight reps in week five while increasing the weight.”

Why Are These The Best Exercises For A Beginner Two-Day Workout Split?

Hocevar selected these exercises because they cover most major movement patterns, but that wasn’t the only factor at play when choosing the moves.

“These exercises are not necessarily that complicated, which means that a person can learn them quickly,” says Hocevare. 

“From this starting point, the goal is to work on progressing load by using heavier weights and adding reps or sets. These are necessary building blocks for the body to adapt and begin to increase strength and build muscle. This process is called progressive overload.”

However, he recommends making sure your form is flawless (“without letting your ego get in the way”) before adding more weight. 

What Are The Limitations Of A Two-Day Workout Split? 

A two-day workout split is ideal for beginners, because it supplies enough stimulus to develop muscle while at the same time the schedule doesn’t feeling overwhelming or unsustainable. 

It can also be a great approach for athletes from other sports looking for a minimalist strength training program to supplement their favored activity—a one-stop shop for reduced injury rates and improved performance among runners and others. 

But there are some drawbacks to this training split, particularly when it contains shorter workouts. 

“Limiting oneself to just three exercises is not necessarily an ideal program,” says Hocevar. 

On top of this, a two-day split of this sort may not provide the volume, variety or frequency to stimulate further strength and muscle gains among seasoned lifters. 

Anyone preparing to run a full marathon will probably have some idea that they will need to fuel specifically for the race, usually by using the best running gels and sports drinks, simply because they will be running for so long. 

Even though the race is half that length, getting your fueling right for a half marathon is also vital to your chances of success on the day, whether that success involves running a PR or completing the course with a smile on your face rather than hitting the wall because you’ve run out of energy.

For all the advice you need on how to fuel a half marathon we spoke to Andy Blow, sports scientist and founder of Precision Fuel & Hydration.

Whatever kind of runner you are, and whatever you’re training for, it’s always great to make parkrun part of your weekly routine if you can. It’s a great start to the weekend and will top up your motivation for running because of the always-excellent atmosphere.

However, fitting parkrun in isn’t always the easiest thing to do for me when marathon training, and not only because of the million activities my kids have lined up every weekend. It’s also because parkrun is 5K, and once I’m deep into marathon training my speed sessions tend to be longer, and they usually take place on a Saturday.

Fortunately my coach Andy Hobdell also loves parkrun and has found a way to include it in long speed sessions—he just makes me run hard before and after it. The parkrun sandwich during marathon training basically involves running two long stints at marathon pace, one before and one after the parkrun itself, which you still run as hard as you can.

Earlier on in my current training block for the London Marathon I did my longest parkrun sandwich session yet, doing 10K at marathon pace before parkrun, followed by 8km afterward, but you can do much shorter versions of the session—I’m doing 5K before and 5K after this weekend, for example.

It’s a great session for testing out how comfortable marathon pace feels, especially after the parkrun when you’ve put a fast 5K into your legs. The recovery time is usually meant to be three to four minutes between each section of the workout, but this is almost impossible to judge correctly for the start of the parkrun because they don’t usually begin at exactly 9am. Then afterward it can take a little longer to get your barcode scanned and say hello to a couple of people before heading off to run again.

The logistics of this session can also be tricky, depending on the parkrun—if you run a very hilly course, it might actually be tough to run at marathon pace on it before and after, so you might need to find a different route locally for those sections, or adjust your pace targets. It’s also sometimes nice to get off the parkrun route for the workout section after the run if possible, so you’re not in the way of runners still finishing their parkrun.

If you don’t have a parkrun near you or just hate early mornings, then it’s easy to do this session without a parkrun. Just do the middle 5K hard, or find another race if you want the extra motivation of other people to run with, which certainly always helps when you’re pushing the pace.

The agony on the faces of rowers at the end of The Boat Race let you know just how hard it is to maintain the effort they put in through the event. That performance is built on months of demanding training.

If you want a little taste of that training, then try this progressive rowing workout from Patrick Ryan, chief coach of Cambridge University Boat Club’s Women’s Programme, which builds in intensity over three 10-minute blocks.

“The 3 x 10-minute session is a key part of our athletes’ development and one that we revisit throughout the season,” says Ryan. “It targets aerobic training, the base of any great Boat Race performance, and focuses athletes on building an aerobic base and making sure that their speed increases with each increase in [stroke] rate.”

Warm-up

“We warm up for half an hour, starting with some stretching and mobility exercises for 10 minutes, getting the blood flowing before athletes get on the ergo [rowing machine],” says Ryan. “Once you get on the ergo, work through the stroke, addressing both technique and intensity as you move through the warm-up.  

“Start by using arms only. Weight on the back of the seat, reaching out to straight arms and drawing back to your xiphoid process [the bottom of your sternum]. You’re looking to increase the handle’s speed through the stroke without snatching. Do this for about a minute.

“Next it’s arms and body. Once your arms are straight, rock your hips forward and transfer your weight onto the front of the seat and feel a little stretch in your hamstrings, but not too much. This sets your body position for when you move out to the full rowing stroke. Start the drive by swinging back with straight arms, using your arms to keep accelerating the handle into your body. Do a minute or two of this, at a 3-4/10 intensity, then we start to bring in the legs.”

From there, Ryan suggests working through a quarter slide, half slide, three-quarter slide and then into a full slide, as detailed below. The catch is the position you adopt before you drive back with your legs.

“Quarter slide: From the arms and body movement above, let your knees come up a few inches and roll into the catch,” says Ryan. “Drive with your legs and arms straight, then swing into the finish.

“Half slide: The next few positions are building on the quarter slide position and compressing the legs more and more into the catch so that the stroke can get longer and stronger.

“Three-quarter slide: keeping your body at the same angle, and very nearly coming forward until your shins are upright.

“Full slide: this is at the length you’re going to do the workout.”

Finish off your warm-up with some higher-intensity intervals based on your stroke rate (strokes per minute, which Ryan refers to as simply rate), and rate of perceived exertion (RPE) to get yourself ready for the workout proper.

“Once you’ve been rowing at full slide at low intensity for a few minutes, open up a bit by rowing at a higher intensity and rate for a minute,” says Ryan. “Row at rate 24 for a minute at about 8/10 intensity, then row at your easier aerobic pace for a minute. Then it’s time to open up again, rating 28 at about 8/10 intensity for 30 seconds and recovering at your easier aerobic pace for 90 seconds. Finish your warm-up by rowing for 15 seconds at rate 32 at a high intensity.”

30-Minute Rowing Workout

The workout is broken up into three 10-minute blocks (or “pieces” as they are called in rowing circles) with 90 seconds of rest in between them. For each piece, Ryan has given a stroke rate to hit, along with a target intensity based on RPE, plus guidelines for the power (in watts) you’ll put out if you’re used to using those.

Ryan suggests that for each 10-minute piece try and record your average watts and heart rate. Then when you next do the session you’ll be able to track your improved fitness.

“When you revisit the session later, remember your watts from the last time you did this session, and keep the stroke rate the same as previously,” says Ryan. “If your training is working, you’ll see your heart rate drop and perceived exertion drop if you keep the watts the same, or if you go by perceived exertion and heart rate, you’ll see your watts increase significantly!”

Piece 1

Time 10min Rest 90sec

“If you know the watts you would normally pull rating 18, you’re looking to pull about 20 watts more and rate 22 for this 10-minute piece,” says Ryan. “If you don’t know what your pace should be, I’d want you to do this first piece at an RPE of 5/10. Use this piece to establish consistency— no great peaks or troughs in output.

“Take 90 seconds rest. You should finish this piece ready to go for the next piece—bank it when you can, this workout will bite later.”

