Six-time fittest woman on earth Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr is the most decorated individual CrossFit athlete in history. But even she started out in her local CrossFit box with an empty barbell and a whole lotta drills. 

It’s these early encounters with the sport that led her to name Nancy as her favorite benchmark CrossFit workout during a recent interview with Coach.

“Overhead squats were actually quite challenging for me when I first started. A lot of the weightlifting movements were,” Toomey-Orr tells me.

“Nancy is five rounds of a 400m run and 15 overhead squats. I was a runner prior to doing CrossFit so it allowed me to get ahead and do what I was really born to do, then it really challenged me when it came to the squats. But I could see progression every time I did it.”

CrossFit Workout Nancy

Five rounds for time:

• 400m run
• 15 overhead squats (95lb/42.5kg for men, 65lb/30kg for women)

Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr On How To Get A Good Nancy Time

Unlike in a complex chipper (a workout that could be up to an hour long with multiple moves), you won’t need to squint at the whiteboard for a mid-WOD reminder of the movements here. Nancy is a straightforward workout, which is part of the appeal for Toomey-Orr. 

But in CrossFit, straightforward rarely means easy. That’s why the perennial champ says the key to success is strategy, playing to your strengths and nailing down your technique for the overhead squats.

“When you walk into a gym and you see the workout on the whiteboard, I think the best thing to do is to work out where your strengths are and where your weaknesses are,” she says.

“For example, in Nancy, I knew that my strength was going to be on the running portion, but when I came back in from the run my overhead squats were going to be the limiting factor.

To hone her technique, Toomey-Orr tackled Nancy with an empty barbell at first, leading to her next piece of advice: Scale the workout where needed and work on building strong foundations in each of the movements.

If Toomey-Orr can benefit from scaling workouts, chances are you can too. 

“I had to learn not only the movement, but also build my body awareness as well,” says Toomey-Orr. 

“When you face movements that you’re less confident with, it’s about giving them a little bit more time, being a bit more patient with the whole process and just breaking it down. 

“Everyone wants to go from zero to 100, but you need to take your time and put the work in.”

A two-move workout doesn’t sound too bad. A two-move CrossFit workout is a different beast entirely (naming no names, Fran). 

It’s no surprise, then, that when we asked the UK’s fittest woman Jen Muir for her favorite workout, she answered with a spicy couplet sure to test the mettle of even seasoned athletes. 

Muir plumped for CrossFit Open workout 22.2, which challenges you to complete alternating sets of deadlifts and barbell-facing burpees. 

As a bonus, all you need is a barbell and weight plates, so you can give it a go in most gyms. 

“I’m much better in a workout I can settle into and use my endurance background,” Muir tells Coach.

“The deadlift weight [225lb/102.5kg for men and 155lb/70kg for women] is comfortable enough for me to go unbroken without feeling too taxed, so I can hold a good pace on the burpees.”

Comfortable isn’t the word I’d choose, but I’m not my country’s fittest person. 

How To Do CrossFit Open Workout 22.2 

Start by performing one deadlift and one bar-facing burpee, followed by two reps of each, then three reps, and so on until you hit 10 reps. From there, work your way back to one—you have 10 minutes to make it through as many reps as possible. 

The deadlift weight may be comfortable for Muir, but for the rest of us, it’s far from easy. 

The standards for this workout dictate that RX (top-level) competitors should complete it with the barbell loaded to 225lb (102.5kg) for men and 155lb (70kg) for women. If you want to try a scaled version of the workout, knock those weights down to 135lb (60kg) and 95lb (42.5kg).

My Experiences With CrossFit Open Workout 22.2

Like thousands of people around the world, I first tackled this workout during the 2022 Open, hitting 114 total reps in 10 minutes (good for 77,041st in the world) before collapsing in a heap on the floor. 

As luck would have it, my coach programmed the exact same workout the morning before I wrote this. 

Open workouts are designed to be a test of fitness. Tests, by definition, are hard, and this workout was no different, but the most dastardly thing about it is that it lulls you into a false sense of security.

I cruised through the first five rounds in two minutes and fooled myself into thinking that was a quarter of the workout done, but that’s the evil genius of an ascending ladder format. 

I had done a quarter of the rounds, but only 30 of a total of 200 possible reps.

The burpees felt fine: flop down, get up, jump, repeat. They weren’t done at a blistering pace, by any means, but I was able to keep moving at a consistent pace. 

It was the deadlifts that were my downfall. My legs, core and back all began to blow up, despite breaking them into two short sets after the fifth round. 

By round eight, 100kg felt like 140kg and a steady stream of sweat was trickling off the end of my nose. But I pressed on, trying to maintain good form and move efficiently. 

I finished the round of 10 with a little over a minute to go, but the breaks between my sets of deadlifts had gradually grown longer. One final push took me to the end of my second round of nine, or 118 reps, as the timer sounded. 

What’s your bench? Most gym-goers will have a number in mind when asked this question and, for many of us, that number won’t have budged in years. The same applies for the squat, deadlift and pretty much any big barbell exercise going. 

We think it’s time that changed, and so does celebrity trainer Sarah Lindsay. The former Olympic speed skater and founder of Roar Fitness has devised a six-move full-body workout to help you get off training plateaus using one simple technique: tempo training. 

“To be able to overcome plateaus—and you will always come across them at some point—you need to change up the variables,” says Lindsay. “This means adjusting either the exercise, the load, the equipment or the speed of your lifts.

“A lot of people will try to grow stronger by using a few different exercises, but where do you go from there? I like using tempo training because it’s something you see a lot of people not doing in the gym.

“Slowing down the exercise increases the time under tension, which makes the workout harder and stimulates the muscle in a different way.”

And that’s not the only advantage to tempo training.

“Even if you’ve been training for ages—and sometimes that’s worse because you end up with bad habits—sometimes it helps to go back to the beginning and focus on form,” says Lindsay. “Tempo makes you do that. If you’re moving slowly you’re getting more feedback and you can feel what’s really happening. You can think about contracting the muscle sometimes because you’ve got that time to feel it properly.”

How To Do This Barbell Full-Body Workout

Perform each of the moves below in straight sets for three sets of 13 to 15 reps, resting for 60 seconds between exercises. And, most importantly, make sure you follow the prescribed tempo. 

The tempo is written as four numbers. “The first number refers to how many seconds you should spend on the eccentric part of the movement,” Lindsay explains. “This is where the muscle is lengthening, which is usually when the weight is on the ‘way down’.”

The second number is the pause at the bottom of the rep, the third represents the time you should spend on the concentric part of the movement (“where the muscle is shortening or on the ‘way up’”) and the final digit signifies the pause between reps.

1 Barbell bent-over row

Sets 3 Reps 13-15 Tempo 3021 Rest 60sec

Pick up a barbell with an overhand grip and your hands about shoulder-width apart. Hinge at the hips to lower your chest until it’s just above parallel with the ground. Retract your shoulder blades, then pull the barbell up to your bellybutton. Control it back to the starting position to complete the rep.

2 Barbell squat

Sets 3 Reps 13-15 Tempo 4011 Rest 60sec

Place a barbell in a rack at about shoulder height. Duck under the bar and let it sit across your shoulders, behind your neck, then lift it out of the rack and take one step back. Stand with your feet slightly wider than hip-width apart with your toes turned outwards slightly. Push your hips back and bend at your knees until your thighs are parallel with the ground, then drive through your feet to return to a standing position. 

3 Abs roll-out

Sets 3 Reps 13-15 Tempo 4110 Rest 60sec

Kneel on the floor holding an abs roller or a barbell with an overhand shoulder-width grip. Keeping your arms and back straight, roll the abs roller or barbell away from you until your chest is an inch from the floor, then reverse the movement to return to the starting position.

