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.

The benefits of strength training for women are profound. Beyond the obvious improvements in functional strength for everyday activities, regular resistance training can also help resist osteoporosis, improve mobility, flexibility and posture, and reverse the signs of aging. Genuinely.

“As we age we naturally lose muscle, therefore ensuring we stimulate muscle tissue regularly is of utmost importance in order to counteract this,” says personal trainer Sian Childs, who specializes in training women. 

“Strength training also has a huge benefit in terms of pain management and recovery when carried out safely during pregnancy, postnatally and also during the menopause,” she adds.

Getting started is straightforward too, and to help Childs has devised a six-move upper-body workout that only requires a pair of dumbbells and a sturdy platform—a weights bench if you’re in the gym, or a sturdy chair if you’re at home. No dumbbells? No problem, you’ll find plenty of workouts for women, from PTs who work extensively with women, in our women’s fitness section.

How To Do This Upper-Body Workout For Women

This upper-body workout for women is built around three supersets, which require you to perform each pair of exercises back-to-back with no break in between. After each superset, rest for 60 seconds, then return to exercise A and repeat until you’ve completed each superset three times in total. Then move on to the next superset. 

You'll notice there are also rep ranges for each exercise. Childs suggests choosing a weight that makes completing the lowest number of reps manageable, but still challenging.

“If you complete eight reps of each exercise the first time you complete this workout, aim for sets of nine or 10 the next time you tackle it,” says Childs. “When you repeat it for a third time, try increasing the weights you use for each set, aiming for eight reps and so on.”

This bit-by-bit approach, known as progressive overload, is the secret sauce for increasing muscle size and strength. Repeat the workout regularly and you’ll see results fast.  

If all you have is one pair of dumbbells that feels a little too light for some of the moves, such as the row, slow down the movement to keep your muscles under tension for longer. 

Likewise, if your weights are too heavy for any exercise, such as the lateral raises, go for partial reps instead, where you only lift the weight for half or a quarter of the given rep range. It will still put your muscles under tension and encourage them to adapt and grow.  

Upper-Body Workout For Women Overview

• 1A Push-up: 3 x 8-10
• 1B Single-arm row: 3 x 8-10
• 2A Single-arm overhead press: 3 x 8-10 each side
• 2B Bench dip: 3 x 10-12
• 3A Biceps curl: 3 x 10-12
• 3B Lateral raise: 3 x 12-15

Upper-Body Workout For Women Form Guides

1A Push-up

Sets 3 Reps 8-10 Rest 0sec

Target muscles Chest and triceps

Get onto your hands and the balls of your feet with your arms extended and hands underneath your shoulders, your core engaged and your body in a straight line from your shoulders to ankles. Bend your elbows and lower your chest as low as you can, then push up to the start position. If performing this move on your knees, ensure your shoulders, hips and knees are in alignment.

1B Single-arm row

Sets 3 Reps 8-10 each side Rest 60sec

Target muscles Upper back and biceps

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart facing a weight bench or sturdy chair, holding one dumbbell in your right hand. With a slight bend in your knees, hinge forward at your hips and place your left hand on the bench, letting your right arm hang down. Your torso should be close to parallel with the floor. Retract your shoulder blade on your right side to engage your upper back muscles, then lift the dumbbell toward your right hip, pause, then lower under control. Do all your reps on one side, then switch sides.

2A Single-arm overhead press 

Sets 3 Reps 8-10 each side Rest 0sec

Target muscles Shoulders

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding one dumbbell at shoulder height with your palm facing you and the other arm outstretched to the side for balance. Engage your core and extend your arm to lift the weight straight up. Lower under control and repeat on all sides before switching arms. 

The version outlined above is a strict form dumbbell shoulder press. If you find the weight a bit heavy, you can use your legs to help get the weight up. Bend your knees slightly, then straighten your legs as you press the dumbbell overhead—the extra momentum will help. Just slow down the lowering part of the movement to develop shoulder muscles.

2B Bench dip

Sets 3 Reps 10-12 Rest 60sec

Target muscles Chest and triceps

Sit on the edge of a bench or chair, with your legs extended in front of you and your heels resting on the floor. Place the palms of your hands on the edge of the bench and shuffle your butt off the chair, then bend your elbows to lower. Pause once your elbows are bent to 90°, then extend your arms to return to the start position. Keep looking forward throughout. 

3A Biceps curl 

Sets 3 Reps 10-12 Rest 0sec

Target muscles Biceps

Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding dumbbells with your palms facing forward, elbows tucked in to your body. Brace your core and bend your elbows to lift the dumbbells to your shoulders. Squeeze your biceps hard, then lower under control. If fatigue sets in, alternate arms with each rep to make it slightly easier. 

3B Lateral raise

Sets 3 Reps 12-15 Rest 60sec

Target muscles Shoulders 

Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding dumbbells by your sides with your palms facing and a slight bend in your elbows. Engage your core and squeeze your glutes to provide a strong base, then raise your arms out to the sides, stopping when your arms are parallel with the floor. Lower the dumbbells slowly. 

If you only have one pair of weights and they are too heavy for you to complete the movement, perform partial reps instead. From the start position, raise the weights up halfway or a quarter of the way to engage your deltoid muscles, then return them to the start position slowly and repeat. Aim to keep the muscles under tension as long as you can bear. 

See more great options with our guide to the best dumbbells.

Many of us have favorite workouts we return to time and again, workouts we know are building strength in the most-needed areas and that don’t require specialist equipment.

This workout from PT Ollie Thompson deserves a place on any list of favorite workouts. It’s a five-move equipment-free workout that targets all your muscle groups. “When combined, these exercises are excellent for building a strong core and posterior chain,” says Thompson. The posterior chain is the collection of muscles that run down the back of your body and are essential for good posture. 

“The glute bridge and reverse lunge target muscles on the back of the legs, including the glutes and hamstrings. This makes the workout particularly beneficial if you're struggling with a stiff lower back, making it an ideal session to perform after a long period of sitting at a desk or traveling.”

And because it’s a bodyweight workout, it can be done virtually anywhere and in next to no time. “Bodyweight workouts are highly efficient,” says Thompson. “You can complete a lot of exercises within a short period making them especially valuable for people short on time.”

Full-Body No-Equipment Workout

1 Push-up to pike

Reps 10-12

Start in a high plank position, with your hands under your shoulders, arms extended, body in a straight line from head to heels, feet hip-width apart and your core engaged. Bend your elbows to lower your chest to the floor, then push through your hands. As you rise, push your hips up and backwards so your body forms an inverted V. Return to the high plank position.

2 Side plank with rotation

Reps 15 each side

Lie on your side with your lower forearm on the floor, elbow directly underneath your shoulder and both feet on the floor, one in front of the other. Lift your hips until your body is in a straight line. Extend your top arm up straight up, then bring the arm down and through the gap between your body and the floor, rotating your torso. Pause, then return to the starting position. Do all your reps on one side then switch sides.

3 Alternating reverse lunge

Reps 15 each side

From standing, step backward and bend both knees to lower until your rear knee is just above the floor. Push through your front foot to return to the start. Repeat on the other side, alternating sides with each rep.

4 Long lever plank

Time 20-30sec

Start in a low plank position, on your forearms and balls of your feet, with your elbows directly underneath your shoulders and your body in a straight line from head to heels. With your core and glutes engaged, walk your feet backward until your elbows are in line with your forehead. Hold for the allotted time, maintaining the position of your body, then release.

5 Single-leg glute bridge

Reps 15 each side

Lie on your back with your knees bent and your arms by your sides. Lift your right foot off the floor, keeping your knee bent. Push through your left foot to raise your butt until your body forms a straight line from your shoulders to your left knee. Pause then lower your butt back to the floor. Perform all your reps on one side then switch sides.

Complicated workouts that require lots of equipment can be off-putting. This workout from Australian personal trainer Kayla Itsines, head trainer of the Sweat app, requires just one thing that you likely already have access to—a bench. 

Whether you’re at home, in the gym or at the park, there’s probably something you can use as a bench. A chair, park bench, low wall—anything stable that’s around knee height or a little higher will do. If you use a chair, make sure it’s placed against a wall so it doesn’t move and that it’s sturdy enough to handle your entire weight.  

I appreciate Itsines’s no-nonsense workout videos and I enjoy her infectious energy and unpretentious approach. This five-move workout can be taken at your own pace and however hard you work, you know you’ll be done and dusted when the 15-minute timer rings.

Kayla Itsines’ Bodyweight Bench Workout

Set a timer and see how many rounds and reps you can do. This workout hits your chest, arms, legs, glutes, abs and core—you’ll be feeling the burn by the end of the allotted time, I’m sure.

1 Triceps dip

Reps 12

Place your hands on a bench behind you with your heels on the floor and your knees slightly bent. Lower slowly as far as you can, then press back up powerfully.

2 Three-way mountain climber

Reps 18 

Place your hands on the bench and get into a push-up position with your arms and legs extended. Keep your core braced and your shoulders, hips and feet in a straight line throughout. Bring one knee towards your chest, then return it to the starting position. Repeat with the other leg.

Then bring your leg out to the side, moving your knee outside of the elbow on the same side. Repeat on the other leg. 

Finish with the cross-body variation. Move your knee towards the opposite shoulder when you bring it forward, twist your torso slightly. Repeat on the other side. That’s one rep. Repeat at pace. 

3 Step-up

Reps 10 on each side

Stand facing the bench and step onto it with your right foot, tapping your left toe at the top. Step the left foot back to the floor ready to repeat the movement, keeping your right foot on the bench throughout. Change sides after you’ve done your reps and repeat on the other side.

4 Incline push-up

Reps 10 

Place your hands on the bench and get into a push-up position with your arms and legs extended. Bend your elbows to lower your chest to the bench. Pause and press through your hands to return to the start.