Piece 2

Time 10min Rest 90sec

“Take it up two rating points for the second 10 minutes, so you’ll be rating 24 for this section of the workout and increasing your wattage from the first piece by about 10 watts,” says Ryan. “This should take you to 7/10 RPE and your heart rate will probably be 10bpm higher. As the intensity increases, focus on the stroke: start the drive with your legs, opening the back when the legs are nearly down, and finishing with your arms.”

After another 90 seconds of rest, go into the third 10-minute block.

Piece 3

Time 10min Rest 90sec

“We do this final 10-minute piece at rating 26, at a 9/10 intensity. Consistency is key in this piece as it is when racing the Boat Races—you cannot afford to drop intensity at any point, but you also can’t afford to blow up! If you’ve got anything left in the last 30 seconds, maintain the rate and squeeze on a bit.”

The Gemini Boat Race 2024 takes place in Putney on Saturday 30th March, with the Women’s Race starting at 2:46pm GMT and the Men’s Race at 3:46pm GMT. The event will be broadcast live on BBC One from 2pm GMT.

Read our Concept2 RowErg review to find out why it tops our list of the best rowing machines.

If you run regularly, you’ll be familiar with the aches that are part and parcel of this high-impact sport. One of the areas that tend to get stiff is the hips—no great surprise given the important role the muscles around the hips have in running.

Most people turn to hip stretches to reduce stiffness, but this deals with the symptoms, rather than the cause.

“Stretching your muscles may provide temporary relief, but it won't build up the hip's capacity to tolerate more load, whereas strengthening will,” says physiotherapist and certified running coach Richelle Weeks. 

“When running, your glute medius and minimus—the glute muscles on the outside of your hip—can take two to three times your body weight in peak force with every step,” says Weeks.

“Sometimes, if your glutes are not strong enough to handle this impact, they can start to feel quite tight, especially towards the end of a long run or after a hard workout.”

Recently, Weeks also posted an exercise to her Instagram, which targets the hip rotators, strengthening them so that they’re protected from this impact. 

Take a look at Weeks' Instagram Reel where she demonstrates the move.

“For this exercise place a mini band around your feet and a ball or yoga block between your legs,” says Weeks. “Keep your hips and knees at 90° as you rotate your feet out as far as possible.”

Try to hold the end position for 3-5 seconds and then three sets of six reps.

For more on how to build a body that can better handle the rigors of running, read this expert guide to strength training for runners.

Kettlebells are one of the best pieces of equipment for full-body workouts. With just a handful of moves, you can engage multiple muscle groups, improve your coordination and burn some serious calories. However, kettlebells can be just as effectively used to target specific muscle groups, such as your shoulder muscles. 

This workout from Christian Vila, the founder of Brighton Kettlebells and one of the best kettlebell trainers in England, focuses on your shoulders, directly and alongside other upper-body muscles. 

It’s a kettlebell shoulder workout that’s especially well suited to beginners, because it will put your shoulders through their paces and help you improve your overall kettlebell technique. “Try the workout, once a week, for six weeks before progressing,” says Vila.

How To Perform This Kettlebell Shoulder Workout

How you program the following workout will depend on your fitness goals. “If you’re training for intensity and fat loss, try 30 seconds of each exercise and rest for 20 seconds before progressing to the next, using a weight which allows you to complete each repetition with good form,” says Vila. 

If your primary goal is to build muscle and increase strength, try three sets of 6-8 reps of each exercise, before moving to the next. 

“Weight-wise, I’d recommend 8kg to 12kg for beginners,” says Vila. However, always select a weight that allows you to complete all of the repetitions with good form. 

Always prioritize form over intensity and make sure you’re able to maintain good grip throughout the workout. If the handle gets too slippery, you may try wearing weightlifting gloves or rubbing some chalk or liquid chalk on your hands.

Kettlebell Shoulder Workout Warm-up

The shoulders are one of the most mobile and complex joints in the body. It’s easy enough to strain them with simple daily tasks (think about the time you or someone you know woke up with shoulder pain just by sleeping wrong), never mind when using such an unstable piece of equipment as kettlebells. To minimize your risk of injury and get the most out of your workout, make sure to warm up beforehand.  

“Before jumping into the workouts, complete 5-10 minutes of cardio, such as a jog, row or cycle to warm up the whole body,” says Vila. This will increase your heart rate and the blood flow to the muscles. “Then, follow this with the following mobility routine to further prepare the shoulders for the work to come,” says Vila. 

Shoulder warm-up exercises, such as shoulder rolls, arm swings and band pull-aparts will help increase the temperature and mobility of your shoulder muscles, tendons and ligaments. “Remember mobility is a big part of shoulder health and strength, allowing you to work through a full range of motion in each exercise,” says Vila. 

Beginner Kettlebell Shoulder Workout

1 Kettlebell halo 

“This move promotes mobility around the shoulder girdle, warming up the muscles for the work to come,” says Vila. 

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding the kettlebell by the sides of the handle upside down in front of your chest. Bring the weight over your right shoulder, round the back of your head and over your left shoulder to the start. 

“Try to keep the kettlebell close to your head all the way around, with your elbows tucked in, concentrating on how far down you can lower the kettlebell behind the head,” says Vila. Keep your core engaged throughout the entire movement, and make sure you don’t sway or tilt to the side. 

2 Kettlebell shrug

The kettlebell shrug is a simple, yet very effective, exercise to strengthen your trapezius, a large muscle group stabilizing the shoulder joint. “You will feel your traps burning towards the end,” says Vila. 

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding the kettlebell in both hands in front of you. “Raise your shoulders towards the ears without bending your arms,” says Villa. Pause, then lower your shoulders under control, stretching your shoulder muscles at the bottom of the movement. Don’t hunch your back or tense up your neck muscles.

3 Kettlebell front raise

“The kettlebell front raise will target the anterior (front) head of the shoulders,” says Vila.

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding the kettlebell with both hands. “With straight arms, raise the kettlebell until you can see through the hole in the handle in front of your head. Be sure to prevent any rocking of the body to stop you from using your back muscles,” says Vila. 

4 Two-handed kettlebell press

The all-time best move for shoulder strength—but with a single kettlebell. “Two hand overhead presses will build confidence in holding a weight above your head, and target the whole shoulder girdle,” says Vila. 

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding the kettlebell by the sides of the handle upside down in front of your chest. Brace your core, then extend your arms above your head. “Keep your knees slightly bent throughout and your elbows tucked in, locking out your arms at the top of the movement,” says Vila. “Slowly lower the weight to chest level.”

5 Kettlebell swing

The quintessential kettlebell exercise, the swing primarily targets the muscles of your posterior movement chain, the muscles down the back of your body. However, your shoulders will also have to put in the work. “This move uses the posterior (rear) shoulder head to prevent the kettlebell from pulling you forward,” says Vila. 

Stand with your feet wider than shoulder-width apart, holding the kettlebell handle in both hands. Brace your core, retract your shoulders and push your hips back to pull the weight between your legs, keeping your arms and back straight. Thrust your hips forward to swing the kettlebell up to eye level. Control the descent and hinge straight into the next rep.

“Initiate the movement with explosive hip extensions, with a slight bend at the knee. Beware not to squat too much, or use your shoulders like you did in the front raise—allow your hips to do the work, while keeping the shoulders retracted,” says Vila. 

6 Kettlebell clean

The kettlebell clean is a dynamic movement that trains shoulder stability, coordination and balance, and it’s one of the most important kettlebell exercises to master. “This move not only teaches you how to rack the kettlebell, ready for single shoulder presses but will train the upper back and rear shoulder heads, which are essential for full shoulder development,” says Vila.

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and the kettlebell between your feet. Push your hips back and reach down to hold the handle. Swing the kettlebell between your legs, then thrust your hips forward and shrug the kettlebell up, keeping it close to your body. Rotate your wrist and slide your forearm under the kettlebell. Reverse the movement to the start. 