4 Overhead press

Sets 3 Reps 13-15 Tempo 3010 Rest 60sec

Start with a barbell in a rack at chest height. Grasp it with an overhand grip, and your hands just outside your shoulders. Lift the bar from the rack then, with your forearms vertical, press it over head. Keep your legs and torso still throughout this movement—your shoulders and triceps should be doing all the heavy lifting. At the top of the rep, push your head through your arms so your biceps are next to your ears. Control the bar back to the starting position. 

5 Olympic barbell curl

Sets 3 Reps 13-15 Tempo 4012 Rest 60sec

Hold an Olympic barbell with an underhand grip and your hands shoulder-width apart. Keeping your elbows and upper arms as still as possible, use your biceps to lift the bar in a curved path to your shoulders until you can’t lift it any higher. Control the bar back down until your arms are extended. 

6 Bench press

Sets 3 Reps 13-15 Tempo 4010 Rest 60sec

Lie on a flat bench with a barbell in a rack above your head. Hold it with an overhand grip slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and lift it out of the rack so it’s above your shoulders. Brace your whole body, tensing your core and driving your heels into the floor, then lower it to your lower chest. Press it back to the starting position using your chest, shoulders and triceps. 

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It’s all well and good for celebrities to spend six hours a day in the gym, but most of us don’t have that luxury. Even a typical muscle-building upper-body workout needs a good hour. This quick conditioning barbell workout lets you hit your whole upper body in less than 20 minutes, with a bonus benefit of taxing your heart and lungs too.

The session has been created by former CrossFit athlete and fitness coach Marcus Filly, and it contains just four movements: the Z-press, pull-up, barbell floor press and Pendlay row.

They are all examples of compound exercises which work multiple muscle groups at the same time, and most of them will also engage your core to keep your body stable. 

The workout splits the exercises into couplets, beginning with the Z-press and pull-up. Perform the exercises back to back, beginning with a set of 15 reps, then 12 reps, then nine, six, and three to finish. Rest as little as possible between sets, and aim to move at a consistent, controlled pace throughout. Rest for 60 seconds, then repeat that sequence for the barbell floor press and Pendlay row. 

Watch Filly demonstrating the exercises in the video below, then you should be ready to take this workout for a spin. On your marks, get set, sweat.

Filly’s use of compound exercises isn’t the only feature of this workout that we like. His couplet combinations also contain exercises focusing on contrasting movement patterns.

He pairs push and pull exercises (which you may be familiar with through push/pull workout splits). Push movements primarily recruit the chest, shoulders and triceps, while pull exercises engage the back and biceps first and foremost. 

By putting them together, you can fatigue one set of muscles at a time while the other recovers. This allows you to jump between exercises, negating the need for lengthy rest periods. 

These short rest times also keep your heart rate up, which tests your cardiovascular and muscular endurance. 

Not sure if you have the time to fit in a worthwhile gym workout? Not any more. You can train your upper body in less than a quarter of an hour with this session from Jess Rosart, gym manager and coach at WIT Fitness. She’s put together a 12-minute workout that just requires a barbell.

“When I think of the perfect upper-body workout, it incorporates both a push and a pull exercise to leave me feeling like I got the most of that session in a short amount of time,” says Rosart. Push/pull workout plans are a bodybuilding staple, but combining push and pull exercises in the same workout is a great way to ensure a balanced session no matter your goal.

“I also like to give myself a time frame to complete the work to keep me focused, and get me in and out of the gym in a short amount of time,” says Rosart. Of course, that time includes a warm-up and warm-down.

“This barbell workout will help build up your back, shoulders and traps,” says Rosart.

How To Do This Workout

Set a timer for three minutes and complete 10 reps of each of the three moves below in that time. Spend any time that’s left in your three-minute window resting. Repeat for a total of four rounds.

“Aim to keep the work to 90 seconds, leaving you another 90-second rest before the next round,” says Rosart. Use that guidance to help you choose an appropriate weight. If you don’t have a barbell available, you can also use dumbbells, which comes with the advantage of letting you quickly switch to heavier dumbbells for the bent-over row, before going light again for the upright row. 

Set your timer and get ready to work.

1 Overhead press

Reps 10

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding the barbell in front of your chin with your palms and elbows facing forwards. Lock out your knees to ensure you don’t use them to help lift the barbell. Press the barbell straight up until your arms are extended. As you finish the movement push your head forwards so your ears are next to your biceps. The barbell should stop directly above your shoulders. Move your head back and lower the barbell under control.

“Good form means an upright torso, locked-out legs and elbows just in front of the bar. Ensure you are pressing the bar in a straight line overhead,” says Rosart.

2 Underhand bent-over row

Reps 10

Stand holding the barbell in front of your thighs with your palms facing away from you. Keeping a slight bend in your knees and a flat back throughout, push your hips back, lowering the barbell to below your knees. Lift the barbell to your chest by moving your elbows past your torso and behind you. Squeeze your shoulder blades at the top. Then slowly lower back to the start. 

“Ensure your back stays straight, and your shoulders are pulled back and engaged,” says Rosart.

3 Upright row

Reps 10

Stand holding the barbell in front of your thighs with your palms facing you and your hands slightly closer than shoulder-width apart. Keep your core engaged and back flat as you lift the barbell towards your chin, with your elbows rising above your shoulders. Then lower slowly.

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) may well conjure up an image of Joe Wicks and a series of high knees, squat jumps and burpees. However, the principle of intense work followed by a period of rest can be applied to any exercise and, when done properly, pushes your body to work in the anaerobic zone. This is when your body is working so hard that it can’t get oxygen to the muscles fast enough, so it breaks down glucose in the muscles for fuel (hello, carbs). 

Training in this zone is good for weight loss and your cardio fitness, and is so demanding that your body will keep burning calories post-workout – the so-called “afterburn” effect.

It isn’t very often that I can find the time for a long workout, so I use this type of training once or twice a week when I’m especially tight on time. 

I designed this 25-minute workout for myself and a friend to do at the gym. It’s quick, the mix of cardio and barbell exercises work the whole body, and it gets heart rates up fast. 

To get the most from this workout you need to keep the intensity high, but be sure to maintain good form on the weighted moves. It’s a tough session, but ideal for those who like a challenge and believe you get out what you put in.

Each round takes five minutes. I completed five rounds for a 25-minute workout, but you can do as many as time and your fitness allows.

1 Assault bike

Time 45sec Rest 15sec 

Hit a challenging RPM pace and hold it for the duration.

2 Barbell clean and press

Time 45sec Rest 15sec 

Keeping a flat back, bend down and take hold of a barbell in an overhand grip. In one fluid movement, explosively push through your heels and extend your legs to bring the barbell up to your shoulders, flipping your elbows under the barbell so they point forwards. Sink into a shallow squat, then use power from your lower body to stand upright and press the barbell overhead. Pause, then lower the barbell back to your shoulders and then down to the ground, moving under control.

3 Rowing machine 

Time 45sec Rest 15sec 

Hit a challenging RPM pace and hold it for the duration.

4 Romanian deadlift into bent-over row

Time 45sec Rest 1min 15sec 

Hold a barbell in front of your thighs with an underhand grip, palms facing forwards. Keeping a slight bend in your knees, push your hips back to lower the barbell down to your shins. Pause, then lift the barbell to your rib cage, leading with your elbows. Lower the barbell again, then drive your hips forwards to come back up to standing. 

This five-move circuit is short and sweaty. Designed by Les Mills presenter and instructor Anthony Oxford, it’s based on the high-intensity interval training (HIIT) drills that Les Mills GRIT classes have become known for. 

“This combination of short, intense bursts of effort using full-body, functional movements with minimal rest will fire up your fast-twitch muscle fibres and help build lean muscle,” says Oxford. 

Oxford suggests using this workout twice a week to improve your aerobic fitness in short order. It might last only nine minutes but it’ll keep your body burning calories long after you finish the final rep.

The Workout

You need a light to medium barbell for this circuit. The goal is to get your heart rate high by hitting maximum reps, rather than by clinching a new PB, so don’t get cocky with the weights. 