5 V-sit crunch

Reps 10

Sit on the bench with your hands holding the bench behind you. Keep your legs extended, raise your feet off the floor and lean back so your body is in a straight line and you’re balancing on your butt. Bend your knees and bring them towards your chest. Return to the start under control.

6 Lateral step-up with high knee

Reps 10 each side

Stand side-on to the bench with your left side closest to the bench. Interlace your fingers behind your head and place your left foot on the bench. Extend your left leg to rise and bring your right knee towards your left elbow, twisting your torso to bring your elbow closer. Return your right foot to the floor under control, keeping your left foot planted on the bench. Complete all the reps on side, then swap sides.

I go to the gym multiple times a week, taking part in CrossFit workouts and other functional fitness-style sessions. My focus is always on improving my strength, fitness and mobility, which often means zeroing in on the components of these three things.

Things like coordination, stability and balance. Studies have shown that improving balance can help improve mobility, reaction time, strength, injury prevention and even quality of life. 

That’s because balance plays a key role in how we move. In the gym, I’m hoping better balance will help me move free-weights with more control—whether that’s in big compound lifts like back squats or thrusters, or lighter, dynamic moves like the dumbbell snatch—and improve my running.

To develop this attribute I’ve been using a short routine from clinical exercise physiologist Victoria Rose. It’s made up of five bodyweight exercises, three of which require a foam pad or a cushion to stand on.

It's a routine you can do before or after your usual training sessions to challenge your brain and body. 

Take a look at Rose's Instagram Reel below where she demonstrates each exercise.

Rose recommends doing these exercises daily to see improvements. She also suggests standing by a wall or chair for extra support if you lose balance.

I tried it on my lunch break and it was easy to do from home. I found these moves required core stability too, not just balance. I practice yoga once a week, so the single-leg balancing moves were familiar and I was comfortable doing them. However, adding closed eyes significantly increased the difficulty.

I found the heel-toe walking manageable, but when I tried doing it backward, as Rose recommended, I fell off balance a few times. One to practice. 

The ball-catching exercise requires another person and is great for coordination. I didn't have anyone to join me, so instead I balanced on one leg on a cushion while throwing a tennis ball up and down in the air. This was still a challenging test of my balance and concentration.

Although this routine is not like my usual CrossFit sessions—no burning muscles or puddles of sweat—I still found the moves challenging. I realized I needed more practice before I could do them without wobbling or falling. Hopefully adding some of these moves into my warm-up routine will level up my training.

Perhaps the biggest mistake you can make at the start of a fitness kick is overdoing it. If your first workouts are too difficult, you run the risk of injury or even burnout. You may also find it hard to maintain motivation simply because the sessions you do are too challenging.

A training plan that starts with short, simple workouts is the way to go, and that’s exactly what the Climb The Ladder 30-Day training plan on fitness app WithU (App Store and Google Play) offers. The collection of 16 workouts starts with a five-minute strength session, which you can see below to try, and eventually builds up to a 20-minute workout. 

The idea is to do the 16 workouts in order over a 30-day period, with each session being one minute longer than the previous one. The workouts aren’t all strength sessions—HIIT and stretching are also on the plan.

And while WithU requires you to subscribe to access its entire library of workouts, the Climb The Ladder plan is free to all.

Tim Benjamin, ex-Olympian and co-founder of WithU, pulled the collection together to help people ease into strength training in the same way you would into running with a couch to 5K plan. It follows a similar format of gradually building your capacity.

“We designed Climb the Ladder based on the principle of progressive overload, whereby you increase the intensity of your workouts over time,” says Benjamin. “The concept can be applied to most forms of exercise, but you’ll mostly see it in strength and cardio training plans. This could be increasing your number of reps, your weights, or as with the Climb the Ladder plan, the duration of your workouts. 

“By gradually but continuously increasing the overload with each workout, you provide your body with the recovery time it needs to adapt to the new stimulus you’re introducing while also ensuring that you’re maintaining positive progression.

“It’s a simple but highly effective approach that allows you to continuously take steps towards your goals, such as building strength and endurance, or feeling fitter, in a sustainable way. By allowing your body to get used to the new stimulus by starting small, you avoid risk of injury, plus the continuous progression is fantastic for your mindset and confidence.”

Here’s the first workout from the plan to try.

Warm-up

Word to the wise: always warm up before beginning a workout. Here’s why warm-up exercises are so important.

1 Standing waist twist

Time 20sec Rest 10sec

Standing tall with your arms crossed in front of your chest, twist your torso to the right and left to mobilize the spine.

2 Squat adductor

Time 20sec Rest 20sec

Lower into a squat position, pushing your bum back and bending your knees until your thighs are parallel to the floor, then pulse your knees outwards to warm up your glutes.

Workout

Perform two rounds of the below.

1 Squat lunge lunge

Time 35sec Rest 15sec

From standing lower into a squat, then drive back up to standing, then step forward into a lunge on your right foot, lowering until both knees are bent at a 90° angle. Come back up to standing then step into a lunge on your left foot. Then repeat, doing a squat and a lunge on each side.

2 Blast off push-up

Time 35sec Rest 15sec

Start in a high plank position with your body supported on your hands and feet. Push up and back so your glutes move towards your feet, then move forward back into a plank as you lower your chest down between your hands until it’s hovering just above the floor. You can put your knees on the floor to make the movement easier.

If you enjoyed this five-minute workout, access the full 30-day plan by downloading WithU from the App Store and Google Play.

For more workout inspiration for beginners from Coach, check out how to start exercising safely, and this equipment-free beginner home workout. If you own dumbbells, or are a member of a gym, this beginner dumbbell workout is another great place to start. 

I’m rarely happier than when I’m working out, so I do it rather a lot. What I don’t (and really should) do so religiously is prioritize my recovery. 

This got me wondering: How do top athletes manage to train twice a day (or more) without burning out? 

Someone who trains harder than most is elite CrossFit athlete Noah Ohlsen. Alongside taking care of the fundamentals of recovery—a healthy diet and plenty of high-quality sleep—he boosts his recuperation efforts by following mobility routines from stretching app Pliability.

This, he says, is a “non-negotiable element of my daily routine” which helps him stave off injuries and improve his recovery.

The routine below is Ohlsen’s favorite for days when his shoulders and neck feel tight after training. That’s a feeling I’m familiar with, with CrossFit training combined with hours spent at my laptop resulting in an almost constantly stiff neck, so I decided to give it a go. Here are my thoughts, as well as instructions on how you can try it yourself.

How To Do Noah Ohlsen’s Mobility Routine

I used Pliability’s follow-along video to complete this routine (it’s in Pliability’s Shoulder And Neck Stress Relief pathway, if you need help finding it in the app). You can also use the instructions below to complete the session under your own steam. 

1 Self-cervical fascial mobilizations

Time 90sec each side

How to do it Kneel on your yoga mat, sitting on your heels. Place the fingers of your right hand on the left side of your neck, just above your collarbone. Gently press down with your fingers and look up and to the right. Hold this for a few seconds, then release the tension by bringing your head back to the starting position. Continue until the 90 seconds is up, then repeat on the other side.

How I found it This one took me a little while to get used to, and at first the biggest stretch I felt was in my quads (the effect of the kneeling position after a series of heavy barbell squats earlier in the week). 

I eventually found the movement that caused a stretch down the back and side of my neck, and made sure to look at the same point on the ceiling as I repeated the stretch.

2 Cross arm adduction

Time 90sec each side

How to do it Reach your right arm across your body, keeping it as relaxed as possible. Use your left forearm to hug it towards your chest. Inhale and exhale slowly. As you inhale, release tension on the arm, then when you exhale pull it closer towards your body. Continue until the 90 seconds is up, then repeat on the other side.

How I found it This was my favorite stretch of the lot. It brought back fond memories of my PE teachers’s warm-up routines, but 20 years and however many weight training sessions later I found it felt very different. There was a deep and enjoyable stretch in my lats and the back of my shoulder, and as the seconds ticked by I was able to pull the arm across my body further into my chest. 

I felt fantastic afterwards too. I’ve recently been dealing with light twinging and tightness in the front of my shoulders. It tends to flare up when my arm is extended upwards, but after this shoulder stretch I enjoyed far more freedom of movement around the joint without discomfort. 

3 Chin tuck

Time 90sec

How to do it Sit on the floor with your legs extended. Move your chin in towards your neck so your ears sit over your shoulders. Hold this position for one deep breath then release.

How I found it Prepare yourself, this one looks and feels a bit odd. It’s not the most flattering of movements, essentially asking you to create as many double chins as possible. I found it also produced a strange cramp-like sensation underneath my jaw, but

I’m glad I did it. After spending hours at my laptop or on my phone each day, my head tends to drop forward at every opportunity. The chin tuck can help develop neck strength to help you keep your head aligned with your spine. 

4 Glute bridge lat press-down

Time 90sec

How to do it Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor and hip-width apart. Position your arms by your sides with your palms facing down. Flatten your lower back into the floor using your abdominals. Press through your heels to lift your hips until your torso and thighs form a straight line, and press your arms into the floor to engage your lats. Hold this position for one second, then lower your hips to the floor under control.

How I found it I really liked this one. Working out at home during lockdown showed me how hard it is to work your back muscles without equipment, but this move cleverly engages the lats. I was surprised to find just how effective it was too, with these large back muscles feeling like they had been put to work after just 90 seconds of the exercise.

The Result

This routine promises a lot off the back of just four moves and 10 minutes. The Pliability team said benefits include “enhanced shoulder and neck mobility, improved upper-body workout performance, reduced risk of injuries, increased overall training effectiveness and enhanced athletic longevity”.

Given that I only did the session yesterday, I can’t speak to athletic longevity, but I did notice some of the effects in my next workout. 

My shoulders felt like they were able to move more freely, particularly in the overhead position which had been causing me some discomfort. As a result, I was able to do kipping gymnastics drills while hanging from a bar without feeling restricted.