“Be explosive as you guide the kettlebell from the floor to the rack position, neatly landing the kettlebell on the back of your forearm. Keep your elbow tucked in, before guiding the kettlebell down to the floor,” says Vila.

7 Kettlebell upright row

“If you’re a regular gym-goer, this will feel familiar,” says Vila. Upright rows are typically done with a barbell, but the kettlebell version feels easier on the wrists and arms.  

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding the kettlebell in both hands in front of you. “Take the kettlebell from a full hang at your hips to your chin, leading with the elbows and keeping the kettlebell close to your body. Keep your knees slightly bent to protect your back and to prevent rocking of the body,” says Vila. Keep your core braced throughout. 

About Our Expert

If you want to use your training time as effectively as possible, add these beginner treadmill workouts to your gym routine. They’re both designed by Fran Bungay, head coach for the Training Today App and Goal Specific Coaching, and use the incline and speed settings on a treadmill to program interval runs that will get you fitter and help you lose weight.

While you can just step onto a treadmill and run at a steady pace for your workout, you’ll get more out of short sessions in particular by doing intervals which raise your heart rate and effort level, and burn more calories.

How To Do These Beginner Treadmill Workouts

Bungay has put together two beginner treadmill sessions to try, one with intervals based on speed and one on incline. You’ll be using the 1-10 RPE scale (rate of perceived exertion) to judge your effort, where 10 is maximum effort. This might feel hard to judge at first, but whatever you do will result in a great workout and you’ll get more adept at judging your effort levels over time.

Each workout begins with a warm-up and ends with a warm-down. Don’t skip either of these.

The main workout involves sections of work and recovery intervals. The instructions for each section are written as “5 x 1min at 8/10 RPE, 1min walk recovery”. This means you do five sets of the following: run for one minute at an effort level of 8/10, then recover for one minute while walking.

Beginner Interval Treadmill Workout

Do the entire workout with the treadmill set at a 2% incline.

Warm-up

5min walk 

5min building up to jogging to finish at around 6/10 RPE 

Workout

5 x 1min at 8/10 RPE, 1min walk recovery

3 x 2min at 7/10 RPE, 1min walk recovery

5 x 1min at 8/10 RPE, 1min walk recovery

Warm-down

2min at 6/10 RPE

2min at 5/10 RPE

1min walk 

Beginner Incline Treadmill Workout

Warm-up

Set the incline to 2% for the warm-up

5min walk 

5min building into a jog to 6/10 RPE

Workout

Aim for 7/10 or 8/10 RPE during the work periods, as you get fitter you might want to increase the pace on the lower incline section.

3 x 1min at 6% incline, 1min at 2% incline, 1min walk recovery

3 x 2 min at 4% incline, 2min at 2% incline, 1min walk recovery

Warm-down

2min at 6/10 RPE

2min at 5/10 RPE

1min walk

Find out which treadmills are worth buying with my guide to the best treadmills.

Most diets work, at least in the short term. Whatever rules you have to follow with a diet, at its core is probably an approach that puts you in a calorie deficit if you’re aiming to lose weight, and encourages you to eat more healthy things and fewer unhealthy things.

But the restrictions diets place upon you can become increasingly hard to stick to. They can also be confusing, and sometimes more influenced by social media trends than scientific evidence.

Instead of opting for a complex all-or-nothing diet plan that you find hard to maintain, dietitian Joyce Patterson, author of new book Think Like A Dietitian: A Nutrition Counseling Starter Kit, suggests that the 80/20 rule is a better approach.

This more flexible approach is useful for highlighting the message that it’s your overall diet that’s important, whereas all-or-nothing diets are often ditched completely the first time you stray from their instructions. 

“The 80/20 approach in nutrition is not a hard-and-fast rule,” says Patterson. “It's a mindset. A rule of thumb. It recognizes that our health is impacted by what we consume most of the time, and the occasional indulgence will not cause long-term harm. 

“This approach promotes a healthier relationship with food. Instead of looking at foods as good or bad, or trying to avoid certain foods completely, this approach encourages us to consider which foods we should choose more often, and which we should consume more mindfully. But nothing is off the table—a sharp departure from many popular diets. 

“All too often, overly restrictive eating leads to feelings of deprivation and resentment, ultimately making those approaches unsustainable.”

Given that you can indulge 20% of the time, I was interested to know how wild you can go, so asked Patterson. Unsurprisingly, there is still some moderation to consider here.

“With the help of a dietitian, people not only learn balanced meal planning, but they learn how food is metabolized and ultimately, how it affects our health,” says Patterson. 

“With this information, people can better understand what the body can handle. The 20% part of the approach is not a free pass to binge eat. It's a free pass to enjoy a variety of flavors, but we can indulge in flavors without overindulging in volume, which is a different way to think about it.”

It doesn’t take much for your gym workout plan to go out of the window. Maybe you only have just enough time to fit in your scheduled session and you get stuck in traffic. Or there’s a rush on the piece of equipment you need. When you’re faced with these problems, you need a routine you can turn to. Dumbbell workouts are great for this because there are always plenty of pairs left in the racks of every gym.

Personal trainer Elise Young recently posted a straightforward but challenging routine that only uses dumbbells and it makes a great backup plan if you want to get stuck into a quick workout that will challenge muscles all over your body. The moves in this workout are all compound exercises, which means they engage multiple muscles at once.

Take a look at Young’s Instagram Reel where she demonstrates each of the exercises.

The first movement combines a single-arm dumbbell clean, push press and front-rack squat. The clean is a technical move so it can be worth practicing your technique with a light weight before beginning the workout to ensure the hinge-shrug-pull movement is smooth and controlled, and you don’t round your back.

Once you’ve performed eight reps on each side, move on to 12 bent-over rows. Note that Young uses an underhand grip. That’s followed by 20 reverse lunges holding a dumbbell in the goblet position, and finally 10 push-ups into renegade rows. I’ll let you decide whether a rep is counted after a row on one or both sides. That’s one round, Young suggests doing four rounds in total.

Remember to keep your core engaged throughout the workout, especially as you begin to fatigue in the final rounds. This will not only maximize muscle engagement, but it will also contribute to maintaining the correct form throughout the routine.

Why It’s Worth Training With Dumbbells

As well as being convenient, dumbbell exercises can limit the development of strength imbalances. Often, when using barbells and weights machines, people rely on a stronger side to move the weight. Using dumbbells ensures each side is trained separately.

Find more tried-and-tested recommendations in Coach’s guide to the best dumbbells. 

There are many ways you can go about improving as a runner, and one of the most important is strength training. I knew this, but was still surprised when physiotherapist Patrick Carroll told me how significant that improvement could be—studies have shown an increase in running economy of up to 8%!

Carroll is also owner of the app Running Buddy, which provides strength training programmes for runners, and he was full of great advice which will help any runner understand and get the most out of resistance work. 

To get you started, here are four big takeaways from the interview, which you’ll find in full below.

1. Heavy weights training or plyometrics are the best strength training to do, rather than long sets of bodyweight exercises.
2. In order of importance, you need to train your calf muscles, quads, hips, glutes and core, and it’s worth doing some upper-body work.
3. If you’re not pressed for time, two or three longer strength sessions a week is ideal, or you can add on some exercises before and after your run for shorter, more regular sessions.
4. It’s better to do strength training on a day you run as well, and leave your rest days completely free for recovery.

“If you’re not strength training, you’re leaving performance benefits on the table,” says Carroll. “There’s enough good quality research which shows potential improvements of up to 8% in running economy with the right type of strength training.

“The potential for injury reduction is probably agreed upon within the research community and expert coaches. But if you were to have a hard review of the literature, it’s not as clear cut as the improvements in running performance. It’s very difficult to study because there are so many confounding variables, but the theoretical underpinning is that strength training improves the quality of tendon, bone and muscle, and boosts their force capacities or their ability to tolerate stress. It does make sense that if you improve the tissue quality, you’re going to be able to handle increases in running training load or increases in intensity better, essentially.”