Once you’ve completed a thorough warm-up, familiarise yourself with each exercise, taking time to get the technique right. When ready, perform each exercise for just 30 seconds and move straight on to the next. Rest for 30 seconds after the final mountain climber, then repeat the circuit two more times. That’s it.

“Take small breaks of rest as needed,” says Oxford. “But challenge yourself to keep going for the full 2½ minutes. If you’re resting several times during the round, the weight is too heavy.” Next time you perform the workout, increase the weight slightly (if you got it right the first time around, of course) or add an extra round.

1 Front squat

Time 30sec

Start with your feet just wider than hip-width apart and hold the barbell level with your upper chest in a front rack position, with your palms and elbows facing forwards. Keep your elbows high throughout to help keep your chest up and back flat. Take a deep breath and brace your core, then push your hips back as you lower until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Exhale as you drive back up to standing, and repeat. 

Oxford says: “Squats are a fundamental movement pattern using all the major muscle groups in the lower body and core.” 

2 Reverse lunge and press

Time 30sec

This one will challenge your balance as much as your strength. With the bar in a front rack position, as described above, take a big step backwards into a reverse lunge. As you lower, press the barbell overhead. Ensure you don’t twist your hips or shoulders to keep you stable. Lower the barbell and return to the start, then repeat on your other side. 

Oxford says: “This full-body movement is a great test for your glutes, quads, hamstrings, core, shoulders and, most of all, co-ordination.” 

3 Bent-over row

Time 30sec

Hold the bar with palms facing you and hands just wider than shoulder-width apart. Retract your shoulder blades to engage your upper-back muscles, then hinge at your hips to lean forwards slightly. Keep looking down and pull the bar towards your bellybutton, then lower under control until your arms are extended. If your back starts to feel tight, stand straight for a couple seconds to release any tension, then continue. 

Oxford says: “Switch your grip in each round to target slightly different muscles. In round two, do it with palms facing away. In round three, use a wider grip.”

4 Press-up

Time 30sec

Place your hands on the floor just wider than shoulder width-apart.  Keeping your shoulders, hips and ankles in alignment, and with your core braced, lower your chest until just off the floor, then drive back up. Use your breathing to help: breathe in at the top to brace your core, and exhale powerfully as you press the floor away. 

Oxford says: “If press-ups are your kryptonite, modify this exercise by placing your hands on a raised step or bench or by dropping onto your knees to make it easier.”

5 Mountain climber

Time 30sec

Start in the top of a press-up position with hands directly below your shoulders, remembering to keep your hips low and in line with your shoulders and ankles throughout, rather than sticking your bum in the air. Drive one knee forwards until it’s level with your hands, then return to the start and repeat with the other knee. Continue alternating.

Oxford says: “Mountain climbers are dynamic and will challenge all the muscles of your core while driving up your heart rate.” 

To reduce body fat through exercise, you must get your heart rate high. To add size, you must place sufficient stress on your major muscle groups. These two goals appear mutually exclusive, which is why many think it’s impossible to lose fat and gain muscle simultaneously, so they either lift heavy with long rest breaks (great for building muscle but not for burning fat), or do a lot of cardio (good for getting into that fat-burning calorie deficit but devastating for developing big, full muscles).

But there is a solution, and it’s called Peripheral Heart Action (PHA) training. It’s a type of circuit training where moves alternate between working the upper body and lower body so your heart and lungs work overtime to shuttle blood back and forth between your extremities, and your muscles get a solid stimulating workout. Try this session on for size.

How To Do This PHA Workout

Do the six barbell exercises in order, sticking to the reps detailed, without resting until you finish all the reps of the sixth and final move of the circuit. Rest for two minutes, then repeat the circuit. Do four circuits in total.

1 Front squat

Reps 10 Rest 0sec

Stand tall with feet hip-width apart, holding a barbell across the front of your shoulders with your upper arms parallel to the floor. Keeping your chest and elbows up, bend at the hips and knees to squat down as low as you can, then stand back up.

2 Overhead press

Reps 10 Rest 0sec

Start at the top of the front squat with the bar across the front of your shoulders but your elbows pointing down. Press the bar directly overhead until your arms are straight and locked out at the elbow. Lower the bar back to the start.

3 Reverse lunge

Reps 5 each side Rest 0sec

On your final overhead press rep, lower the bar back behind your head so that it rests on the top of your back shoulders. Keeping your chest up and core engaged, take a big step backwards with one foot, lunge down, then return to the start.

4 Bent-over row

Reps 10 Rest 0sec

Lift the bar back over your head and rotate your elbows to lower the bar down to the start position of the row. Hinge forwards from the hips – keeping your core engaged – then row the bar up to your body, leading with your elbows.

5 Back squat

Reps 10 Rest 0sec

Press the bar back up and over your head so that it rests on the back of your shoulders. Keeping your chest up and core engaged, bend at the knees and hips to squat down as low as you can, then stand back up.

6 High pull

Reps 10 Rest 2min

Lift the bar forwards and over your head so you’re standing with straight arms and the bar against your upper thighs. Go into a quarter squat, then rise into triple extension of your ankles, knees and hips as your pull the bar up, leading with your elbows.

Being short of time, space or kit should is never a reasonable excuse for missing a workout. Even if you only have five minutes and the clothes you’re standing up in, you can do back-to-back sets of press-ups, squats and burpees to work up a real sweat. (Well, it helps to have a spare shirt to change into.) But if you’re in the gym and time’s against you, don’t despair – grab a barbell and do this six-move circuit to take you one step closer to your body composition goal. All the exercises are compounds lifts to hit all your major muscle groups to elicit a fat-burning and muscle-building response, and are ordered to make it easy to move between them. The weight on the bar should be at a level you can use to do all the reps of the move you find hardest. Don’t worry if that feels a little light for other moves: by the end of your final circuit you’ll feel the effects!

How to do the workout

Do the six barbell exercises in order, sticking to the reps detailed. Don’t rest until you finish all the reps of the sixth and final move of the circuit. Then rest for three minutes and repeat the circuit. Do three or four circuits in total.

1 Deadlift

Reps 10 Rest 0sec

Standing with your feet shoulder-width apart, grasp the bar with your hands just outside your legs. Lift the bar by pressing down through your heels and driving your hips forwards, keeping a flat back. Lower under control.

2 Romanian deadlift

Reps 10 Rest 0sec

From the top of the deadlift, bend your knees slightly, then bend forwards from the hips to lower the bar. Once you feel a good stretch in your hamstrings, reverse the move back to the start by pushing your hips forwards.

3 Bent-over row

Reps 10 Rest 0sec

Shift your hands slightly into a grip wider than shoulder width, then lean forwards, hinging at the hips. Keep your chest up. Leading with your elbows, row the bar up towards your torso, then lower it back to the start.

See related :

• 5 Barbell Workouts To Burn Fat Fast
• Build Functional Fitness With This 20-Minute Barbell Workout
• Raise The Bar With This Five-Move Barbell Workout Routine

4 Front squat

Reps 10 Rest 0sec

Standing tall with feet hip-width apart, hold the barbell across the front of your shoulders with your chest up and abs engaged. Bend your hips and knees to squat down so your thighs are at least parallel to the floor, then stand back up.

5 Push press

Reps 10 Rest 0sec

Start in the front squat position, gripping the bar in front of your shoulders. Keep your core braced throughout. Squat down, then push up and press the bar directly overhead until your arms are straight. Lower and go straight into the next rep.

6 Lunge

Reps 6 each side Rest 3min

Stand tall with feet hip-width apart, holding the barbell across the back of your shoulders with your chest up and abs engaged. Take a big step forwards and lower into a lunge so both knees are bent at 90°. Stand back up and repeat with your other leg.

To add muscle quickly it’s important to move efficiently, yet many of us develop poor movement patterns over time. Using an empty bar to focus on perfect form will correct this, while providing a heart rate-raising workout.

Do the moves in order, without resting between exercises, to complete one round. Rest for two minutes between rounds. Do four rounds in total.