I felt slightly less tension in my neck too, although it was still pretty stiff, but hey, it’s probably unfair to expect a 10-minute routine to fix nearly a decade of days bent over a laptop, right?

Pliability has shared more routines with Coach. There’s this mobility routine put together by Cody Mooney, Pliability’s director of performance. Mooney also contributed these mobility exercises for hips, and finally there’s CrossFit star Emma Lawson’s mobility routine.

You might assume that equipment-free workouts are less challenging than routines with weights, but bodyweight sessions can be just as hard. Not only can they boost your fitness and build muscle, they can help to improve your coordination, power and speed. That’s especially helpful if you play sport, or take part in CrossFit or HYROX.

Personal trainer Ella-Mae Rayner has shared a routine on Instagram that will leave even the fittest of people breathless and sweaty.

It’s made up of eight bodyweight exercises, including some well-known movements such as the star jump and burpee. It’s a great way to work on your cardio fitness at the gym if you’ve had your fill of treadmill workouts, or as a way to work out from home equipment-free.

Take a look at Rayner's Instagram Reel below where she demonstrates each move.

Do each exercise for 45 seconds and then rest for 15 seconds. Complete the circuit four times in total, with one minute of rest between each round. You might be surprised how quickly this workout will get you out of breath, but remember it’s 35 minutes long so find a steady pace and try stick to it throughout.

The plyometric exercises such as the jump squat and jump lunge in this routine require a pop of power and speed, and these moves can help to strengthen your bones and joints, too. 

They are high-impact though, so take it slow if you’re just starting to exercise or coming back from a break. You can always remove the jumps from each exercise, performing unweighted squats and lunges instead, then progressing to the harder variations as your fitness increases.

If that’s still too hard, try this beginner HIIT workout instead.

Need help choosing? Our guide to the best gym trainers can help.

If you want to build core strength, the plank is a great place to start. This bodyweight exercise activates all the core muscles—from the rectus abdominis (the visible six-pack muscle) to the transverse abdominis (the deep core).

I’m a personal trainer and I’m always telling my clients about the effectiveness of the plank—that’s why I’ve created this three-move core-strengthening circuit which takes 10 minutes.

Plank Workout Overview

Perform the following three plank variations a circuit. Rest for 10-20 seconds after each move and for one minute after each circuit. Complete three circuits in total.

1. Walking plank x 30-45sec
2. Plank hip dip x 30-45sec
3. Plank leg raise x 30-45sec

If you find this routine too intense, start with Coach’s 30-day plank challenge which takes less than three minutes a day and gradually develops your core strength. 

Plank Workout Form Guides

1 Walking plank

Time 30-45sec Rest 10-20sec

Start in a high plank position on your hands and toes. Your hands should be directly under your shoulders, arms extended and core braced, and your body should form a straight line from head to heels. Maintaining the position of your body, drop your left elbow to your mat, followed by your right. Hold this position for a few seconds, then put your left palm on the mat under your left shoulder, straighten your arm, then repeat on the right side to return to the high plank position. Hold this position for a few seconds, then repeat. Alternate the side you lead with each rep.

2 Plank hip dip

Time 30-45sec Rest 10-20sec

Start in a low plank position on your forearms and toes. Your elbows should be directly under your shoulders, your core braced and your body should form a straight line from head to heels. Maintaining the position of your body, drop your hips to one side. Return to the center then repeat on the other side. Continue, moving slowly with control.

3 Plank leg raise

Time 30-45sec Rest 10-20sec

Start in a low plank position on your forearms and toes. Your elbows should be directly under your shoulders and your body should form a straight line from head to heels. Raise your left leg, pause for a few seconds then lower it to the floor under control. Repeat on the other side.

You probably already know that finishing your workouts with a couple of sets of sit-ups won’t get you a six-pack. Targeted abs workouts on top of a progressive strength training plan are a much more effective way to increase the strength of your abs. 

If you’ve mastered bodyweight abs exercises and want to step up the difficulty, try a dumbbell abs workout.

This workout from James Stirling, better known online as the London Fitness Guy uses a dumbbell to help you target the abdominal muscles by challenging your stability, coordination and strength.

Take a look at Stirling’s Instagram Reel where he demonstrates each move.

Stirling suggests performing each exercise for 40 seconds, followed by 20 seconds of rest. Complete five rounds in total for a 30-minute workout that will leave your abs burning.

Use a challenging weight, but one that allows you to complete all the moves with good form. If, for example, on the dumbbell halo or overhead pull you can’t maintain your posture it’s a sign that you’ve chosen a weight that’s a bit too heavy. Because you’re isolating the abdominal muscles and relying on them to keep you stable, a lighter weight than you’re used to might still be surprisingly challenging. 

Prevent excess pressure on the lower back by tucking in your ribcage and pelvis, squeezing your glutes (the muscles in your butt) and tightening your abdominal muscles towards your spine. This is especially important as you tire.

If this routine as written is too difficult, you can perform the butterfly sit-ups and plank taps with just your bodyweight—they’ll still challenge your abdominal strength even without adding load. You could also do three rounds of the circuit instead of five.

My training tends to focus on two things: improving my strength and increasing my cardio fitness. Whether I’m doing a CrossFit workout or I’m on the rower, I’m mainly interested in how much I can lift and how quickly and efficiently I can move.

I sometimes forget there are other things I should be doing other than just strength exercises and sweaty workouts. In fact, to improve my performance at the gym I know that working on skills such as coordination and mobility can make a big difference.

To work on these skills, I decided to try a bodyweight routine that sports scientist Rodrigo B. Perez posted on Instagram. In the caption, Perez says that adding these exercises into your day can help to improve strength, agility, coordination and mobility. Just what I’m after. 

Watch Perez’s Instagram Reel to see him demonstrate each of the exercises.

The first thing I realized is that the moves are trickier than they look. Not only did they test my core strength, but they also required my full attention to complete them correctly.

This was a nice change, as I can often go through a workout without thinking too much. Having to focus on the exercises encouraged me to take note of my form, which also added a mindful element as there was no time for my thoughts to wander.

Figuring out how to coordinate each move was the most challenging part. It meant that I had to keep looking back at the screen to make sure I was moving correctly. My range of motion is good so I didn’t find the exercises too hard from a mobility perspective. I also experienced good stretches in my hips, shoulders and hamstrings, which was a bonus.

I feel confident that improving my coordination skills using drills like these will benefit my training and help me to move faster and more efficiently during CrossFit workouts. The table twist and crawl hip slides would make a great addition to my warm-ups. They'd also be useful for people who play sports that require good coordination.

While mobility routines won’t replace my full-body workouts, sessions like these are fantastic accessory routines to provide both a physical and mental challenge. Coach has plenty of other sequences to try, such as CrossFit star Emma Lawson’s mobility routine and this six-move strength and mobility workout.

You know a kettlebell workout is tough when you can easily split it up into two workouts that would both be challenging in their own right. That’s what you have with this kettlebell leg workout created by fitness coach and PhD nutrition ambassador Gabby Dawn Allen.

You only need one kettlebell for the session, which starts with a sets and reps section to build muscle, before going into a circuit to develop your muscular endurance, boost your cardio fitness and burn fat. As mentioned, you could do each section as a workout by itself, or power through both for an epic legs workout, although unless you never skip leg day or are happy to deal with DOMS, you may wish to start with fewer sets, and add reps and sets gradually when you repeat the workout.

Kettlebell Leg Workout Overview

Section One

1. Two-handed clean and paused squat 4 x 8
2. B-stance Romanian deadlift into reverse lunge 4 x 8 each side
3. Single-leg hip thrust 4 x 8 each side
4. Lunge 1 x 12 each side

Section Two

Complete four rounds of the following.

1. Kettlebell swing x 12
2. Reverse lunge x 10 each side
3. Thruster x 8

Kettlebell Leg Workout Warm-up

Allen has suggested this warm-up for the workout, which involves doing each of the following for 20 seconds. This gym warm-up routine will also get you ready for the workout.

1. Dead bug
2. Glute bridge
3. 4-point kneel wrist circles
4. World’s greatest stretch
5. Plank
6. Low squat hip opener
7. Reverse lunge with reach up
8. Star jump
9. Squat hold
10. Butt kicks
11. High knees

Kettlebell Leg Workout Section One Form Guides

1 Two-handed kettlebell clean and paused squat

Sets 4 Reps 8 Rest 60sec

“This should be one fluid motion,” says Allen. “The kettlebell does not need to return to the floor for every rep but must come to a dead stop before performing each clean. Keep the bell close to you and it should move up and down in a vertical pattern. The power comes from your core, your hamstrings and your glutes. 

“Holding the bell in both hands with a slight bend in your knees, hinge forwards from your hips. Drive through your glutes to stand up straight, creating the power to shift the weight up to your chest as your hands slide down the horns of the bell. Do not lean back—brace your core and you will stand tall—and don't lock your knees. 

“Keep the bell close to your chest and keeping the chest up, lower into your squat. Hold at the bottom of the squat for a second if you can! Focus on your weight going through the middle to back of your foot—you should be able to wiggle your toes without losing balance. Push the floor away and drive up to standing, lower the weight and repeat.”

2 B-stance Romanian deadlift into reverse lunge

[The video above demonstrates the B-stance Romanian deadlift portion of the exercise.]

Sets 4 Reps 8 each side Rest 60sec

“Hold the kettlebell in one hand,” says Allen. “Step the opposite foot to the hand holding the bell back to around half the distance of your lunge. Practice without the bell first if you’re unsure of foot placement. 

“Bend your front knee a little, and roll your shoulders down and engage your lats. Your weight should mostly be in your front heel—you’re using the back foot for stability. You can rest your other hand on a wall if you need some extra assistance. Keeping the bell close to your shin, hinge forwards, sending your butt backward. You will feel your glutes elongate. Once you’ve reached your full hinge, drive through your glutes to standing. Do a big squeeze at the top without pushing your hips forward. Then step your rear foot back into a reverse lunge, letting the bell come to the outside of the front leg. Keep your core strong so you don’t lean! Push through your front foot and bring the rear foot back to the B-stance.”