Along with those short term gains, strength training will also help you stay healthy in the long term, not just for running.

“If you look at the running population in general, typically they love running but don’t really want to do a whole lot else,” says Carroll. “There’s general health benefits associated with strength training that you just don’t get from running, like reducing the risk of sarcopenia—losing muscle mass as you age. Runners should also consider strength training as an addition to their training when looking at increasing bone health.”

“They basically try and replicate running movements or do things like lunges, with endurance-length sets and reps,” says Carroll. “You might have long sets with body weight, but you’re not really hitting the right types of strength qualities there.

“There was a systematic review published in 2023, which was able to clearly highlight effectiveness of programmes where runners are moving weight that’s quite difficult, so it’d be termed heavy strength training. You’re getting up above 80% of one rep max, training in a progressive manner over a six to 10 week period. That’s definitely effective. That’s been shown in the research repeatedly.

“The other type is plyometric training. Where there’s a faster muscle and tendon contraction, and it’s done with a lot lighter loads, even bodyweight. That again tends to have a good performance effect when progressed over time.

“It can depend on the experience level of the athlete as well. Maybe a bodyweight exercise is suitable for somebody who’s quite new to strength training. But if you’re experienced in it, then you need to start challenging yourself with external resistance.”

“We know that the Achilles tendon and the calf complex are your biggest contributors to propelling you forward. So you definitely need lower leg training, focusing on the calf complex. Then as you work up the body you get a big contribution from the knee extensors from the quad muscles, and then from the hip extensors from the glute muscles. So they have to be in your training programme.

“Essentially, you want your running position to look the same at the end of a race as you do at the start, and that requires good trunk muscle endurance. So including your core, or it’s probably better described as your trunk, in a training programme is worthwhile.

“Upper-body muscle groups also play a part in keeping that posture steady from the start to the end of a run. You also get a contribution from arm swing. So if your shoulders are fatiguing or if you’re getting soreness through the front of the elbows or in the biceps attachment in a particularly long race that’s not something that you want either. So there is a role for upper-body training too.”

“If you have a blank canvas and plenty of free time and you’re prioritizing strength training—maybe it’s earlier in your training season—doing two or three 30 to 45-minute sessions a week would be good. 

“If you’re in your peak volume weeks of your actual running load and you’ve already built some good strength qualities, if that drops to even once a week, you can do a good job maintaining strength and power levels. Ideally, that wouldn’t be for a very prolonged period, but it’s enough to keep what you’ve earned, basically, from earlier in the season.

“There’s also a pretty good consensus that you can have an effective strength and conditioning routine that fits around your running a little bit more. It could be one or two exercises before a run, then one or two exercises after your run. That’s it. You’re not looking at blocking out more time during the week. That probably leads to maybe four or five mini-strength sessions during the week, and the accumulative benefits of them can match the more traditional standalone strength sessions.”

How hard should your strength training be?

Runners know that if you want to get better at running, you need to work hard, and the same is true of strength training. You’re going to have to push yourself to gain the benefits. Carroll suggests using either your rate of perceived exertion or repetitions in reserve to judge your efforts, as opposed to using your one rep max, which is often referred to in strength training circles.

“If you’re looking to genuinely make changes to strength levels, there has to be enough stress to create an adaptation,” says Carroll. “In the strength and conditioning world, typically measuring intensity is done through the percentage of somebody’s one repetition maximum. In reality, that’s very difficult to do. It’s not realistic for the majority of runners. What can work very well instead is using a rate of perceived exertion scale. So if you pick a set of an exercise that you’re doing, you should be hitting a seven or eight out of 10 for effort in each set of the exercise. That’s a pretty good marker.

“Another useful marker of intensity is something called repetitions in reserve. So if you take a single-leg calf raise. If you’re getting to 12 repetitions and you stop, but you feel like you could have kept going for another 10 repetitions, you have 10 repetitions in reserve. The likelihood is you’re not gonna get a whole lot of adaptation from that. Typically leaving a couple of repetitions in reserve is a pretty good target. You get to the point where you feel like this is very hard, I could probably only do another couple, and then you stop your set.”

How can runners incorporate strength training into their schedule?

Your first thought when adding strength training into your plan might be to do it on your rest day, or if running every day, to do it on a day when you have an easy run planned. Carroll actually suggests protecting your rest and recovery should be the priority.

“I do think you’re better off to have some days that are very hard,” says Carroll. “So if you’re running every day, there’s probably going to be two or three of those days where there’s higher intensity runs or some sort of a session in there. If you can do your strength work on that day, ideally as your second training session that day, that’s your best bet. Then you know the following day should be an easier running day. 

“If you’re running on a Monday and a Thursday, doing your strength work on Tuesday is no problem. But if you’re running six days a week, I wouldn’t be doing the strength session on the seventh day. If you’ve a defined rest period because it’s part of your training plan and you need it, then I would try and protect that.”

Do hill reps, strides or trail runs count as strength training?

In the traditional club circles I’m a part of, runners who don’t do much if any dedicated strength training will talk about hill sessions, trail running and strides as their strength work. Carroll says there is some truth to this, but only if doing certain types of hill reps and strides.

“If they’re more hill sprints, where you’re working for 5 to 10 seconds and it’s pretty close to as fast as you can run, for me that does tick some of the strength boxes because the amount of force you need to produce to propel yourself up the hill at speed, you need to recruit higher order motor units and you go deeper into your type two muscle fiber reserves to do that,” says Carroll. “But if it’s a 60-second rep, where you’re just grinding it out, that’s not doing as much for me because it’s not different enough to what you’re doing on the flat.

“That probably goes as well for flat strides. If there are shorter bits of sprint work and it’s pretty close to top-end speed for shorter durations and there’s a decent bit of recovery, say a couple of minutes, then you definitely hit some of the more plyometric qualities. 

“Trail running is definitely seen as a way to strengthen the legs or or toughen up. Where there probably is some overload to muscles and tendons that you don’t get from your regular running is in the downhill bits. You get high eccentric forces, particularly through the quad, which can be helpful. That can be a useful stimulus, but it probably doesn’t equate to the same benefits you get from a more well-rounded strength plan.”

If you’ve been walking past the kettlebell racks every time you visit the gym, it’s time to start including this type of weight in your routine.

Certified PT Adam Sinicki (aka The Bioneer) has shared six of his favorite kettlebell exercises for building full-body fitness, and it’s a great selection. 

The exercises—the kettlebell swing, front rack squat, Cossack squat, halo, floor press and single-arm bent-over row—can be combined into a total-body workout, too. 

Try using them as a circuit, performing 8-12 reps of each one in turn for three rounds (or 8-12 reps on each side, if it’s a unilateral movement like the single-arm row).

“[Kettlebells will] build your strength in ways other tools just can't,” Sinicki writes. “You'll be stronger at weird angles, for longer.”

This is because, unlike with a dumbbell or a barbell, you’re rarely holding a kettlebell in its center of mass. Particularly during dynamic exercises like the kettlebell swing, the momentum of the weight will pull you off balance, challenging your core and other supporting muscles to keep you stable. 

These dynamic exercises also allow you to rack up plenty of reps, to train your muscular endurance and raise your heart rate. You can even try variations of Olympic weightlifting moves like the snatch and clean and jerk with a kettlebell to develop explosive power too. 

I especially like that Sinicki’s selection works your body through all three planes of motion: sagittal, frontal and transverse. They incorporate up and down (sagittal plane) side-to-side (frontal plan) and rotational (transverse plane) movements to develop full-body functional strength and mobility. 