Reps 12

Stand tall, holding a bar with straight arms. Hinge forwards at from the hips to lower the bar down your legs until you feel a good stretch in your hamstrings, then reverse back to the start.

2 Bent-over row

Reps 12

Hinge forwards from the hips, holding the bar with an overhand grip. Keeping your chest up, row the bar up towards your sternum. Pause, then lower back to the start.

3 Overhead press

Reps 12

Stand tall, holding the bar across the front of your shoulders with an overhand grip. Keeping your chest up, press the bar directly overhead until your arms are straight, then lower it.

See related :

• 5 Barbell Workouts To Burn Fat Fast
• Raise The Bar With This Five-Move Barbell Workout Routine
• Build Functional Fitness With This 20-Minute Barbell Workout

4 Back squat

Reps 12

Start holding the bar across the back of your shoulders and feet shoulder-width apart. Brace your core, then bend at the hips and knees to squat down as low as you can. Push through your heels to stand back up.

When you want to strip away body fat as quickly as possible it can be tempting to over-complicate matters by trying to do too many different things at once in a desperate bid to shift that spare tyre. But there’s only one way in which burning calories to accelerate fat loss should be complex: doing a barbell complex, which is multiple exercises done back to back using just that one piece of kit.

All you need is a barbell, a little space and 15 minutes to shock your body into relinquishing its fat stores so you start to sculpt a leaner and harder body. This five-move barbell complex is so effective because it will push your heart, lungs and muscles hard in a short space of time to work up a sweat and increase oxygen consumption, so you turn your body into a calorie-burning machine.

How to do the workout

Load the barbell with a weight you can manage for all the reps of the move you find hardest. Do the exercises in order without resting. When you finish all the reps of the final move, rest for two minutes, then repeat the circuit. Do three or four circuits in total.

1 Deadlift

Reps 10 Rest 0sec

Standing with your feet shoulder-width apart, grasp the bar with your hands just outside your legs. Lift the bar by pressing down through your heels and driving your hips forwards, keeping a flat back. Lower the bar under control.

2 Romanian deadlift

Reps 10 Rest 0sec

From the top of the deadlift, bend your knees slightly, then bend forwards from the hips and lower the bar down the front of your shins until you feel a good stretch in your hamstrings. Reverse the move back to the start by pushing your hips forwards.

3 Hang clean

Reps 10 Rest 0sec

Stand holding the bar with a shoulder-width grip in front of your thighs. Squat down slightly, then drive through your heels to explode upwards, using the momentum to pull the bar up to chest height and catching it on your chest. Reverse back to the start.

4 Reverse lunge (left leg)

Reps 5 Rest 0sec

Stand tall with a barbell resting across your upper back. Keep your back upright and core braced throughout. Take a big step backwards with your left foot, then lower until both knees are bent 90°. Push off your left foot to return to the start position.

5 Reverse lunge (right leg)

Reps 5 Rest 2min

Stand tall with a barbell resting across your upper back. Keep your back upright and core braced throughout. Take a big step backwards with your right foot, then lower until both knees are bent 90°. Push off your right foot to return to the start position.

If you want to get serious about strength, you need to know your one-rep max (the most amount of weight you can lift for a single rep) in the big moves. Building up to testing your limits involves doing low-rep sets, which will increase your strength and test your central nervous system in a way that, over time, will improve the way you recruit muscle fibres. That has the happy effect of helping you get bigger and stronger. But before you start, here’s our experts’ advice on how to go big.

Squat “Aim to do every rep of your squat – warm-up or working set – the same,” says powerlifter Tom Hamilton. “Grab the bar the same way, take the same number of steps out of the rack – ideally it should be three – and go through the same mental cues before you lift. When the weight gets heavy, you’ll go back to what you’ve done a hundred times.”

Deadlift Remember: if you aren’t scraping your shins, you aren’t really trying. “An easy way to do it is to take hold of the bar then ‘pull’ yourself down into position, rolling the bar against your shins so that your toes are well underneath it,” says strength coach Joel Dowey. “Take the tension of the bar before you lift, and imagine pulling your shoulder blades back and down into your pockets to keep your back tight.”

Bench press For a better bench, the set-up is key. Get into position with your hands wide enough to leave your arms at a roughly 45° angle from your sides, with your forearms vertical as you press. “Get a hand-off from a spotter if you can,” says Dowey. “This’ll allow you to pull your shoulder blades together behind you before you take the bar, giving you a more stable base to press from.”

How to do these workouts

Follow the sets, reps and rest instructions for each move to get the maximum benefit. Do each workout once a week for four weeks, aiming to increase the amount you lift each week – and make sure you note how much you lift in each session to track your progress and keep yourself motivated. When you get to the final week you’ll test your one-rep max by doing an extra single-rep set on the main move in the workout.

Workout 1: Back Squat Max

Do the sets and reps as described in the first three weeks then, for week four, do an extra single-rep back squat set where you lift as much weight as possible. If you fail, drop the weight by about 5% and have one more attempt.

1 Dumbbell jump squat

Sets 3 Reps 5 Rest 60sec

Why This explosive move will activate your fast-twitch muscle fibres, priming your nervous system so you get maximum muscle fibre recruitment. The rep count is low because this is about quality of movement rather than exhausting your target muscles.

How Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, holding a dumbbell in each hand. Squat down, then explode up to jump as high as you can. Land softly and go straight into the next rep.

2 Back squat

Sets 4 Reps 5, 4, 3, 2 Rest 3min

Why The king of the legs moves works your entire lower body and, when you go really heavy, turns into a whole-body move because it recruits your entire upper body to control your torso and prevent your body from slumping. It’s a really useful, functional exercise so, if your mobility permits it, you’d be wise to make it a cornerstone of your training programme.

How Rest the bar on your back with your feet roughly shoulder-width apart, toes pointing out slightly. Keep your spine in alignment by looking at a spot on the floor about two metres in front of you, then sit back and down as if you were aiming for a chair. Lower until your hip crease is below your knee. As you drive back up, keep your weight on your heels.

3 Incline bench press

Sets 3 Reps 10 Rest 60sec

Why Setting the bench to an incline will mean you need to reduce the weight, but it’ll help to develop shoulder stability.

How Lie on a bench set at a 45˚ incline, holding a bar over your chest with your hands just wider than shoulder-width apart. Lower the bar until it’s touching your chest, then press back up.

4 Incline dumbbell press

Sets 3 Reps 6-8 Rest 60sec

Why This is similar to the barbell version but it allows you to squeeze a bit more work out of your muscles safely once you have completed the previous exercise. It will also challenge the stabilising muscles around the shoulder joint.

How Lie on a bench set at a 45˚ incline, holding a dumbbell in each hand with your arms straight up. Lower the weights to chest height, keeping your elbows close to your sides, then press back up to the start.

5 Diamond press-up

Sets 3 Reps 6-8 Rest 60-90sec

Why This is a deceptively tough exercise. Moving your hands close together to form a diamond shape will put a lot more emphasis on your triceps. Don’t be surprise if you struggle to hit the rep count if you’re new to this exercise – just focus on maintaining good form.

How Get into a press-up position, placing your hands close together so your thumbs and index fingers touch. Keeping your body in a straight line with your abs braced, lower your torso until your chest is just above the floor, then press back up.

See related

• Six-Week Strength Training Workout Plan
• The Best Free-Weights Workout Plan To Build Strength
• 7 Essential Barbell Exercises To Get Stronger

Workout 2: Deadlift Max

Do the sets and reps as described in the first three weeks then, for week four, do an extra single-rep deadlift set where you lift as much weight as possible. If you fail, drop the weight by about 5% and have one more attempt.

1 Kettlebell sumo deadlift

Sets 3 Reps 10 Rest 60sec

Why This version of the deadlift is a good way of drilling a movement pattern that requires you to engage your hamstrings and hinge at the hips. You’re using a fairly light weight so it won’t fatigue your muscles before you get to the heavy deadlift sets in the next exercise.