3 Single-leg hip thrust

Sets 4 Reps 8 each side Rest 60sec

“Sit on the floor and rest your back, just below your shoulder blades, on a bench, chair or something stable,” says Allen. “Lift the kettlebell onto your hips, raise your hips so your body is in a straight line from knees to shoulders, and slowly walk your feet out to your starting position. Your foot placement dictates the focus of the exercise. If your shins are vertical when your hips are lifted, it will be glute-focused, if your feet are further away it will be more hamstring-focused. Too close will rely on the quads. I always aim for a vertical shin. 

“Lift one foot off the floor. The kettlebell should be on the hip of the foot that’s down. Slowly lower your hips towards the floor. Your hips should remain square as if you still had both feet down—if it's too much just put the foot down. When your butt is just above the floor, drive through your heel back up to the starting position. Squeeze your glutes throughout the exercise and even harder at the top! Lower over the count of two, take a count of one to get back to the top and hold for a count of one at the top.”

4 Lunge

Sets 1 Reps 12 each side 

“Hold the bell by the horns and keep it close to you,” says Allen. “Tuck your elbows in and brace our core. Step one foot forward into your lunge, aiming for the knee to stay in line with the foot and over the ankle—try not to push too far forward over the foot. If you can, tap your back knee down to the mat. Drive through the front foot to stand tall and then go on the other side. The more you focus on holding your core, the better this will be for you. Try it with just bodyweight if you need to.”

Kettlebell Leg Workout Section Two Form Guides

Complete four rounds of the following, resting for 45 seconds between rounds.

1 Kettlebell swing

Reps 12

“Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart,” says Allen. “Hinge forward, push your hips back and slightly bend your knees as the bell moves between your legs.” Push your hips forward to stand up and swing the bell up. “The power to bring the bell back up in front of you comes from your glutes—not the shoulders! Tuck your elbows in so the weight is likely to come only up to belly button height. Keep your core braced, don’t lean back as the kettlebell comes up, and squeeze your butt cheeks.”

2 Reverse lunge 

Reps 10 each side

“On your last kettlebell swing, catch the bell and step one foot backward into a reverse lunge,” says Allen. “Protect your lower back by hugging that bell in tight! Drive through the front heel and push off through the back foot to come back to standing and switch legs.”

3 Thruster

Reps 8

“This begins with exactly the same motion as your squat earlier, but this time with no pause at the bottom,” says Allen. As you rise from the squat use the momentum to press the kettlebell straight up. “Think about pushing the floor away and exploding upwards, which will give you the force needed to push the weight up above your head.”

If you need help choosing, our guide to the best kettlebells for home training can help. And once it’s delivered, you can get stuck into this full-body kettlebell workout, kettlebell abs workout and kettlebell HIIT workout. 

A couple of dumbbells and 20 minutes. That’s all you need to tackle this arm-strengthening session from Technogym ambassador James Stirling, better known to his 818,000 Instagram followers as the London Fitness Guy. 

“Dumbbells are your best friend for building stronger arms,” says Stirling. “The beauty of dumbbells is that they are incredibly versatile, allowing you to do a wide range of exercises and really isolate the biceps and triceps.”

Read on for the workout, form guides and Stirling’s advice for getting the most out of this and other arms workouts. 

Workout Overview

Complete three rounds of the following:

1. Cross-body curl x 12-15
2. Triceps extension x 12-15
3. Biceps curl to hammer curl x 12-15
4. Triceps dip x 12-15
5. Close-grip push-up x 12-15

Form Guides

1 Cross-body curl

Reps 12-15 each side

Hold dumbbells by your sides with your palms facing. Curl one dumbbell to the opposite shoulder. Pause, then lower under control. Repeat on the other side, alternating sides for each rep.

2 Lying triceps extension

Reps 12-15

Lie on the floor with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor, or lie on a weights bench if you have one. Hold dumbbells, or a single dumbbell held in both hands, above your head with your arms extended and palms facing. Keeping your upper arms still, bend your elbows to lower the dumbbells behind your head. Use your triceps to extend your arms and lift the dumbbells back to the start.  

3 Biceps curl to hammer curl

Reps 12-15

Stand holding dumbbells in by your thighs with your palms facing forward. Keeping your upper arms pinned to your torso, bend your elbows to raise the dumbells to your shoulders. Pause, then rotate the dumbbells so your palms are facing. Lower the dumbbells under control to your thighs. Rotate the dumbbells so your palms face forward.

4 Triceps dip

Reps 12-15

Find a sturdy platform like a chair, step or weight bench if you have one, and sit on the edge with your hands on the surface by your sides, and your legs extended and heels on the floor. Keeping your arms extended, move your bum off the chair. Bend your elbows to 90° to lower your body. Extend your arms to push back up to the start. Make this easier by bending your knees and bringing your feet closer to you.

5 Close-grip push-up

Reps 12-15

Begin on your hands and toes, with your hands slightly narrower than shoulder-width apart and your body in a straight line from head to heels. Engage your core and keeping your body in a straight line throughout, bend your elbows to lower your chest to the floor. When your chest is just above the floor, push powerfully through your hands to return to the start.

Workout Tips

1. Use The Right Weight 

“A question I often receive is, ‘What dumbbell weight should I use?’,” says Stirling. “As everyone has their own strength level, I always suggest using a weight that challenges you for the rep range prescribed. The last two or three reps of each set should feel tough. If they don’t, then you can probably use a heavier weight. We need to work heavy to stimulate muscle hypertrophy, or growth.”

2. Think Of Your Elbow Like A Hinge

If you want to get the most out of arm exercises, you should “think about your elbow acting like a hinge,” says Stirling. This is because the primary functions of the biceps and triceps are bending and straightening the arm at the elbow, respectively.

For this reason, he recommends keeping your upper arms tight to your sides during biceps curls, allowing the elbow to act as the hinge point.

This will help you avoid swinging your torso to generate momentum to help lift the dumbbell, focusing instead on using the target muscle (in this case, the biceps) to move the weight.

3. Take It Slow

As your muscles fatigue, it may be tempting to rush through repetitions and get the reps done as quickly as possible, but Stirling advises you to take your time. 

“The key to getting the most out of your arm workouts is to utilize time under tension, which means slowing down the eccentric or lowering part of the movement.”

For example, the eccentric portion of a biceps curl is when you're controlling the dumbbell down from the top of the rep back to the starting position. 

“As a general rule of thumb, try to take two or three seconds on the lowering part of the exercise,” says Stirling. 

For help deciding on the right set for you, read our guide to the best dumbbells.

There’s no doubt that lifting weights can help you grow stronger, bigger shoulders. Barbell overhead presses and dumbbell raises feature in almost all the best shoulder workouts you’ll find on the web (including Coach’s). But if you’re new to lifting weights, or returning to exercise, these moves may seem difficult and intimidating. 

The good news is that you don’t have to invest in a gym membership or buy a pair of adjustable dumbbells to start training your shoulders. With these simple beginner shoulder workouts, all you need is your own bodyweight or a low-cost resistance band. 

It’s not just that this makes shoulder training more accessible. It’s a good idea to avoid weights when you first start performing shoulder exercises. Shoulders are among the most complex and mobile joints in the human body, and this makes them highly vulnerable to strains and injuries. If you’re just starting to train your upper body, there is a good chance your shoulders may lack a certain degree of strength and mobility.

Building up to dumbbell shoulder workouts with the routines below is one way to minimize your risk of injury. Another is to make a habit of beginning your session with a thorough warm-up and finishing with shoulder stretches. Finally, it’s imperative to listen to your body. If you’re struggling to complete a particular exercise, it’s best to stop and focus on developing your shoulder mobility instead.

Ready to get started? Below we’ve detailed a comprehensive shoulder warm-up routine, followed by a five-move bodyweight shoulder workout and a five-move resistance band shoulder workout to choose between. 

Get Set With This Shoulder Mobility Warm-up

Before you start your workout, it’s essential that you warm up. This simple five-move routine will improve your joint mobility and boost the blood flow to your muscles. Focus on slowly increasing your range of movement, and taking deep breaths in and out. As you progress to shoulder workouts with weights, use this shoulder warm-up.     

1 Cat-cow stretch

Sets 1 Reps 15

Start on all fours, with your wrists directly below your shoulders and your knees directly below your hips. First, get into the “cow” position by bringing your head up, dropping your chest and lifting your tailbone. Inhale deeply and squeeze your shoulder blades together. Pause for two seconds, then assume the “cat” position by tucking your chin into your chest, lowering your tailbone and rounding your back. Exhale as you pause for a couple of seconds, then slowly return to the starting position.

2 Child’s pose to cobra

Sets 1 Reps 15

On all fours with your knees wider than hip-width apart, sit your bum back toward your heels, extend your arms in front of you and lower your chest. This is child’s pose. From here, shift your body forward, straighten your arms and press your hips into the floor. Arch your back and turn your face upward to feel the stretch down the front of your body. Maintain this cobra position for a couple of seconds, then slowly return to child’s pose.

3 Shoulder lateral swing

Sets 1 Reps 15

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and arms by your sides. Raise your arms out to the sides so they’re parallel with the floor. Keeping your arms straight, cross them in front of you, and then dynamically bring them back to the starting position. Keep your back straight and engage your core muscles to avoid swaying side to side.

4 Standing straight-arm circles

Sets 1 Reps 30

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and arms by your sides. Raise your arms out to the sides so they’re parallel with the floor. Engage your core and, with a straight back throughout, begin to move your arms in small circles. As your joints warm up, gradually progress to larger circles. Don’t sway, tilt to the sides or tense up your neck. 