As Sinicki says, there are still some areas where dumbbells and barbells reign supreme. Performing floor presses with dumbbells rather than kettlebells will save your forearms, and if you want a heavy-loaded leg exercise you’ll struggle to beat the barbell back squat. 

But I agree that kettlebells should be a part of any workout plan, offering plenty of benefits and variations to upgrade your training. If you’ve never used kettlebells before, start with this beginner kettlebell workout. 

Get help deciding which kettlebell to buy with Coach’s guide to the best kettlebells.

Anyone who has trained for a marathon will probably have already heard about the taper, an almost magical period where you get to stop training so hard and start resting up ahead of race day.

Outside of marathons, tapering is not spoken about as much, but it is still an important thing to do when half marathon training. You will still have spent several months training, and your half marathon taper will be critical to helping you perform on race day. For advice on how to taper for a half marathon, we spoke to James Thie, coach at Coopah, official training partner of the London Landmarks Half Marathon.

If there’s a set of muscles that I think people neglect, it’s the pelvic floor and believe me when I say you want to be training these muscles.

Essentially, the pelvic floor muscles act like a sling, supporting the pelvic organs including the bladder and bowel, as well as the vagina and uterus in women. When these muscles are weak, it can lead to incontinence and even prolapse, as well as other issues.

When the pelvic floor muscles are strong, it can result in improved posture, a speedier recovery from childbirth, less chance of incontinence and even better sex!

“The pelvic floor muscles are also part of our bigger set of core muscles,” says my PT, Will Duru, “so strengthening them can help to strengthen your overall core too and your lower back.”

Although exercises such as Kegels are often associated with women, because hormones, pregnancy and childbirth can affect these muscles, men can also suffer from a weak pelvic floor so keeping them strong is important for everyone.

Will and I did a quick pelvic floor workout recently, and although it looks simple, if you move slowly enough through the exercises, I assure you, you will feel it the next day. 

1 Glute bridge with medicine ball hold

Sets 5 Time 5-10sec

Hold a medicine ball between your legs just above your knees, lift into a bridge position and hold. Press your knees together and squeeze your glutes. 

2 Plank into bear

Sets 3 Reps 10

Start in a high plank position. Keeping your core engaged and back flat throughout, step your feet in one at a time so your knees are bent to 90°, but keep your knees off the floor. Step your feet back one at a time.

3 Toe tap

Sets 3 Reps 10

Throughout, make sure the bottom of your lower back is touching the floor. This will require more core engagement as your foot gets closer to the floor. Move slowly to get more from the movement.

4 Glute bridge with band

Sets 3 Reps 10

At the top of the glute bridge, press both knees out so there is resistance in the band. Then slowly roll your back down, vertebrae by vertebrae. 

5 Kneeling exhale and inhale

Sets 3 Reps 10

The most simple pelvic floor exercise you can do can also be tricky to get right. As you inhale, expand the abdomen and rib cage and take in air, then exhale, and allow your stomach to soften and deflate. Breathe deeply and slowly.

“Breathing plays a crucial role in training the pelvic floor,” says Will. “Proper breathing is a key component of muscle contraction. Through mindful inhaling and exhaling, you can effectively contract your pelvic floor muscles.”

A great bodyweight HIIT workout keeps things simple. It lines up several of the best bodyweight exercises and asks you to rattle through them with minimal rest. That’s exactly what you can expect from this workout put together by personal trainer Steve Ahern from Goal Plans powered by MuscleFood.

You need 30 minutes, a bit of clear space and the workout is suitable for all fitness levels since you’re working to time rather than trying to hit a certain amount of reps. There are a number of high-impact exercises, however. If you think that might pose a problem, try this beginner HIIT workout with the regressions.

How To Do This Bodyweight HIIT Workout

The workout uses a 20/20/20 format where you do exercise A for 20 seconds, switch straight into move B for 20 seconds, then rest for 20 seconds. There are seven sections to the workout, and in the first six, you’ll do four rounds of a pair of exercises and rest only after the second move. Then in the last section, you do all 12 exercises for 20 seconds each back-to-back for a tough finisher. The whole workout will take just under 30 minutes.

Bodyweight HIIT Workout Overview

• 1A Unweighted squat 4 x 20sec
• 1B Push-up 4 x 20sec
• 2A Alternating reverse lunge 4 x 20sec
• 2B Burpee 4 x 20sec
• 3A Jump squat 4 x 20sec
• 3B Jump lunge 4 x 20sec
• 4A High knees 4 x 20sec
• 4B Mountain climber 4 x 20sec
• 5A Hand walk-out 4 x 20sec
• 5B Plank 4 x 20sec
• 6A Reverse lunge with hold, right foot forward 4 x 20sec
• 6B Reverse lunge with hold, left foot forward 4 x 20sec
• 7 Every exercise above 1 x 20sec

Bodyweight HIIT Workout Form Guides

Click or press the title for an in-depth form guide to each exercise.

Section 1

1A Unweighted squat

Sets 4 Time 20sec Rest 0sec

“Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart with toes slightly pointed outwards,” says Ahern. “Shift your hips back and bend your knees to lower into a squat position. Keep your chest up when executing the movement, with your back straight, and push through your heels to come back to standing.”

1B Push-up

Sets 4 Time 20sec Rest 20sec

Start on your hands and toes, with your arms and legs extended, hands underneath your shoulders and body in a straight line from head to heels. Bend your elbows to lower your chest to the floor, then push back up. “Make sure to keep your elbows in when pushing back up,” says Ahern.

Section 2

2A Alternating reverse lunge

Sets 4 Time 20sec Rest 0sec

“Take a step backwards and drop your rear knee as close to the floor as possible while keeping your back straight and chest up,” says Ahern. “Push back up and keep switching legs until the allocated time is up.”

2B Burpee

Sets 4 Time 20sec Rest 20sec

From standing, fold at your waist and place your hands on the floor in front of your feet. Jump your feet back so you land in the top push-up position. Jump your feet back to your hands, then jump straight up, landing softly.

Section 3

3A Jump squat

Sets 4 Time 20sec Rest 0sec

“This exercise adds a jump to a squat,” says Ahern. As you rise out of a squat jump straight up. Land softly and immediately lower into the next rep.

3B Jump lunge

Sets 4 Time 20sec Rest 20sec

“Take one step backward and drop your knee as close to the ground as you can, then jump up and switch legs in mid-air, landing with the other leg behind you,” says Ahern. Continue jumping and switching legs in mid-air.

Section 4

4A High knees

Sets 4 Time 20sec Rest 0sec

“Run on the spot, raising your knees to your chest,” says Ahern. Raise the opposite arm to the raised leg.

4B Mountain climber

Sets 4 Time 20sec Rest 20sec

“Start in a push-up position,” says Ahern. “Move one knee close to your chest while keeping your hips as still as possible. Switch legs in mid-air and keep your head down.” Continue switching legs at pace.

Section 5

5A Hand walk-out

Sets 4 Time 20sec Rest 0sec

“From standing, fold at your waist and place your hands on the floor in front of you. Walk your hands into a push-up position, hold for a second and then move your hands backwards and come to standing,” says Ahern. “Don’t allow your hips or back to dip.”

5B Plank

Sets 4 Time 20sec Rest 20sec

“Support your body on your forearms and toes,” says Ahern. “Keep your back parallel with the floor, don’t raise your hips and keep your head down. Make sure to contract your core area while performing this exercise.” Hold this position for the allotted time.

Section 6

6A Reverse lunge with hold, right foot forward

Sets 4 Time 20sec Rest 0sec

“Step your left foot backward and drop into the reverse lunge position and stay there for the allotted time,” says Ahern.

6B Reverse lunge With Hold, Left Foot Forward

Sets 4 Time 20sec Rest 20sec

“Step your right foot backward and drop into the reverse lunge position and stay there for the allotted time,” says Ahern.