How Taking a wider stance than in a regular deadlift, place the kettlebell between your legs. Start the movement by straightening your legs without changing the angle of your torso. Once your legs are straight, push your hips through to straighten up.

2 Deadlift

Sets 4 Reps 5, 4, 3, 2 Rest 3min

Why The deadlift is arguably the most effective whole-body strength and muscle builder. It also focuses on your posterior chain – the muscles on the back of your body, which often end up undertrained but play a key role in promoting good posture and keeping you injury-free.

How Set up so you grasp the bar with an overhand grip , hands just wider than shoulder-width apart. Initiate the movement by loading your hamstrings and straightening your knees. Once the bar is past your knees you can straighten up fully.

3 Kettlebell goblet squat

Sets 3 Reps 10 Rest 60sec

Why If you focus on touching your elbows to your knees, this will build the mobility you need for full-depth squatting, as well as flexibility in your groin and ankles, which makes it an ideal warm-up move.

How Hold the kettlebell with both hands in front of your chest, and squat down with your back straight and chest up. Descend until your elbows touch the insides of your knees, then put your weight on your heels as you stand back up.

4 Front squat

Sets 3 Reps 10 Rest 60sec

Why Shifting the bar in front of you moves the emphasis to your quads but also makes the move safer - you’ll be less likely to tip forwards and injure your lower back.

How Take the bar out of the rack so it’s resting on the front of your shoulders with your palms facing upwards. Squat down, keeping your chest up, then drive up through your heels to stand.

5 Bulgarian split squat

Sets 2 Reps 6-8 each side Rest 60sec

Why This variation of the squat will target your quads – a key muscle group involved in heavy squats. It also works your legs independently so that you are equally strong and stable on both sides.

How Start with your back foot on a bench and your front foot approximately 60cm in front of the bench, holding a dumbbell in each hand. Bend at the knee to lower towards the floor, keeping your torso upright, then press back up to the start. Make sure that your knee is in line with your ankle and that your front foot is far enough forwards that your knee doesn’t travel in front of your mid-foot. Complete all the reps on one side, then switch.

Workout 3: Bench Press Max

Do the sets and reps as described in the first three weeks then, for week four, do an extra single-rep bench press set where you lift as much weight as possible. If you fail, drop the weight by about 5% and have one more attempt.

1 Dumbbell bench press

Sets 3 Reps 10 Rest 60sec

Why The workout starts with the dumbbell version of the main move to warm up the target muscles and also activate the small stabilising muscles around the shoulder joint, which you’ll need to recruit if you want to go heavy on the barbell lift that’s up next.

How Lie on a bench with your feet on the floor directly underneath your knees, holding the dumbbells above your chest. Lower them to your chest, then drive your feet hard into the floor and push the dumbbells back strongly to the start position.

2 Bench press

Sets 4 Reps 5, 4, 3, 2 Rest 3min

Why It’s a classic for a reason: a properly executed bench press (your feet should be pressing into the floor) will tax your whole body and allow you to use heavy weights to maximise upper-body development. Ensure your form is correct to avoid injury and maximise growth.

How Grip the bar with hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and squeeze your lats together to create a pressing platform before you take the bar out of the rack. Watch the ceiling, not the bar, to ensure you’re pressing in the same line each time. Lower the bar to your chest, aiming to brush your T-shirt without bouncing. Press up powerfully, pause at the top, then go into your next rep.

3 Romanian deadlift

Sets 3 Reps 10 Rest 60sec

Why This is an ideal way of developing the hamstring strength needed to improve your deadlift. It’s technically a lot easier than the deadlift so you’ll be able to go reasonably heavy even when your muscles are tired.

How Hold a barbell with an overhand grip just outside your thighs. Hinge at the hips to send the bar down the front of your thighs, ensuring that the bar stays close to you throughout the lift. Lower until you feel a strong stretch in your hamstrings, then straighten back up, contracting your glutes at the top of the move.

4 Snatch-grip deadlift

Sets 3 Reps 10 Rest 60sec

Why Because your grip’s wider in this move, you’ll need to move the bar through a larger range of motion, increasing the growth hormone hit.

How Hold a barbell with your hands roughly double shoulder-width apart. Push through your heels and keep your chest up as you drive your hips forwards to lift the bar.

In a barbell complex, you do several moves back to back without putting the bar down, and it’s a fast and effective way to shift body fat while simultaneously building strength. “It is great for perfecting technique because you generally use a lighter weight than if you were simply doing one of the lifts on their own, so you can focus on improving the movement pattern,” says performance coach Tom Eastham (@EasthamsFitness). “As a result it’s great to do a barbell complex as a warm-up before a big lifting session or paired with some short cardiovascular work as a metabolic conditioning circuit. The complex enables you to use your entire body in one set and is harder than it looks, so it’s great to spice up the end of a training session.”

The workout

• Deadlift
• Bent-over row
• Front squat
• Overhead press
• Back squat

Do ten reps of each exercise in the order stated and move on to the next without putting the bar down. Your aim should be to complete all the moves without resting. Rest for two minutes between rounds and do five rounds in total.

The benefits

• Lose fat Doing heavy circuits will get your heart rate soaring and your muscles working, which will result in a huge calorie expenditure both during and after the session as your body recovers.
• Save time The whole session will only take about 20-25 minutes to complete, making it an efficient as well as effective way of training.
• Improve grip strength That might not sound like a big win but you’re only as strong as your weakest link, and that’s likely to be a weak grip. The better your grip, the more you can lift and the more gains you’ll see.

1 Deadlift

Start with your feet hip-width apart (for the ideal foot position, read the tip below) and grip the bar just outside your knees. Pull your shoulders back to engage your back muscles and protect your spine. The aim is to load your hamstrings, so straighten your legs as you start the move by pulling the weight off the floor, then straighten up and engage your glutes. Reverse the movement back to the start.

Expert tip “After your warm-up perform five tuck jumps,” says Eastham. “Pay attention to where your feet land after the final one – they should be roughly hip-width apart. Everyone is slightly different in their start position, but one thing is ever-present: the need to develop power by pushing your feet ‘through’ the floor. Wherever your feet land is generally close to the stance you should use.”

2 Bent-over row

Once you’ve completed your last deadlift, hinge at the hips to lower the barbell down the front of your thighs to knee height. From there, row the barbell up to your bellybutton by drawing your elbows back. Try to squeeze your shoulder blades together at the top of the move, and lower slowly under control.

Expert tip “This one targets the middle of your back,” says Eastham. “Pull your shoulders back and down so your traps (the muscles at the top of your back) are relaxed. This should target your lower traps and rhomboids (the muscles in the centre of your back), which are two common areas of weakness.”

3 Front squat

After the rows, flip the bar up onto the front of your shoulders with your palms facing upwards and your elbows high. Simultaneously bend at the knees and the hips to squat down while making sure you keep your elbows high and your torso upright. Squat down until your thighs are parallel to the floor, or as low as you can with good form, then stand back up to return to the start.

Expert tip “This targets the quads because of the position of the load,” says Eastham. “However, if you truly want to maximise your athletic potential, focus on the position of the bar and don’t allow it to rest on your fingertips. Stretch your pecs and your lats (the big back muscles) then, during the movement, keep your elbows up and use a full grip throughout. This is the first step on the path to a decent clean and jerk – a true marker of any serious lifter.”

4 Overhead press

After your final front squat, drop your elbows so they are below the bar and press the weight overhead. Avoid locking your elbows at the top of the move, so you keep the tension in your muscles as opposed to loading your joints. Reverse the movement back to the start.

Expert tip “When the bar is overhead and your arms are fully extended, try shrugging your shoulders up towards your ears,” says Eastham. “This forces your traps to fire and in turn creates space for your rotator cuffs – the small muscles that stabilise your shoulder joint – to move around it without causing impingement.”