5 Shoulder corkscrew

Sets 1 Reps 30

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and arms by your sides. Raise your arms out to the sides so they’re parallel with the floor and your thumbs are pointing up. Keeping your arms straight, rotate your arms so your thumb points forward and then to the floor. Slowly return to the start. Drive the movement from your shoulders and keep your core engaged throughout the movement. 

Bodyweight Beginner Shoulder Workout

Developing your ability to perform functional movement patterns is the first step to increasing your strength and mobility, with your shoulders and every other body part. Compound bodyweight movements allow you to train your shoulders alongside other muscle groups, such as your back and chest. This approach will help you to avoid muscular imbalances, stabilize your shoulder joints and increase your overall body awareness. 

If any exercise feels too easy, either increase the number of sets or reps, or slow down the tempo of the movement to put the muscles under tension for longer. Complete two to three sets of each exercise and eight to 12 repetitions per set. Take at least 15 seconds of rest between sets to catch your breath. 

1 Incline push-up

Sets 2-3 Reps 8-12 Rest 15sec

Place your hands shoulder-width apart on an elevated surface, such as a bench or your sofa. The lower the object, the more difficult the movement. Keeping your hands directly below your shoulders, take a few steps back until your body forms a straight line from heels to head. Relax your neck, brace your core, then bend your elbows to lower your chest toward your hands. Press your hands away to return to the starting position. Don’t allow your elbows to flare out beyond a 45° angle from your body. 

2 Mountain climber

Sets 2-3 Reps 8-12 Rest 15sec

Get on all fours, with your hands directly below your shoulders, then raise your knees off the floor until your body forms a straight line from heels to head. Engage your core and, keeping your hips level, drive one knee toward your chest, then return it to the start position. Repeat the movement on the other leg. That’s one repetition. Once you get into the rhythm, increase your pace until it feels like you’re running on the spot. If you’re struggling to count reps, work for 10-20 seconds. 

3 Plank to downward dog

Sets 2-3 Reps 8-12 Rest 15sec

Begin on your hands and toes, with your hands directly below your shoulders. Your body should form a straight line from heels to head. Brace your core and relax your neck, then lift your hips high to assume an inverted V-shaped pose, pressing your shoulders away from your ears. Slowly return to the starting position. If you struggle to maintain the V-shape, place your hands on a bench or step to reduce the pressure on your shoulders. 

4 Bent-over Y raise

Sets 2-3 Reps 8-12 Rest 15sec

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Keeping your knees slightly bent, back straight and core engaged, hinge forward from your hips until your body is at a 45° angle with the floor. Raise your arms up and out so that your torso and arms form the letter Y. Squeeze your shoulder blades together to lift your arms slightly higher, hold this position for a couple of seconds, then lower your arms and repeat.

5 Superman row

Sets 2-3 Reps 8-12 Rest 15sec

Lie face down with your arms extended in front of you. Brace your core, glutes and thighs, and lift your arms, chest, and legs off the floor, while maintaining a neutral neck position. Pull your elbows back toward your ribs and squeeze your shoulder blades hard for a couple of seconds, then extend your arms back to the start position. Remember to breathe in and out with each rep.

Beginner Shoulder Workout With Resistance Bands

Resistance bands are cheaper and more portable than free weights. They also happen to be one of the best tools for improving shoulder strength and mobility. For this workout, pick a light and long resistance band. Ideally, your band will come with handles, but if that’s not the case, simply wrap the ends of the open-ended band around your hands. 

No matter what exercise you do, make sure to engage your core and move in a slow, controlled manner. If you find you have to yank the band or sway back and forth to complete the exercise, you may need to pick a lighter band. Complete two to three sets of each exercise and eight to 12 repetitions per set. Rest for 15 seconds between sets. 

1 Band pull-apart

Sets 2-3 Reps 8-12 Rest 15sec

Stand holding a light resistance band in both hands in front of you with straight arms. Keep the band taut and your core muscles engaged, then squeeze your shoulder blades together as you pull the band apart, bringing your arms out to the sides. Your upper body should form a letter T. Pause, then return to the start. Aim to maintain tension in the band throughout the set. 

2 Banded face pull

Sets 2-3 Reps 8-12 Rest 15sec

Attach a resistance band to an anchor point, such as a banister, a tree or a lamppost. The anchor point should be at or slightly above your eye level. Facing the anchor point, hold the band in both hands and move a few steps away to create tension. Squeeze your shoulder blades together and pull the band toward your face. Your elbows should flare to the sides. As the band gets close to your face, externally rotate your shoulders slightly so your hands rise, pause, then slowly return to the starting position. 

3 Banded lateral raise

Sets 2-3 Reps 8-12 Rest 15sec

Place the resistance band on the floor and step on the middle of it, with your feet shoulder-width apart. Take hold of the ends and stand with your arms by your sides. There should be some tension in the band—adjust your position as necessary. Brace your core, bring your shoulders blades back and down and, with a slight bend in your elbows throughout, raise your arms out to the sides up to eye level. Lower under control.

4 Banded front raise

Sets 2-3 Reps 8-12 Rest 15sec

Place the resistance band on the floor and step on the middle of it, with your feet shoulder-width apart. Take hold of the ends and stand with your hands in front of your thighs. There should be some tension in the band—adjust your position as necessary. Brace your core, bring your shoulders blades back and down and, with a slight bend in your elbows throughout, raise your arms in front of you up to eye level. Lower under control.

5 Resistance band seated overhead press

Sets 2-3 Reps 8-12 Rest 15sec

Sit on a bench, chair or step. Place the resistance band on the floor and step on the middle of it. Take hold of the ends and raise your hands next to your shoulders, with palms facing forward. Extend your arms straight up. Slowly return your hands to shoulder height. Avoid locking out your elbows at the top of the exercise and keep your core muscles engaged throughout the movement. If the resistance band is too short, try pressing with one arm at a time.  

See more options with our guide to the best resistance bands.

When I asked professional CrossFit athlete Aimee Cringle for a bodyweight workout to challenge Coach readers, I didn’t think she would reach for something quite this wicked. 

Fresh off a 225lb bench press PB, the 24-year-old and Built For Athletes ambassador said just three words: death by burpees.

It’s a brilliantly simple challenge and unlike some CrossFit workouts, it’s accessible to all fitness and skill levels. 

Death by burpees is an EMOM workout. EMOM stands for every minute on the minute. Start a running clock and do one burpee in the first minute. Do two burpees in the second minute, followed by three in the third, and so on, until you can’t complete the target number of burpees within the minute. 

This can feel like a strange workout because it’s not especially taxing at first. It might even seem a bit boring. Cringle says you can start on three, four or five burpees, if you want to skip to the good bit.

“People will think it’s easy on round seven, but just you wait,” says Cringle. “Anything following a ‘death by’ format is just horrible. I think by round 12 it will get a bit spicy, maybe even before then.”

Burpee Form Video Demonstration

Aimee Cringle’s Workout Tips

Knowing what’s in store for anyone who attempts this workout, I asked Cringle if she had any words of wisdom which Coach readers could help them as they approached the latter stages. 

After a moment’s pause, Cringle answered: “Dig deep. When you get to the rounds where you have about 10 seconds of rest at the end of the minute, just try to control your breathing, because once the minutes start rolling on and you just have to keep doing non-stop burpees, it’s horrible. But once it does get hard it’s probably not going to last much longer.”

In true CrossFit style, she also suggests doing it as part of a group. There’s comfort in company, after all.

If you’re looking for a score to beat, Cringle recalls finishing somewhere around the 24th minute when she tackled this challenge a few years ago. However, this was doing burpees-over-bar, a popular CrossFit upgrade that sees you jump over a loaded barbell between each rep. 

“If you had access to something you could jump over, you could make it harder by doing burpees-over-bar,” she suggests. But unless you too are a professional athlete, I highly doubt you’ll want to make this test any more difficult.

If you want to try a home CrossFit workout before joining a box, or you’re just looking to cut down the amount of time you spend traveling to and from the gym, the good news is that there are plenty of options to choose from.

That may come as a surprise if you’ve ever seen snippets of the CrossFit Games on social media, where professional athletes flit between barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, cardio machines and umpteen other pieces of equipment during most workouts. 

But a big part of the appeal of this training style is the variety on offer, and there are plenty of tests that require only straightforward home gym equipment. Just ask UK’s Fittest Woman 2023 and WIT Fitness athlete Jen Muir, who started CrossFit training during lockdown from her garage. 

“You can definitely start at home,” Muir tells Coach. “When I was doing it in my garage during lockdown I would just Google ‘CrossFit workouts at home’, and then you would get one you could try.”

She’s shared two of her favorites from those early days, which started her on a remarkably fast journey to becoming a CrossFit Games semi-finalist aged just 23. You’ll need a pull-up bar (or other piece of equipment to swap in a pull exercise). If you’re equipment-deprived, try one of these bodyweight CrossFit workouts.

Two Home CrossFit Workouts To Try

Baseline

For time:

• 500m row or run
• 40 unweighted squats
• 30 sit-ups
• 20 push-ups (or kneeling push-ups)
• 10 pull-ups (or another pulling movement, like a ring row or bent-over row) 

Muir says this is “one of the best ones she did” when she first started CrossFit training, providing a quick test of fitness.

“I didn’t have a rowing machine so I just ran the distance,” she says. “And if you can’t do pull-ups or you don’t have a pull-up bar at home, you can do any pulling movement like a bent-over row, or if you have gymnastic rings you can do ring rows.” 

Cindy

• 5 pull-ups
• 10 push-ups
• 15 unweighted squats

As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:

Again, you can swap the pull-ups in this workout for fairly heavy bent-over rows. Pick a weight that poses a similar challenge to a pull-up. 

This is a clever test of your engine and muscular endurance, condensing the push/pull/legs split into a three-move workout.

Can You Do CrossFit At Home?

“You can definitely do a big chunk of CrossFit at home,” says Muir, who has a background in swimming, triathlon and powerlifting. 