Section 7

Rest for an additional 60 seconds before doing the final round, where you tackle all 12 moves from the workout in a row without rest. Use the form instructions from above and perform each move for 20 seconds.

Need help deciding on your next pair of workout shoes? Use our guide to the best gym trainers to find the right pair for you.

Free-weight exercises form the foundations of most shoulder workouts. The overhead press, lateral raise and upright row are just three moves that help build upper-body strength and sculpt the V-shaped physique bodybuilders seek. 

But to take your shoulder workouts tothe next level, you may want to set aside your trusty dumbbell shoulder workout in favor of cable machine exercises. This imposing contraption of weight plates, pulleys and handles can feel a tad intimidating at first, but once you know how to use it, it’s well worth making a trip to the gym for. 

Cable shoulder workouts are perfect for developing functional movement patterns and sculpting impressive deltoids—the group of muscles surrounding the shoulder joint—no matter whether you’re a beginner or a veteran weightlifter. 

So if you’re ready to put your shoulder to the wheel, we have three cable shoulder workouts that will help you build strong, injury-proof shoulders in no time. If you’ve never used the cable machine to train your shoulders before, start your journey with the beginner workout and as you become more confident, graduate to the intermediate and then advanced workouts.

How To Warm Up Your Shoulders

Cable machine exercises are great tools to reduce risk of injury, but you still need to warm up thoroughly before using them as they can put your limbs and joints in new positions they’re not used to. That’s also why it’s also wise to start light and add weight very gradually. 

To minimize your risk of injury, use a combination of dynamic stretches—movements that take your joints through a full range of motion, such as arm swings and shoulder rolls—and gentle resistance band shoulder exercises, such as band pull-aparts. 

Make sure to mobilize your shoulders through all planes of movement, including flexion (backward and forward), abduction and adduction (sideways) and rotation (twisting). 

Before you attempt an exercise, groove the movement with one or two sets with a very light load. If you feel any pain or niggles, you might have an existing strain or injuries that need attending to before diving into these workouts. If everything feels good, then you’re ready to start adding weight. 

For more advice on how to prepare your shoulders for action, check out these eight shoulder warm-up exercises that’ll help kick-start your upper-body workouts. 

Beginner Cable Shoulder Workout

If you’ve never attempted a cable shoulder workout before, lay off heavy weights and complicated movements for now. Even if you’ve mastered your dumbbell shoulder raises, you may be surprised how different these exercises feel when they’re done on the cable machine. Instead, focus on improving your form and developing good body awareness.

For each exercise, pick a weight that you can comfortably complete 12-15 repetitions with and rest for 15-30 seconds between sets. Pay attention to the attachment required for each lift, noted in brackets after each exercise. 

1 Seated cable shoulder press (long revolving bar)

Sets 3 Reps 12-15 Rest 15-30sec 

Sit on a bench facing the cable machine and take note which anchor points are located at approximately your shoulder level. Stand up, then set both ends of the long revolving bar at these anchor points. Sit down on the bench with the bar located in front of your chest, grasp it with both hands using an overhand grip, palms facing away from you. Keeping your back straight and core muscles engaged, press the bar overhead until your arms are fully extended. Slowly return to the starting position. 

2 Cable lateral raise (stirrups)

Sets 2 Reps 12-15 each side Rest 15-30sec 

Set the stirrup attachment at the lowest anchor point. Holding the stirrup in your right hand, position yourself sideways to the machine, so the cable runs in front of your body. Keeping your back straight and core engaged, slowly raise your arm to the right. Once your hand reaches shoulder level, slowly lower the arm to the starting position. Maintain a slight bend in your elbow throughout the entire movement. After all reps are completed, swap sides and repeat. 

3 Cable front raise (short revolving bar)

Sets 3 Reps 12-15 Rest 15-30sec 

Set the short revolving bar at the lowest anchor point. Facing away from the machine, with the cable running between your legs, then grab the bar with both hands using an overhand grip, palms facing down. Keeping your back straight, arms extended and core muscles engaged, raise the bar to shoulder level. Slowly return to the starting position. Maintain a slight bend in your elbow throughout the movement.

4 Cable internal shoulder rotation (stirrups)

Sets 2 Reps 12-15 each side Rest 15-30sec

Set the stirrup attachment at an anchor point in line with your belly button. Grasp the handle and stand side-on to the cable machine, holding the stirrup in the hand closest to the cable machine. Bend your elbow to 90° and pin your upper arm to your torso. With your upper arm glued to your side, rotate your forearm your body. Keep your back straight and core muscles engaged. Slowly return to the starting position. Do all your reps on one side then change sides.

5 Cable external shoulder rotation (stirrups)

Sets 2 Reps 12-15 each side Rest 15-30sec

Set the stirrup at an anchor point in line with your belly button. Holding a handle in your right hand, position yourself sideways to the cable machine, so the cable runs across the front of your body. Bend your elbow to 90° and pin your upper arm to your torso. With your upper arm glued to your side, rotate your forearm away from your body. Keep your back straight and core muscles engaged. Slowly return to the starting position. Do all your reps on one side then change sides.

Intermediate Cable Shoulder Workout

Once you get the hang of the cable machine, you can progress to heavier lifts and more complex movements. Note, however, that more resistance will challenge your core muscles to help maintain your posture during each exercise. If you find that you need to jerk the cable or sway your upper body to complete the set, it’s a sign you need to lower the weight.   

For each exercise, select a weight that you can comfortably complete 8-12 repetitions with and rest for 30-60 seconds between sets.

1 Standing cable shoulder press (long revolving bar)

Sets 3 Reps 8-12 Rest 30-60sec

Set both ends of the long revolving bar at the anchor points in line with your shoulders. Facing away from the machine, stand with the bar in front of you and grab it with both hands using an overhand grip, palms facing away from you. Keeping your back straight and core muscles engaged, press the bar overhead until your arms are fully extended. Slowly return to the starting position.

2 Cable face pull (rope)

Sets 3 Reps 8-12 Rest 30-60sec

Set the rope attachment at an anchor point at eye level. Grab the rope ends with both hands so that your thumbs point to the floor, and extend your arms in front of you. Pull the handles to either side of your face, then rotate your forearms until vertical. To maintain balance, lean back with your weight in your heels and keep your core muscles engaged. Slowly return to the starting position.

3 Cable upright row (long revolving bar)

Sets 3 Reps 8-12 Rest 30-60sec

Set both ends of the long revolving bar at anchor points in line with your knees. Using an overhand grip, palms facing you, grasp the bar with your hands shoulder-width apart, then stand upright. Keeping your back straight and core muscles engaged, pull the bar straight up until level with your upper chest. Make sure that your elbows are always higher than your wrists and that you keep the bar close to your body throughout. Slowly lower the bar until your arms are straight, then repeat. 

4 Cable flye (stirrups)

Sets 3 Reps 8-12 Rest 30-60sec

Set the stirrups at anchor points in line with your shoulders or slightly higher. Grasp each handle to brace the weight, then step away from the cable station and adopt a split stance to provide stability. Maintaining a slight bend in your elbows throughout, bring the handles together in front of your chest. Pause, then slowly return your hands to the starting position. Keep your back straight and core muscles engaged throughout the entire movement. Switch feet halfway through each set. 

5 External rotation in 90˚ abduction (stirrups)

Sets 3 Reps 8-12 each side Rest 30-60sec

Go very light with this one. Set one stirrup at chest height. Facing the machine, grasp the handle using an overhand grip, palm facing away from your body. Start with your arm raised out to the side of your body and your elbow bent to 90˚, with your elbow level with your shoulder and forearm parallel with the floor. From here, rotate your forearm to vertical. Pause, then slowly rotate your forearm back to the start. Do all your reps on one side then change sides.