5 Back squat

Once you have completed the overhead press reps, lower the barbell onto your shoulders. Try to push your elbows forwards to engage your lats. Bend at the knees and hips simultaneously to lower into a squat. Try to lower until your thighs are parallel to the floor, or as low as you can with good form, and stand back up to return to the start.

Expert tip “Before you perform the first lift, imagine you are trying to screw your feet into the ground,” says Eastham. “Imagine you’re trying to turn your feet out, but don’t let your toes move. You should feel your glutes contracting, giving you more muscle activation when you lift. Try to keep this feeling throughout each rep.’

Thanks to the success of female athletes like Jessica Ennis and Victoria Pendleton taking the Olympic Games by storm back at the London Games in 2012, we're seeing a huge rise in women taking to the weights room in order to sculpt a strong and lean physique. If you're new to lifting weights, though, we're here to help, and we've enlisted the expertise of powerlifter Evelyn Stevenson, too.

“Powerlifting is great for women as it encourages them to weight train correctly, using the three compound lifts to build overall strength,” says Evelyn, who works as a personal trainer when she’s not competing. “It allows us to gain tone yet still keep a feminine appearance by reducing body fat and increasing muscle mass, which is a good thing – a pound of muscle alone burns nine calories a day while fat only burns two.”

The great thing about powerlifting is that the moves target every muscle group, including the core. There are no specific abdominal exercises, but each move switches on your core and uses your abs to accompany the major muscle groups, teaching them to work in conjunction with the rest of the body. Because this is how you use your body in everyday life, it’s a far more useful way to train your abs than isolating your mid-section.

Training all your muscle groups helps to rev up your fat burn, not just while you work out but for hours later, too, thanks to its effect on your metabolism. “As well as getting you in shape, powerlifting increases skeletal strength and helps to reduce the risk of osteoporosis,” adds Evelyn.

Don’t fight the power

A nice side effect to building your muscles? Supreme confidence. “As a woman, I find powerlifting so empowering,” Evelyn says. “Being strong makes everyday life easier, too. It also makes the weights room seem a little less intimidating! I feel confident knowing I can train with a structure and understanding of my goals – something that powerlifting taught me.”

When you notice yourself getting stronger, you might also start to care less about the number on the scales, and more about the number on the weights. Measuring your progress this way can really feel like a huge achievement. “You don’t have to train solely for your one rep max, but you can use powerlifting to structure your gym workout and inspire a long-term goal of increasing strength,” says Evelyn.

How to do it

Olympic barbells used for powerlifting in a gym are usually 20kg, but you can often find adjustable bars that weigh much less if these are too heavy for you. Gradually increase the weight you lift until you can manage the barbell. Make one of the powerlifts – that’s either the squat, bench press or deadlift – your main move in each workout, using as heavy a weight as you can while maintaining good form. Then you can perform the remaining moves with slightly less resistance to make up the rest of your workout. Three workouts a week will target your whole body, burning fat and strengthening both your muscles and bones.

Your Powerlifting Workout

Try these workouts by Evelyn Stevenson to kick off your new body. Separate your powerlifting workouts into three weekly sessions consisting of five different moves, including your main powerlifting move. These should challenge you, but not prove impossible to complete. Finish performing every set of each move before moving onto another exercise. Take 60 to 90 seconds’ rest between each set.

Day 1

Main lift: Squat (as heavy as possible with good form)

Plus, the following moves at around 70% of the maximum weight you’d usually manage:

• Bench press
• Straight-leg deadlift
• Barbell row
• Step-up

Day 2

Main lift: Bench press (as heavy as possible with good form)

Plus, the following moves at around 70% of the maximum weight you’d usually manage:

• Squat
• Overhead press
• Straight-leg deadlift
• Deadlift

Day 3

Main lift:  Deadlift (as heavy as possible with good form)

Plus, the following moves at around 70% of the maximum weight you’d usually manage:

• Bench press
• Barbell row
• Step-up
• Overhead press

This article first appeared in Women’s Fitness

If, like many men, your main goal is to trim a bit of excess padding off your waistline, this workout will help you achieve that aim. It will also give you some extra benefits, such as helping you move better. That may not sound exciting but in the long run, it will help you stay injury-free and lift more weight – which, in turn, will make your workouts more effective so that you burn even more fat and add even more muscle.

The workout includes one exercise for each of the four major movement patterns - a pushing exercise, a pulling exercise, a squat and a hinge movement. And for a couple of bonus benefits, we’ve included an explosive move and an abs exercise.

So, to recap, this workout will make you slimmer, faster, stronger and more muscular, while helping you build a six-pack. You’re welcome.

How to do the workout

Do the six exercises in order, sticking to the reps detailed, without resting until you finish all the reps of the sixth and final move of the circuit. Rest for two minutes, then repeat the circuit. Do three circuits in total.

1 Romanian deadlift

Reps 10 Rest 0sec

Stand with your weight on your heels and mid-foot and hold the bar with a shoulder-width grip. With knees slightly bent, hinge at the hips to send the bar down the front of your thighs until you feel a strong hamstring stretch.

2 Bent-over row

Reps 10 Rest 0sec

At the bottom of the final Romanian deadlift, set yourself so that your shoulders are retracted and your core is engaged. Pull the bar up to your bellybutton, leading with your elbows and without changing the angle of your torso.

3 Hang clean

Reps 10 Rest 0sec

Start at the low point of the final bent-over row, making sure your shoulders are retracted and your core is engaged. Explosively push your hips forwards to straighten up, and pull the bar up to catch it at the top of a front squat.

4 Front squat

Reps 10 Rest 0sec

Start at the end of the final hang clean, so the bar is across the front of your shoulders with your elbows and palms up. Keeping your chest up, simultaneously bend at the hips and knees to lower until your thighs are parallel to the floor.

5 Overhead press

Reps 10 Rest 0sec

From the top position of the front squat, with the bar across the front of your shoulders, lower your elbows so they’re below the bar. Press the bar directly overhead, ensuring that your elbows are directly below the bar throughout the move.

6 Plank

Time 40 seconds Rest 2min

Position yourself so that your body is in a straight line from head to heels with your elbows directly below your shoulders. Don’t let your hips sag because that will stress and potentially injure your back. If your hips sag, stop the exercise.

This month’s workout will improve your Olympic weightlifting skills while making you stronger and more explosive. It takes one of the Olympic lifts, the snatch, and gets you to perform one of its component parts, the snatch pull. You then have to replicate the same movement while pulling yourself under the bar for the full snatch. Breaking the lift down in this way allows you to focus on the technical elements of the pull separately before hitting the full lift. A strong pull will give you more time to get underneath the bar for the squat snatch.

Perform one snatch pull then, without putting the bar down, do one snatch. Continue to do that on the minute every minute until the time is up (see below). Doing the moves in quick succession helps the body learn that a successful snatch requires this same strong pull. And performing this drill for a sustained time gets your body used to lifting heavy weights with consistent form.

Warm-up

Five minutes of low-intensity rowing cycling or skipping.

Shoulder pass-through - Sets See below Reps 5

Grasp a broomstick or plastic pipe with a wide grip and pass it over your head, maintaining straight arms.
From this position behind your body, bring the stick over your head and back around to the front. Repeat.
For each subsequent set, bring your grip in a few centimetres until you cannot perform this drill with straight arms. Then bring your grip out slightly and perform one further set.

Leg swings – Sets 1 each leg Reps 15

Stand side on to a fixed object and hold it with one arm. Swing the opposing leg back and forth while keeping your torso vertical.

Jump – Sets 1 Reps 10

Touch your toes then jump up in the air, concentrating on forceful extension of the hips.

Overhead squat with a broomstick or plastic pipe - Sets 2 Reps 10

Take a wide grip on the broomstick or pipe and, with your feet shoulder-width apart, pull your hips back and down, keeping your weight on your heels until the crease of your hips is below your knees.

Maintaining drive through the heels, squeeze your glutes, brace your core and rise out of the squat.