“When we went into the second lockdown, I was like ‘Right, there’s nothing I can do about the gymnastic movements, I don’t have any gymnastic equipment or a pull-up bar. I’m just going to use this time to learn Olympic weightlifting, then that’s one thing ticked off.’

“So that’s exactly what I did. I had a barbell and plates, and I just learned the weightlifting in my garage.”

This also applies if you want to focus on other specific elements of fitness that will boost your performance in a CrossFit workout. If you want to improve your agility, bodyweight plyometric exercises can be handy, while speed and stamina will both benefit from something as simple as various forms of running. 

But if you want to sample all this training method has to offer (and don’t have the mother of all home gyms) then you’re going to need to join your local box. Here, you will have access to equipment such as pull-up bars, rigs, wall ball targets, climbing ropes, dumbbells, kettlebells, barbells and bumper plates galore. Plus, standard cardio conditioning equipment such as air bikes, rowing machines, BikeErgs and SkiErgs.

You’re also unlikely to have access to a coach at home, which is another reason why Muir suggests joining a box if you’re looking to start regular CrossFit training.  

“I think that speeds the learning process up a lot—having a coach or even just someone more knowledgeable to help, rather than trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together yourself,” she says.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is renowned for pumping iron, so his latest workout might surprise you; no dumbbells, no barbells, you don’t even need a gym to take it for a spin.

In a recent edition of his daily newsletter, aptly named Arnold’s Pump Club, the Terminator shared a bodyweight workout you can do at home as part of his drive to make exercise more accessible. 

Having previously been battered by Arnie’s two-hour chest and back workout, I decided to try this lighter approach to see how it could help build strength and gain muscle. And the answer was quite surprising. 

How To Do Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Bodyweight Workout

Schwarzenegger’s workout sets out to show how effective 30 seconds of work can be. As such, you’ll perform each exercise for 30 seconds, followed by a rest period. 

“Rest 30-60 seconds between movements if you're a beginner. If you’re more advanced, rest for only 15 seconds (this will feel far too short),” he writes.

Follow this format for each of the circuits below. Schwarzenegger recommends repeating each circuit two or three times before moving onto the next. 

Circuit One

• 1A Bear crawl
• 1B Bodyweight step-up (left leg)
• 1C Push-up (alternate between narrow, standard and wide each round)
• 1D Bodyweight step-up (right leg)
• 1E Single-leg hip thrust (left leg)
• 1F Mountain climber
• 1G Single-leg hip thrust (right leg)

Circuit Two

• 2A Plank
• 2B Bodyweight squat
• 2C Bodyweight jump squat
• 2D Pull-up or inverted row
• 2E Bodyweight lunge (left leg)
• 2F Bodyweight lunge (right leg)

Circuit Three

• 3A Push-up
• 3B Rear-foot elevated split squat (left)
• 3C Rear-foot elevated split squat (right)
• 3D Squat isometric hold
• 3E Reverse crunch

Four Lessons I Learned From Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Bodyweight Workout

1. Thirty minutes is all you need

With limited time during my lunch break, I resolved to squeeze in two rounds of each circuit, with 15 seconds of rest between exercises. It took exactly 27 minutes—a far more manageable shift than Arnie’s aforementioned chest and back session. 

2. You don’t always need weights to work out

So, we know the Austrian Oak’s workout is efficient, but is it effective? The short answer is yes. By the end of the workout my brow was beading with sweat and my entire body had that dull post-workout ache only hypertrophy training can bring.

Stacking jump squats upon squats was particularly proficient at testing my muscular endurance, too. The combination of bodyweight exercises will be more than enough for beginners to develop strength and size, but seasoned lifters may need to add load to capitalize on the progressive overload principle to build muscle. 

3. Accessibility is key

Arnie’s brutal bodybuilding sessions from his Mr. Olympia days are legendary, but he has since mellowed in his approach to fitness. Where sculpting his muscles was his previous priority, he now tries to “make my workouts a little bit different and focused on staying lean, and avoiding injury”.

That’s why he has traded in free weights for workout machines these days, and believes exercise should be accessible for everyone, with most of his latest workouts now entirely equipment-free, so you can do it at home or the gym. 

Speaking of, I used a chair for the step-ups and door-mounted pull-up bar for (you guessed it) the pull-ups. If you don't have suitable props, then you can either modify the routine yourself, or leave that move out entirely. 

4. You get out what you put in

Rather than giving you a set number of reps to aim for, Arnold asks you to work for 30 seconds on each movement, with a short rest (and his obligatory pump) as your reward. 

With this approach, you really do get out what you put in. You can set a blistering pace to increase your total volume, or cruise through the session to flush your muscles after some heavy lifting—the workout is what you make it. 

I went somewhere in the middle, hitting 12-15 reps on most exercises. This, I found, meant I could maintain my pace throughout, raising my heart rate without leading to exhaustion. 

Whatever your training experience, working for time means you can always push that little bit harder next time to beat your score.

Moving well is one of the biggest indicators of physical fitness there is, and calisthenics is among the best ways to get better at it. But when you see people in calisthenics YouTube videos demonstrating perfect muscle-ups, front levers and human flags, it’s a type of training that can feel out of reach. 

It doesn’t have to be that way though. This bodyweight workout, for instance, offers an introduction to calisthenics you can try at home. It’s been created by gymnastics coach and PT Chloe Mac and the moves will help you build the strength and skills needed to help you progress to more advanced bodyweight exercises like the pull-up, dip and pistol squat. 

There are just five moves—the push-up and push back, Cossack squat, knee raise, squat up and downs, and wall walks—and you don’t need any special equipment. Mac also offers easier alternatives for several of the exercises in her video below, as well as providing handy demonstrations for each one. 

To try the workout, perform each move for 30 seconds, followed by a 30-second rest. After you’ve finished all five, take a two-minute breather. Repeat until you’ve completed a total of five rounds.

Calisthenics may have a fancy name but it’s nothing complicated—at root it’s a form of bodyweight strength training. There’s a focus on performance over physique, but in a similar way to hypertrophy training it places your muscles under load as they support your body through the various movements, so you can expect a degree of muscle growth. 

You’ll also be constantly challenged to perform more difficult moves or combinations of exercises. Though it isn’t dressed in its usual guise of steadily increasing weights, sets and reps, this is still unmistakably progressive overload, which is the foundational principle behind building strength. 

Toss in bolstered mobility and more resilient joints and you’ve got yourself a great all-round fitness booster.

If you want to learn more about this exercise method, take a look at our introduction to calisthenics training. Then, if you want to begin building up to a handstand, try this workout.

It’s good to have a roster of home workouts because exercising where you live is just so convenient, but it can be a challenge to find something that suits your fitness level. It’s even harder to find something that can be repeated, and the difficulty increased, as you get fitter.

Well, call off the search, because Andy Cannon, a level 3 PT who recently launched his Zone workout program on fitness app TRUCONNECT, has put together a workout that anyone can try, with three levels to choose from. All you need is a pair of dumbbells for the first move.

How To Do This 20-Minute Full-Body Workout

“It’s an EMOM workout, which stands for every minute on the minute. Set yourself a timer, complete the reps for the exercise you’re doing within the minute, and rest for whatever time you have left,” says Cannon.

There are three rep totals for the first three exercises to match the session to your ability, and the exercises are arranged in a circuit format. Do the reps of exercise 1 in the first minute, then move on to exercise 2 in the second minute, and so on. Once you’ve run through a round of all four exercises, begin another round. Complete five rounds in total.

1 Dumbbell squat press

Reps 10/12/14

Hold dumbbells by your shoulders. Push your hips back and bend your knees to lower into a squat, then push through your heels to stand back up and extend your arms to press the dumbbells overhead. Lower the dumbbells under control. 

“This is an epic compound movement that targets your whole body, but you should expect it to be particularly challenging for your quads and shoulders,” says Cannon.

2 Burpee

Reps 10/12/14

From standing, place your hands on the floor and jump your feet back to land in the high plank position. Bend your elbows to lower your chest to the floor, then press back up. Jump your feet forward next to your hands and either jump straight up, clapping your hands above your head, or stand up if the space above you is limited.

“The burpee is the Marmite of the movement catalog, but nothing will get your heart rate up quite like it,” says Cannon.

3 Butterfly sit-up

Reps 10/12/14

Lie on your back with the soles of your feet together and knees out to the sides, and your arms extended behind your head. Using your arms for momentum, raise your torso and reach forward to tap the floor in front of your feet with your hands. Lower and tap the floor behind your head with the back of your hands to complete the rep. 

“The butterfly sit-up is perfect for people wanting to add some abs to their high-intensity sessions,” says Cannon. This is because it hits your core and also challenges your endurance.

4 Plank

Time 40sec

Prop yourself up on your toes and forearms, with your elbows beneath your shoulders and your body forming a straight line from head to heels. Hold this position. Make sure your core is engaged throughout.

A lot of people assume that the only way to build muscle is by lifting weights. Not true, you can build muscle with bodyweight training… up to a point. If you reach that point and are facing the cost of a gym membership or pair of adjustable dumbbells and can’t justify the expense, a suspension trainer like a TRX—one of the most well-known, if not necessarily the best suspension trainer—can dramatically increase the challenge of bodyweight exercises and help you to continue building muscle.

And even if you have access to a well-appointed weights room, it’s worth using a suspension trainer from time to time. Suspension trainers also improve your balance and core strength, because your body must compensate for the instability introduced into each move. 

For a great introduction to the TRX, try this four-move workout created by personal trainer Niko Algieri. “The TRX suspension trainer, for me, is the best training tool on the planet because one piece of equipment can train every muscle in your body, and exercises can be regressed and progressed depending on your fitness and strength level,” says Algieri. “Because one part of your body is constantly suspended on the straps, every movement develops core strength.”

Once you’ve tried the workout, you can discover more with the Coach guides Algieri has contributed to, including the best TRX exercises and an introduction to TRX training.