Advanced Cable Shoulder Workout

Advanced exercisers can take full advantage of cable machine. If you have sufficient strength and mobility in your shoulders, don’t shy away from heavy lifts, complex movements and isometric holds—embrace the variety and see your shoulder size and strength soar. 

For each exercise, perform a light warm-up set of 8 to 12 repetitions, then progress to heavier weights for each working set. Rest for two minutes between the heavy sets.

1 Cable standing shoulder press (stirrups)

Sets 3 Reps 4-8 Rest 2min 

Set both stirrups at the lowest anchor points. Facing away from the machine, stand with the bar in front of you and grab it with both hands using an overhand grip, palms facing away from you. Keeping your back straight and core muscles engaged, press the bar overhead until your arms are fully extended. Slowly return to the starting position.

2 Cable Y raise (stirrups)

Sets 3 Reps 4-8 Rest 2min

Set the stirrups at the lowest anchor points. Grasp the right stirrup in your left hand and the left stirrup in your right hand. Standing between the cable towers, bring your arms down so your hands are crossed in front of your body. Keeping a slight bend in your elbows, pull the cables up and back until your body resembles a letter Y. Slowly return to the starting position. Avoid rounding your shoulders, hunching your back or tilting your body backward. Start light and build the weight up gradually.

3 Cable twisting overhead press (stirrups)

Sets 3 Reps 4-8 Rest 2min

Set the stirrups level with your belly button. Facing the cable machine, grasp the handle with an overhand grip, palm facing you, then stand in a wide stance with your free hand placed on your hip to help maintain your balance. Bring the stirrup to your upper chest level. Brace your core, then press the handle up and across your body until your arm is fully extended while slightly rotating your torso. This rotation will recruit more muscles around your shoulder than a traditional overhead press. Slowly return to the starting position.

4 Cable lateral raise hold (stirrups)

Sets 2 Reps 4-6 each side with a 5sec pause Rest 2min

Set the stirrup attachment at the lowest anchor point. Holding the stirrup in your right hand, position yourself sideways to the machine, so the cable runs in front of your body. Keeping your back straight and core engaged, slowly raise your arm to the right. Once your hand reaches shoulder height, pause for five seconds, then slowly lower the arm to the starting position. Maintain a slight bend in your elbow throughout the entire movement. Change sides after you complete each set. 

5 Cable front raise hold (stirrups)

Sets 2 Reps 4-6 per side with a 5sec pause Rest 2min

Set the stirrup at the lowest anchor point. Facing away from the machine, grasp one handle with an overhand grip (palm facing behind you). Keeping your back straight and core muscles engaged, raise your arm in front of you. Once your hand reaches shoulder height, pause for five seconds, then slowly return to the starting position. Maintain a slight bend in your elbow throughout the entire movement. Change sides after you complete each set. 

There are so many different exercises to choose from, it can be difficult to know which movements to spend your limited training time on.

That’s why I was intrigued by physiotherapist Sam Caddick’s ringing endorsement of the Cossack squat in a recent Instagram post, so I spoke to him to find out more.

According to Caddick, the Cossack squat is one of the best tests of strength and mobility, as it recruits a wide range of lower-body joints and muscles.

“The reason why I love this drill so much is because it brings in the four mechanics of the lower body,” says Caddick. “These are ankle mobility (dorsiflexion), knee flexion—driving the knee over the toe—as well as working into a deep hip-flexed position and working through the adductors, testing the groin strength and length.

“It’s also a great way of working through the lateral movement pattern, so left to right.”

What’s more, it's also a unilateral exercise, which means you’ll be working on one leg at a time, ensuring both are equally as strong and mobile.

So what’s stopping you from adding it to your leg workouts? Probably the fact that it requires greater mobility than many of us possess, which is why Caddick’s Instagram post is so helpful. Watch him demonstrate several regressions to help you get started.

“To regress the drill, use a band strapped around something [such as a squat rack] to lean back on so you're able to get further and deeper into the motion,” says Caddick. “You can always use your hands to support you on a block to help you get further into the position. Or use a weight as counterbalance which should reposition the torso so you’re able to get deeper into the stretch.”

If you have limited ankle mobility, Caddick recommends raising one heel on a wedge or a block, so you can move deeper into the exercise.

Once the movement comes easily, Caddick has also provided progressions too. “You can straddle wider and you can add additional load in the form of a kettlebell or a dumbbell and hold it in a front-loaded position at the chest.”

When you first start trail running you don’t need to think about running with poles, unless you take the unlikely first step of heading straight for very long runs in the mountains (which we’d advise against).

Once you are comfortable with trail running and lining up some longer adventures, a good set of running poles is up there with a pair of the best trail-running shoes as one of the most important bits of kit you’ll need.

Running with poles is a skill you’ll need to learn, though, because mastering the technique takes practice. For advice on how to run with poles and what to look for when buying a set, we spoke to Simon James, running coach and founder of trail-running adventure company Run The Wild.

If you only have 10 minutes to fit in your workout, then you need to train smart, and this 10-minute dumbbell workout from personal trainer Adam Enaz will certainly encourage you to do just that.

The workout uses two strategies based on studies that have proven them effective—antagonist supersets and stretch-mediated hypertrophy.

“Antagonist supersets mean you work opposing muscle groups with little rest to save time,” says Enaz. “By doing this, it allows one unrelated muscle group to rest while the other gets worked.”

“We are also going to use the most effective exercise for each muscle group that stimulates the most growth using the latest ‘stretch-mediated hypertrophy’ method, which has shown that the more a muscle is worked in the stretch position, the more it grows.”

10-Minute Dumbbell Workout

After a quick warm-up set of squats, the workout involves doing two supersets and then a tri-set, where you’ll be resting for a maximum of 15 seconds between each exercise in the sets. For each move Enaz says to go close to failure, aiming for at least 12-15 reps, so choose your weight with this in mind.

If you’re going to fit this into 10 minutes, you will need to move fast and take minimal rest, so it’s worth lining up the equipment you need for each exercise in advance—you’ll have to use a bench and a preacher bench, as well as having the dumbbells you need to hand.

10-Minute Dumbbell Workout Overview

• Warm-up Unweighted squat x 25
• 1A Bulgarian split squat x 12-15+ each side
• 1B Lateral raise x 12-15+
• 2A Dumbbell bench press x 12-15+
• 2B Single-arm row x 12-15+ each side
• 3A Preacher curl x 12-15+ each side
• 3B Triceps overhead extension x 12-15+ each side
• 3C Dumbbell sit-up x 12-15

Warm-Up

Unweighted squat

Reps 25

“Start by doing 25 warm-up bodyweight squats, crouching up and down to get your heart rate up,” says Enaz.

Superset 1

1A Bulgarian split squat

Reps 12-15+ each side

Targets Glutes, quads, hamstrings

Hold dumbbells by your sides, stand with a knee-high platform such as a bench or sofa two to three feet behind you. Extend your right leg behind you and rest your toes on the bench. From this starting position, bend your front knee to lower until your front thigh is horizontal. Push through your front foot to return to the start. Do all the reps on one leg then switch to the other.

1B Lateral raise

Reps 12-15+

Targets Shoulders

Hold dumbbells by your sides with your palms facing you. Lift the dumbbells out to the sides to shoulder height, pause then lower under control. Maintain a slight bend in your elbows throughout.

Superset 2

2A Dumbbell bench press

Reps 12-15+

Targets Chest

“Lie back on a bench and keep the dumbells close to your chest,” says Enaz. “Press the dumbbells to lock out at the top and bring them back down, holding for two seconds in the stretched position at the bottom.”

2B Single-arm row

Reps 12-15+ each side

Targets Back

“Holding a dumbbell in your right hand, bend over to place your left knee and left hand on a bench to support your body weight,” says Enaz. “Your hand should be placed directly under your shoulder and your knees should be positioned directly under your hips. Now pull the dumbbell towards your hips and then slowly lower.”