Snatch drop with a plastic pipe - Sets 3 Reps 3

Take the same wide grip on the pipe as the overhead squats. Stand with your feet hip-width apart and bring the bar halfway up your chest, keeping your elbows high and pointing out. 
Go up onto your toes so your ankles, knees and hips are fully extended (this replicates the top of the pull). 
From here, drop to an overhead squat position, bringing your feet out to squat width and catching the bar securely overhead with your arms locked. 
Stand up with the pipe in this position, then repeat the movement.

The workout

Beginner

Do one snatch pull followed by one snatch on the minute every minute for eight minutes with 35% of your bodyweight.

Intermediate

Do one snatch pull followed by one snatch on the minute every minute for ten minutes with 50% of your bodyweight.

Advanced

Do one snatch pull followed by one snatch on the minute every minute for ten minutes with 75% of your bodyweight.

Snatch pull

Pulling the bar smoothly off the floor, driving through your legs and keeping your chest covering the bar.
When the bar reaches the top of your thighs, explode up with a full hip extension immediately followed by an upward shrug of the shoulders. Your elbows should go high and outwards.

Snatch

Perform exactly the same sequence as for the snatch pull.
As you shrug, continue pulling on the bar to pull yourself underneath it. At the same time move your feet to a squat position so you can catch the bar in an overhead squat with your elbows locked out.
Stand up with the bar in this overhead position before bringing it back down under control.

This month’s workout takes the deadlift – a classic test of strength – and uses it to improve your ability to maintain strength over a prolonged period. Once you have completed the first part, there’s a grip and core test to finish things off.

The warm up

5-10 minutes of light rowing, cycling or running.
2 x 10 bodyweight squats
2 x 10 Good Mornings with a light bar.
10 x deadlifts with the bar. From here, warm up to your working weight (see below) using sets of five.

The workout

Perform one deadlift in the first minute, two in the second minute, three in the third, and so on. Once you have completed the required amount, rest until the following minute begins before starting the next set.

When you can no longer complete the required number of deadlifts in the set time, carry on and get that set finished. Then keep hold of the bar at the top of the last deadlift for the remainder of the next minute. This will require a strong grip, a solid core and a determined mind as these have all already been tested hard by the deadlifts. Don’t let go until the minute is up.

Your score is the number of times you managed to complete the full amount of deadlifts in the time limit.

You will need

- A barbell
- A stopwatch

Beginner

Use 100% of your bodyweight.

Intermediate

Use 125% of your bodyweight.

Advanced

Use 150% of your bodyweight.

Deadlift form

To get a decent score for the workout and prevent injury it’s vital you keep good form throughout each deadlift. Follow Chet's form guide to ensure you’re doing your deadlifts properly.

- Step up to the bar with your feet hip-width apart, keeping your shins 2-3cms away from the bar.
- Take hold of the bar, gripping it with your hands outside your legs and keeping your legs straight.
- Bend your knees forward and out until your shins touch the bar.
- Squeeze your chest up until your back is flat.
- Fill your belly with air and drive your heels through the floor.
- Lift the bar up past your legs until you are standing up straight.
- Reverse the process to lower the bar under control, starting with your hips.
- Go straight into your next rep if you can, repeating the above steps until your set is done.

Good morning form

- Place a bar on your back with your feet shoulder-width apart and your hands close to your shoulders.
- Bend your knees a little so they are just short of being locked out – this is your starting position.
- Keep your chest up, shoulders back and fill your belly with air.
- Hinge at the hip and send your bum back, your torso will lean forward.
- You should feel this in your hamstrings and your lower back.
- Continue this motion as far as you can, maintaining the arch in your back.
- Once you begin to lose this arch, or when your back is parallel with the floor, squeeze the glutes to bring your hips forward into the starting position.
- Fill your belly with air again and repeat the process.

Power endurance is your ability to apply explosive force over long periods of time and this workout will help you develop that. The full routine consists of two sets of 15 power cleans, interspersed with a set of 30 burpees. Chose your level (see below) based on the weight of the power clean. You should pick a weight that you can clean 15 times with just a few seconds’ rest in between, and that is challenging enough that you can’t perform these reps in one continuous set.

Pace yourself through the power cleans so that you don’t run out of energy before the workout is over. Look to perform them in a fast but steady rhythm.
 

The second set will be a different story after the burpees, which will increase your fatigue. Look to maintain your pace and composure, though, and battle through the set to keep performing the cleans both explosively and in a consistent fashion. You should look to complete the whole workout in under ten minutes – there is no time for extended breaks between reps!

You will need

- A barbell

- A stopwatch 

Beginner

- 12 x power clean @ 40% bodyweight

- 20 x burpee

- 12 x power clean @ 40% bodyweight

Intermediate

- 15 x power clean @ 60% bodyweight

- 30 x burpee

- 15 x power clean @ 60% bodyweight

Advanced

15 x power clean @ 80% bodyweight

30 x burpee

15 x power clean @ 80% bodyweight

How to do the moves

Power clean

- Address the bar with a shoulder-width stance. Keep the weight on your heels. 

- Keep your chest up and your shoulder blades back. Cover the bar with your chest.

- Bring the bar to your mid-thigh by raising your hips and shoulders at the same time. Keep your body tense, the bar close, and your chest over the bar.

- Explosively extend your hips and knees and, in the same flowing movement, violently shrug to bring the bar up to rack position on your shoulders, with your elbows high.

- Return the bar to the floor and repeat the movement.

Burpee

- Start in a standing position.

- Drop into a squat with your hands on the floor.

- Explosively extend your legs back to assume the top position of a press-up.

- Explosively jump your legs forward into a squat position.

- Jump into the air and extend your whole body, with a clap above your head.

This month's workout is a real test of mental and physical fortitude. The focus is on developing total-body strength through a combination of three squatting protocols, starting with a classic – 20 reps of squats.

To begin with, warm up by working up to a weight you can back squat for ten reps. Then perform a single set of 20 reps at this weight. If that sounds counter-intuitive, that is because it is. It is made possible by performing ‘breathing squats’, which means taking deep breaths in between reps, especially the latter half. This is the barbell version of cardio.

Make no mistake, this is no easy ride. You’ll need serious willpower to even start this set, let alone finish it. 

After a short rest, re-address the bar, lower yourself to the bottom of the squat, and hold it there for up to 60 seconds. This is a lesson in maintaining tightness of the body in a deep squat. You must strive to maintain perfect body position for the duration of the time and you will realise how essential your core is in this process. To complete the rep, fire up your posterior chain and stand back up with the weight. 

Finally, address the same bar in a front squat rack position and hold it in this position for 30 seconds. By now both your lower back and your abdominal muscles will be screaming for the end of the session. Endure this hold for 30 seconds and you’re done!

You will need - A barbell loaded with your ten-rep max back squat weight

- A squat rack

Beginner

- 20 x back squat 

Rest 3-5min

- 30-second hold in back squat bottom position

Rest 3-5min

- 15-second hold in standing front squat rack position

Intermediate

- 20 x back squat

Rest 3-5min

- 45-second hold in back squat bottom position

Rest 3-5min

- 30-second hold in standing front squat rack position

Advanced

- 20 x back squat

Rest 3-5min

- 60-second hold in back squat bottom position

Rest 3-5min

- 30-second hold in standing front squat rack position

If after the workout, you decide like these 20-rep squats and you want more (you can be certain neither of these thoughts will enter your brain during the workout), then look to add 5kg of weight each time you do it. You can perform these high-rep squats two to three times a week, recovery permitting. Be prepared for a big increase in size and total body strength.

How to do the moves

Back squat

- Walk up to the bar in the rack with and address it standing with feet shoulder-width apart.

- Squat under the bar and put it on your back.

- Position your feet directly under the bar and take a narrow grip on the bar to help keep your back tight .

- Tighten your body, raise your chest and push up to unrack the bar.

- Step back carefully, one foot at a time.

- Take a deep breath and, leading with the hips, squat down and push your knees out.