How To Do This Suspension Trainer Workout

This routine will raise your heart rate while challenging your strength and it only takes around 20 minutes. Complete four to six rounds of the workout, depending on how experienced you are, and switch sides for the unilateral leg exercises every round. Aim for the higher end of the rep range if you’re confident with TRX, or stick to the lower end if you’re a beginner. 

Algieri has also dictated the tempo, or speed, each exercise should be performed at. Our guide to tempo training with weights explains how to read the four-digit number, but in brief: the first number is the time in seconds taken to lower, while the third number is the time in seconds to complete the lift.

1 TRX lunge

Reps 10-15 Tempo 2020

With the straps set to the long length, place the top of your right foot in both cradles. Stand and raise your right knee to hip height and raise your left arm to help you balance. Move your right knee behind you and bend your left knee to 90° to lower, bringing your right arm up to help you balance. Think about traveling down and up rather than forward and backward. Drive through your left foot, bringing your right knee and left arm up to return to standing.

2 TRX chest press

Reps 10-15 Tempo 3030

Keeping the strap length long, hold a handle in each hand and face away from the anchor point.  Extend your arms and lean forward, walking your feet backward to create more resistance if you wish. Keep the straps just over your arms and keep your wrists straight. Engage your core and squeeze your glutes, then bend your elbows to lower your chest to your fists. Extend your arms to return to the start. 

3 TRX row

Reps 10-15 Tempo 2010

Shorten the straps by pulling the yellow tabs all the way to the top, face the anchor and hold the handles with your palms facing. Lean back,  straighten your arms and walk your feet toward the anchor to create more resistance. Bend your elbows to pull up so your chest goes between your hands, ending with your elbows tight to your sides. Squeeze your shoulder blades, then extend your arms to return to the start. Take one second for the first part of the movement—the lift—and two seconds to lower to the start.

4 TRX burpee

Reps 10-15 Tempo N/A

With the straps set to the long length, place the top of your right foot in both cradles and both hands on the floor in front of your feet. From there, jump your left foot back to get into a high plank position, then lower your chest to the floor. Push up and as you lift your hips, jump your left foot forward. Stand up and jump, driving your right knee through in front of you. Repeat at pace.

If you’re looking for an effective way to hit your fitness goals without spending hours in the gym, doing a couple of well-planned dumbbell workouts each week is a great approach.

“Many of my clients only train twice a week as this suits their busy lifestyle,” says Ryan Atkin, head coach of female-focused training company Real World Results. 

“For this, I’d always recommend two full-body workouts. That way, you maximize recruitment of each muscle group across the body and increase your chances of amazing physical changes.”

To get you started Atkin has provided this muscle-building dumbbell workout for women that he suggests using twice a week. All you need for the session is a pair of dumbbells, so it’s a good option for those looking to get fit at home if you have a set of weights already.

If you don’t have a pair to hand, then our round-up of the best dumbbells can help you find a set that suits you. Bear in mind when buying dumbbells that having a range of weights is useful for tackling different dumbbell exercises and also helping you to progress over time. An adjustable dumbbell will have a range of weight settings, or you could look at buying a set of three or five fixed-weight dumbbells.

While buying a good set of dumbbells represents a large upfront cost, we have enough free workouts to make sure you get a good return on your investment. Once you’ve tried the session below, you can give this 15-minute dumbbell circuit a whirl, or this 30-minute dumbbell workout, or spice things up with this fast-paced dumbbell HIIT workout.

How To Do This Workout

Before diving into the workout, it’s essential that you warm up your body. This warm-up routine only takes 10 minutes and it will help you get the most out of your time exercising. Our guide to warm-up exercises explains why.

This workout is designed using straight sets. Complete the specified repetitions, or reps, of the first exercise, and then rest for your chosen period of time. That’s one set. Repeat that sequence until you’ve completed all the sets for that exercise, then move on to the next exercise.

Atkins has given a range for the period of time you can rest for. This means you can adjust the intensity of the workout to suit you. Try to pick a rest period and stick to it throughout the workout. If in doubt, start with two minutes, and reduce it the next time you attempt the workout.

Atkins has provided video form guides. Click the title of each exercise to read our exercise form guides.

1 Goblet squat

 Sets 4 Reps 10 Rest 1-2min 

“This kind of exercise [a compound exercise] gives you the most bang for your buck,” says Atkin. “Goblet squats work your quads, calves, glutes and core, as well as your arms and grip as you hold on to the weight.” 

2 Dumbbell row 

 Sets 4 Reps 10 Rest 1-2min 

 “Although the dumbbell row mainly focuses on your back muscles, it also provides a solid upper-body workout by activating several other muscle groups, including your chest, core, glutes, lower back, biceps and triceps,” Atkin says. 

3 Hip thrust 

 Sets 3 Reps 10 Rest 1-2min 

The hip thrust is a glute-focused exercise that can be performed with a dumbbell or a barbell as in Atkins’ video above. To use a dumbbell, simply place a dumbbell on your hips and rest your back on a sturdy platform, like a sofa.

“Strong glutes carry over to so many areas of life,” says Atkins. These muscles are used to propel your body forward, improving your acceleration and power when sprinting.

”You’ll not only develop stronger glutes, but also build back strength and improve your balance. Many of my clients have also noted less knee pain.”

4 Lateral raise 

 Sets 3 Reps 12 Rest 1-2min 

“Lateral raises help with muscle development in the shoulders,” Atkin says. “They help increase your shoulder mobility, range of motion and stability—they’ve been a staple in my programs for years now.” 

5 Triceps kick-back

 Sets 3 Reps 12 Rest 1-2min 

“Triceps kick-backs target the triceps, but they can also enhance stability and flexibility in your shoulders and arms,” says Atkin. “Increasing upper-body strength here is super transferable to everyday activities like lifting heavy shopping bags.”

6 Plank

 Sets 3 Reps Max hold Rest 1-2min 

“The plank is one of the greatest core exercises of all time,” Atkin says. Although, he warns, it is only at its most effective when executed properly. 

“The forearm plank is a functional movement that trains the abs and core to support the spine in day-to-day activities. It can improve posture and reverse the negative effects of sitting at a desk all day. Having a stronger core can also enhance other exercises, like your squats, rows and more.”

We all have those days when even the thought of exercising is exhausting. Normally, that’s an indication that you need a rest day—you never want your regime to slip into overtraining. But if it’s a sense of lethargy that’s holding you back, it’s worth starting an easy workout if you can, because exercising regularly is a great way to look after both your mental and physical health.

Starting small is one of our expert tips for improving your motivation to exercise, and this session from Chris Heria, founder of calisthenics app THENX, starts small, with options to step up the challenge if you find your motivation improves once you get moving.

Heria uses bodyweight exercises so you can go straight from the couch to the first exercise, a modified burpee with no push-up and no jump at the end. You can even dial the difficulty down further by stepping in and out of the high plank position rather than jumping. Watch Heria explain the workout and demonstrate each move in the video below.

Watch Chris Herria’s “Lazy-Day” Workout

Perform each exercise for one minute, with the option to step up the difficulty every 20 seconds. For the burpee, the second 20-second block challenges you to add the push-up, while Heria includes the jump for the final 20 seconds.

Herria recommends completing at least two rounds to get the maximum benefit from the workout, but there’s nothing wrong with stopping after one round and giving yourself a pat on the back—some movement is better than no movement.

We have more exercise ideas when you think you might benefit from some activity but don’t want to push yourself. Try these eight low-impact exercises for home, this mobility routine, or some lower-intensity steady-state cardio.

A low-impact workout doesn’t necessarily mean an easy workout. In fact, low-impact exercises can help build strength, improve posture, boost flexibility and aid co-ordination. 

Not sure where to start? Try this routine from Emily Rutherwood, a level 3 personal trainer and studio manager at FS8 Oxford Circus. FS8 is a chain of studios from high-intensity brand F45 and the new central London branch is its first location in the UK. It offers a style of workout that’s calmer but still challenging, with workouts that mix elements of Pilates, yoga and strength training.

Rutherwood has suggested these low-impact exercises as a way of trying the training method for yourself. The moves focus on your glutes, core and upper body. All you need is a set of medium-weight dumbbells and a mat. If you don’t have either, browse our round-up of the best dumbbells and best exercise mats.

Do each exercise for 30 seconds each (or each side where appropriate), continuing straight through with no breaks, and then take a 60-second break. Perform the circuit three times and get ready to feel the burn.

1 Glute bridge

Time 30sec Rest 0sec

Lie on your back with your feet flat on the floor, hip-width apart. Bring your feet towards your hips, then lift your hips as high as you can, engaging your glutes by squeezing your bum. Lower your hips. Repeat for 30 seconds.

2 Side plank leg lift

Time 30sec each side Rest 0sec

Lie on one side, supporting your body on your forearm and knee. Bend the knee on the bottom leg to bring your foot towards your bum. Keep your upper leg straight, and with a flexed foot, raise and lower your leg without touching the floor.

3 Flutter kick

Time 30sec Rest 0sec

Lie flat on your back with your arms by your sides. Engage your core and press your lower back into the floor as you lift your head and neck just off the floor, gazing at the ceiling throughout. Then lift your legs off the floor and, keeping them extended, raise one and lower the other, moving them up and down at pace. 

4 The hundred

Time 30sec Rest 0sec

Lie flat on your back with your arms by your sides. Engage your core and press your lower back into the floor as you lift your head and neck just the floor, gazing at the ceiling. Lift your arms and legs slightly off the floor. Keeping your legs still, lift your arms a short distance then lower, repeating at pace. If this is too difficult, lift your legs slightly higher and bend your knees slightly. 

5 Toe-tap crunch

Time 30sec Rest 0sec

Lie on your back and raise your legs, keeping them extended. Engage your core, lift your head and neck off the floor, and reach your arms and fingertips towards your toes. Using your abdominal muscles, crunch upwards towards your toes, and lower. 