Do all your reps on one arm then switch to the other side.

Tri-set

3A Preacher curl

Reps 12-15+ each side

Targets Biceps

“Grab a dumbbell with your left hand and place the upper arm on top of the preacher bench, which you should have at a 60° angle,” says Enaz. “The dumbbell should be held at shoulder height. This will be your starting position. Slowly lower the dumbbell until your upper arm is extended and the biceps is fully stretched and then bring it back up to the starting position.”

Do all your reps on one arm then switch to the other side.

3B Triceps overhead extension

Reps 12-15+ each side

Targets Triceps

“Grab a dumbbell with one hand and position it behind your head with your elbow flexed to 90°,” says Enaz. “Contract your triceps and press the dumbbell upwards until your arm is fully extended. Pause and return the weight to the start.”

Do all your reps on one arm before switching to the other.

3C Dumbbell sit-up

Reps 12-15+

Targets Abs

“Lie down on a mat with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor,” says Enaz. “Hold a dumbbell to your chest. Engage the core and slowly roll up so that the dumbbell touches your knees. Lower back down with control.”

Need help choosing? Our guide to the best dumbbells will help.

If there’s one exercise that feels beyond most gym-goers, it’s the pull-up. It makes sense that they’re one of the toughest moves to do. After all, you’re lifting your entire body weight.

“Consistency, patience, and progressive overload are essential principles for mastering the pull-up,” says Ali Malik, a personal trainer and founder of Fit Labs Kensington.

Our four-week pull-up workout plan for beginners sticks to those principles, but if you’re keen to speed up your progress or lay strong foundations while you wait for a home pull-up bar to be delivered, Malik has recommended a few exercises that will help you strengthen the muscles you need to do a pull-up.

“Incorporate pull-up-specific exercises into your routine at least two to three times per week, gradually increasing intensity, volume, and resistance over time,” says Malik.

“While calisthenics exercises like pull-ups and bodyweight rows are excellent for building functional strength, incorporating weight training exercises like lat pull-downs, rows and deadlifts can provide additional muscle stimulation and variety to your training regimen,” says Malik.

Here, he shares a variation of bodyweight and weighted exercises to help you achieve your first pull-up or improve the number of reps you’re able to do.

1 Negative pull-up

Why “This eccentric phase of the movement helps build muscle strength and control, which are essential for performing full pull-ups,” says Malik.

How Use a box or a step to get into the top of a pull-up position, with your chin above the bar and your hands gripping the bar shoulder-width apart. Lower yourself as slowly as possible until your arms are fully extended.

2 Band pull-apart

Why “Strengthening the muscles responsible for scapular retraction, such as the rhomboids and lower trapezius, is crucial for pull-up success,” says Malik.

How Stand holding a resistance band in front of you around chest height with your arms extended and your hands shoulder-width apart. Move each hand out to either side as far as you can. Pause and squeeze your shoulder blades before returning to the start under control. 

3 Face pull

Why This is another exercise to strengthen scapular retraction.

How Set up a cable machine with a double rope attachment fixed at eye level. Face the anchor and hold the handles with an overhand grip, palms facing the floor, Step back until your arms are extended at chest height and the cable is taut. Pull the handles towards either side of your face, then rotate your forearms to vertical, your elbow should be at a 90° angle. Pause and squeeze your shoulder blades together. Slowly return the handles to the start.

4 Lat pull-down

Why “Incorporating lat pull-downs and rowing exercises into your strength training routine can target the same muscle groups used in pull-ups, such as the latissimus dorsi, biceps and upper-back muscles,” says Malik. “Gradually increasing resistance and volume will contribute to overall pull-up strength.”

How Sit in a lat pull-down machine and hold the bar with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and your palms facing forward. Pull the bar down towards your chest. Pause and squeeze your shoulder blades. You can move backward slightly but don’t swing your torso to generate momentum to move the weight. Return the bar to the start under control.

The New York City Half Marathon has been one of the New York Road Runners’ most popular races over the last decade. While the course has changed over the years, fans’ enthusiasm for it hasn’t wavered.

I ran the New York City Half Marathon twice when it took place entirely in the borough of Manhattan, running from Central Park to Battery Park in the Financial District. Some people might consider that to be more of a pure New York experience, but when I returned in 2023, eight years since the last time I ran it, I found the new Brooklyn-to-Manhattan course much more enjoyable. It has a New York City Marathon lite feel, with crowds out in full force even though it was 25℉ outside on that mid-March morning. 

Especially running this year on the new course, I’ve encouraged many friends who haven’t had luck with the marathon lottery to enter this one for a similar experience on an equally challenging course. And on that note, running the New York City Half Marathon last year turned out to be a well-timed tune-up run a month before my first Boston Marathon, which is also known to have a tough course.

If you’re running the New York City Half Marathon this year, here’s what to expect.

New York City Half Marathon Route Map

This map of the New York City Half Marathon route has been generated using Emilia Benton’s run in 2023, which was tracked using a Garmin Forerunner 245 Music. A combination of challenging conditions for GPS running watches and runners not being able to follow a perfect racing line accounts for the extra distance.

New York City Half Marathon Route Miles 1-2.5

While the race staging area (with bag check, portable restrooms, etc.) is inside Prospect Park, the race actually starts right outside the park, on Washington Avenue near the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Runners enter Prospect Park within the first mile, though, and stay inside it for the next two-or-so miles.

New York City Half Marathon Route Miles 2.5-5

By looking at the course map alone, this long, flat straightaway through and out of Brooklyn lacks interest, but it’s what makes this race because it’s where you’ll find those World Marathon Major-esque crowds. Once you exit Prospect Park, you’ll head northwest toward Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza on Flatbush Avenue for nearly three miles. Before long, you’ll be able to see the Manhattan Bridge looming in the distance, well before you ascend it.

New York City Half Marathon Route Miles 5-6

Congrats, you’ve made it to the bridge. Many runners are probably mentally prepared for this to be one of the toughest parts of the race, but it’s actually just one of the longest, as there are hills throughout. Once you descend the bridge and enter Manhattan, you’ll finally start to see some famous landmarks in the city.

New York City Half Marathon Route Miles 7-10

Once you’re off the bridge, you’ll turn right onto Canal Street, another right a couple of blocks down at Allen Street, heading south, then left onto South Street, before taking another right onto the FDR Drive entrance ramp by Pier 36. From there, you’ll head north on the FDR Drive as you approach the East 42nd Street exit ramp. You’ll stay to the right side of the road and continue up the ramp before finally exiting the FDR Drive onto East 42nd Street at mile 10, with the United Nations to your right.

New York City Half Marathon Route Mile 11

Now that you’re finally on East 42nd Street, you’ll make your way through some of the landmarks the city and race is known for. You’ll run west on 42nd Street past Grand Central Terminal and Bryant Park before reaching Seventh Avenue, where you’ll turn right and continue north through Times Square. Many locals and seasoned visitors alike tend to avoid Times Square due to how crowded it can get, but it really is a cool sight on race day, when runners take over the roads.

New York City Half Marathon Route Mile 12

As you pass Times Square, you’ll make your way through Midtown Manhattan for about another mile of flat streets as you make your way toward Central Park.

New York City Half Marathon Route Mile 13 to the finish

If you ran the old half-marathon course, you might be sad to learn that the current course only has you run the final mile in Central Park rather than nearly half of the race, but this means you are saved the hilly parts of the park. 

As you approach Manhattan’s Grand Army Plaza, you’ll turn left into the park, running north on East Drive. You’ll turn left when you reach the 72nd Street Transverse, before making another final left turn onto West Drive and arriving at the finish line just above West 67th Street, near the Tavern on the Green restaurant. Congratulations, you’ve just finished a partial tour of New York City.