- Squat past parallel, so your hips are lower than your knees.

- Drive up out of the bottom of the squat fast.

- Take another breath and squat again.

Back squat bottom position hold

- Follow back squat form.

- Once you are well below parallel, stay tight and hold the position, with your chest up and your knees out.

- Once your hold time is up, explosively drive up back out of the squat.

Front squat rack position hold

- Walk up to the bar in the rack with a shoulder-width stance.

- Set yourself under the bar and lift your chest and shoulders up to give the bar a solid base.

- Place the bar on your shoulders so they support the weight.

- Point your elbows up with your triceps parallel to the floor and your hands keeping the bar in place.

- Take a deep breath, take the bar out of the rack and hold.

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Know your coach

Chet Morjaria is a strength coach. He is sponsored by British sports nutrition company Boditronics and by British clothing company RazorStorm. He specialises in Olympic weightlifting and is a Level 2 British weightlifting coach. As well as training in powerlifting and strongman, he is head coach of Ironwork UK, a group of coaches who deliver workshops focusing on honing lifting skills and developing strength. You can contact him at chet.morjaria@gmail.com

This month’s workout is simple yet hugely effective. The focus is on developing power endurance. You will perform a set of ten heavy deadlifts followed by a set of 20 jump squats (one round of the workout). The full workout consists of four rounds. 

This is a short, intense workout – it should take you no longer than ten minutes. But that doesn’t mean you should try to do it as quickly as you possibly can. Pace yourself and use a fast but consistent rhythm to prevent yourself from burning out in the latter stages. 

The combination of a heavy lift and explosive bodyweight movement will illustrate your power-to-weight ratio and highlight any bias to one side. You need to be strong enough to blast through the deadlifts, but light enough to make short work of the jump squats. It is also a brutal reminder of your cardio-respiratory fitness. 

In short, this workout will expose your weaknesses. Leave your ego on the floor and get to work on them! 

You will need…

- A barbell

- A stopwatch 

Beginner

Three rounds of:

10 x deadlift @ 80% bodyweight

20 x jump squat

Intermediate 

Four rounds of:

10 x deadlift @ 100% bodyweight

20 x jump squat

Advanced 

Four rounds of:

10 x deadlift @ 120% bodyweight

20 x jump squat

Chet Morjaria is a strength coach. He is sponsored by British sports nutrition company Boditronics and by British clothing company RazorStorm. He specialises in Olympic weightlifting and is a Level 2 British Weightlifting Coach. As well as training in powerlifting and strongman, he is co-founder ofIronwork UK, a coaching framework that focuses on honing skills and developing strength.
 
For more expert workouts, subscribe to MF - we'll give you five issues for £5.

Download our brilliant new interactive iPad magazine.

To train with Morjaria, email him at chet@ironworkuk.com

Big Move Breakdown: deadlift

When done in this way, the deadlift is a highly effective exercise for learning to maintain control though position, form and breathing while working at speed. A failure in any of these will become very evident when you hit the jump squats.

• Step up to the bar with a feet hip-width apart, keeping your shins 2-3cm away from the bar.
• Take hold of the bar, gripping it with your hands outside your legs, keeping your legs still straight.
•  Bend your knees forward and out until your shins touch the bar.
•  Squeeze your chest up until your back is flat.
•  Fill your belly with air and drive your heels through the floor.
•  Drag the bar right up your legs until you are standing up straight and tall.
•  Reverse the process to lower the bar under control, starting with your hips.
•  Go straight into your next rep if you can, repeating steps four to seven until your set is done.

This month’s workout is focused on developing total-body explosive power. You will perform a set each of three flowing total-body movements (one round of the complex) in less than a minute. The remainder of the minute will be your rest – so the quicker you get through the complex, the longer your rest will be. When the clock hits the minute mark, you will perform another round. This will continue until the allotted time is over. If you are unable to complete a round within the minute, you will continue to perform continuous rounds until the time is up.
 
Done quickly and at the appropriate level, this should equal roughly 40 seconds’ work and 20 seconds’ rest. Interval training such as this is perfect for boosting anaerobic power but also aerobic capacity. This specific work-rest interval has been proven to be particularly effective in improving your VO2 max. The high-intensity functional movement also makes this workout great for both adding muscle and burning fat.
 
You can tailor the workout to suit your fitness level by selecting your level from the below. Choose a weight that is challenging but allows you to complete the required reps in roughly 40 seconds – 50% of your bodyweight is a useful guideline.

You will need…
- A barbell with around 50% of your bodyweight
- A stopwatch
 
Beginners
3 x deadlift
3 x hang power clean
3 x thruster
On the minute, every minute, for 12 minutes
 
Intermediate
5 x deadlift
5 x hang power clean
5 x thruster
On the minute, every minute, for 15 minutes
 
Advanced
6 x deadlift
6 x hang power clean
6 x thruster
On the minute, every minute, for 20 minutes

Deadlift

• The bar starts on the floor. Driving through your heels, extend your knees and hips until standing up tall with knees and hips fully extended.
• Keep your chest up and back flat.

Hang power clean

• From the standing position, bring your hips back slightly and dip with the knees to achieve hang position.
• Keeping the bar close to you, explosively extend your hips and knees, and in the same flowing movement, explosively shrug to bring the bar up to rack position on your shoulders.

Thruster

• Keeping the bar in racked position, perform a front squat, keeping your elbows high.
• At top of the squat drive through your heels explosively so the bar leaves your shoulders.
• Drive the bar overhead to the full extension of your elbows.
• Ensure your ear is visible in front of your arm - this ensures the bar is fully overhead and not out in front of you.

Chet Morjaria is a strength coach. He is sponsored by British sports nutrition company Boditronics and by British clothing company RazorStorm. He specialises in Olympic weightlifting and is a Level 2 British Weightlifting Coach. As well as training in powerlifting and strongman, he is co-founder of Ironwork UK, a coaching framework that focuses on honing skills and developing strength.
 
For more expert reviews, subscribe to MF - we'll give you five issues for £5.

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Big move breakdown: the thruster

This is a taxing move that using many of your biggest muscles. It essentially combines two total-body movements, the front squat and the push press, into one continuous, explosive movement so that you move the weight over a much longer distance.
 
Moving a large load over a long distance in this way, yet still doing so quickly, produces high power output – meaning greater intensity, which is the key variable associated with maximising positive adaption to exercise.
 
This is why the movements in this workout, and indeed this intense method of training work so well. So give it a go, and when it gets tough (and it will), remember – it is worth it!

Here's an MF image guide to the move.

To try this barbell workout at home, shop our selection of the best barbells.

Power clean to press

Hold the bar at around mid-thigh level with a grip that clears your thighs. Go down into a semi-deadlift position and bring the bar up in one continuous movement. As the bar is traveling up get down into a squat and push up to drive the weight overhead.  

Barbell rotation

Hold a barbell against the fleshy part of the back of your neck and maintain a neutral stance with both feet facing forward. Rotate to one side, allowing the opposite leg to pivot. Repeat to the other side.

Barbell lunge

Stand with a barbell on the fleshy part against the back of your the neck. Maintain an upright position and lunge forward, keeping your foot bent slightly in as you touch the floor. Decelerate your body weight and push back into the starting position. Swap legs to maintain balance.  

Stiff-leg deadlift

Hold the bar with a grip that just clears your thighs, maintain an upright position, brace your abs and slightly bend your knees to activate your glutes. Tip from your hips until you reach the end range of your hamstrings. Hold briefly, then come back up to the start position. 

Front squat

Get into a neutral stance with your feet just wider than shoulder-width apart. Hold the barbell across your chest and shoulders, keeping your hands and elbows high.  Drop down until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Hold briefly and drive back into an upright position.  

Romanian deadlift to row

Romanian deadlift the barbell down to the bent-over row position, keeping your spine neutral. Perform a bent-over row, lifting your elbows high and squeezing your shoulder blades together. Deadlift back to the start position.