6 Dumbbell renegade row

Time 30sec Rest 0sec

Begin in a high plank position, hands holding dumbbells directly under your shoulders, with your feet hip-width apart. Maintain a neutral spine and ensure that your hips are level. Exhale and press into your right hand to stabilise your body as you lift the left dumbbell to your rib cage, drawing your elbow past your torso. Inhale and return the dumbbell to the floor with control. Repeat on the other side.

7 Kneeling dumbbell triceps kick-back

Time 30sec Rest 0sec

Kneeling on the floor, hinge slightly forwards from your hips, keeping your spine neutral. Hold dumbbells that are a comfortable weight for you, with your elbows tight to your ribs. Engage your triceps to extend your arms behind you. Return to the start under control.

8 Kneeling dumbbell reverse flye

Time 30sec Rest 60sec

Kneeling on the floor, hinge slightly forwards from your hips, keeping your spine neutral. Hold dumbbells that are a comfortable weight for you, and bring your hands together in front of your hips. Engage your shoulders and raise the dumbbells out to the sides. Return to the start under control.

More Low-Impact Workouts To Try

• A Great Low-Impact Workout For Core Strength
• A Low-Impact Cardio Workout That Goes Easy On Your Joints
• Give Your Joints A Break With This Low-Impact Workout From Studio FLY LDN
• The Best Low-Impact Workouts Combine HIIT With Pilates – Like This One

After a (hopefully) restful winter break, it’s back to the grind and, in all likelihood, spending significant periods of time sitting – which can wreak havoc on your posture. One of the many benefits of Pilates is that it’s great for posture, along with being an excellent way to mobilise the joints and move freely without tension. 

So to round off our 12 days of Christmas workouts, we present a Pilates home workout from Lotty Somers, a STOTT Pilates-certified instructor. It should leave you feeling great and ready to make the most of your day.

“It’s not just physical benefits which come from improved posture,” says Somers. “When we feel able to stand tall and move without constraint, we tend to radiate more confidence. In addition, the use of breath in Pilates can help reduce stress, so it’s a great way to boost our mood and improve our overall mental health and wellbeing.”

The routine uses eight movements. Go through the moves slowly, completing the allotted reps. Feel free to go through the circuit of moves twice.

1 Neutral and imprint of the pelvis

Reps 8-10

Lie flat on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Your hips and pelvic bone should be level and there should be a natural arch in your lower back. This is neutral alignment. Keeping your hips still, tilt your pelvis and flatten your lower back so it’s in gentle contact with the floor. It’s a very small movement and Sommers goes into greater detail at the start of this Pilates for posture YouTube video. Continue tilting your pelvis back and forth between these two positions.

2 Abs prep

Reps 10-12

Lie flat on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Your spine and pelvis should be in neutral alignment, and your hands interlaced behind your head to support your neck. Inhale to prepare, then, as you exhale, lift your head, neck and shoulder blades off the mat. Use your upper-back muscles to stabilise your body and engage your abdominal muscles. Inhale as you lower. 

3 Bridge

Reps 6-8

Lie flat on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. As you exhale, lift your spine one vertebra at a time, beginning at the base, to lift your hips into an elevated bridge position and create a straight line running from your shoulders to your hips to your knees, while keeping your thighs hip-distance apart and hips level. Inhale as you roll back down through each vertebra to return to your starting position. 

4 Half roll back

Reps 8-10

Sit upright with a straight spine and your knees bent, feet flat on the floor and arms stretched out in front of you. On an exhale, tilt your pelvis under and begin to roll backwards towards the floor, curving your spine into a “C” shape. Roll halfway down, then on an inhale, return to your starting position. 

5 Spine twist

Reps 5 each side

Sit upright with your legs extended in front of you. Imagine a piece of string pulling you up through the crown of your head to lengthen your spine. Extend your arms to either side, with your palms facing down. Exhale and twist your upper body to the right, without moving your hips. Inhale as you return to the centre. Alternate sides with each rep.

6 Bird dog

Reps 8-10 each side

Place your hands on the floor under your shoulders and knees under your hips, with a neutral spine – imagine you have a cup of tea balanced on your tailbone. Maintaining the position of your shoulders and hips, exhale as you extend one leg backwards and the opposite arm forwards. Inhale as you return to the starting position. Alternate sides with each rep.

7 Plank

Time 30-90sec

Place your hands on the floor under your shoulders and hold your body in one long line. You can either be on your toes or, to make it easier, on your knees. Don’t tuck or tilt your pelvis but maintain a neutral spine as you hold this position.

8 Upper-back extensor

Reps 8-10

Lie on your front with your legs extended and both hands under your forehead. Exhale and lift your head, your neck and shoulders off the mat, using your upper-back muscles to power the movement. Don’t arch into the mid or lower back, and keep looking at the floor. Inhale as you lower. 

Need a sweat sesh that can be done almost anywhere? Look no further. 

Chris Roche is a Level 3 personal trainer at Huel and he has devised this exclusive home workout for Coach. It involves six exercises, aimed at testing your endurance and stamina. 

“This workout will fire up your metabolism and get your heart, lungs and body working. It’s a great challenge and will leave you with a big dopamine hit,” says Roche. As part of our 12 days of Christmas workouts, we’ve selected it as a fantastic Boxing Day session to help you blow the cobwebs away, in case Christmas indulgences have left you feeling sluggish.

The exercises are mostly bodyweight movements and a couple of dumbbell exercises. If you don’t have dumbbells to hand, use a bag with books in or other DIY weights for the thrusters and do the burpees without weights (you’re welcome).  To add a set to your home gym, start with our recommendations of the best dumbbells.

How To Do This Workout

This session is formatted as a ladder workout, so every round the reps increase until you hit 12 reps, then decrease until you’re back to one. Roche has given rep schemes for beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. 

The beginner option works in multiples of four, so you perform seven rounds of the exercises below with the following reps per round: 1, 4, 8, 12, 8, 4, 1.

The intermediate option increases or decreases by two reps each round, so you do 11 rounds starting on two reps, while the advanced option adds or subtracts one rep per round as appropriate. 

1 Thruster

Hold dumbbells by your shoulders with your feet hip-width apart. Bend your knees and push your hips back to lower into a squat, then drive up explosively through your heels, pressing the dumbbells overhead. 

2 High knees

Run on the spot, pumping your arms and lifting your knees as high as possible. For this move, two knee pumps equals a rep.

3 Jump through

Begin in a high plank position with your wrists directly under shoulders and your body in a straight line from head to heels. Jump both feet forwards to your hands, raise your hands off the floor and rise into a low squat position. Plant your hands back on the floor and jump your legs back into a high plank position.

4 Broad jump

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Bend your knees and swing your arms backwards, then jump forwards, landing with soft knees. Turn around, and repeat the move. 

5 Dumbbell burpee

Stand with a pair of dumbbells on the floor between your feet. Squat down and take hold of the dumbbells, then jump your legs back into a high plank position. Jump your feet forwards to land either side of the dumbbells in a low squat position. Push through your heels to rise and bring the dumbbells up to your shoulders as you reach a standing position. Drop into a squat, lowering the dumbbells to the floor between your feet.

6 Mountain climber cross

In a high plank position, drive your right knee to your left elbow, then as you return to the start position, drive the left knee to your right elbow. Keep alternating, maintaining a strong core and keeping your hips in line with your shoulders. For this move, two knee drives equals a rep.

We know some people have a tendency to throw themselves in at the deep end when starting a new fitness regime, immediately tackling a brutal weights workout or frenetic HIIT class. That’s admirable in a way, but also likely to leave you so sore you can’t (or won’t) train again for weeks afterwards.

This home workout for beginners is challenging, but judged perfectly to start you on the road to getting fitter and stronger without completely wrecking you. It’s been put together by Tough Mudder UK’s official fitness trainer Born Barikor and doesn’t require any equipment. 

Barikor has also provided instructions for a warm up, which-we heartily advise following to help your body prepare for the workout.

Warm Up

Complete two rounds of the following to get the heart pumping and muscles moving.

1 Marching on the spot

Time 45sec

March on the spot, lifting your knees high towards your chest.

2 Heel digs

Time 45sec

Stand in front of a small step and alternate lifting your legs to tap the step with your heel.

3 Step out jack

Time 45sec

From standing, step your feet out to each side while lifting your hands above your head, then bring your feet back together and your hands back to your sides.

4 Butt kicks with overhead reach 

Time 45sec

Flick your heels up to kick your butt while stretching your arms overhead. Alternate legs.

Dynamic Stretches

Complete your warm-up with two rounds of these dynamic stretches.

1 Leg swings 

Time 45sec

Support yourself against a wall while swinging one leg back and forth. Swap legs halfway through the time.

2 Hip rotations 

Time 45sec

Stand with your hands on your hips. Move your hips around in a large circle. Swap the direction of the rotation after a few circles.

3 Open and close the gate 

Time 45sec

“Open” the gate by lifting your knee and rotating it out to the side, then close it by reversing the rotation and bringing your foot down. Alternate legs.

4 Windmill

Time 45sec

Stand with your arms stretched out to the sides at shoulder height. Bend at the hips and bring your right hand down to your left foot, keeping your legs as straight as possible. Then come back up and repeat on the other side.

Beginner Home Workout

Now you’re fully warmed up, tackle four rounds of these four exercises.

1 Squat

Time 30sec Rest 30sec

From standing, sit back and lower until your thighs are parallel to the ground, then push back up to standing.

2 Lunge

Time 30sec Rest 30sec

From standing, take a big step forwards with one leg and lower until both knees are bent at a 90° angle. Drive back up to standing and then lunge on the other leg. 

3 Walking burpee

Time 30sec Rest 30sec

From standing, reach down to put your hands on the floor, then step your feet back one at a time to come into a high plank position. Step your feet back up to your hands and stand up, reaching your hands above your head.

4 Kneeling or wall press-up

Time 30sec Rest 30sec

For the kneeling press-up, get into a high plank position, then rest your knees on the floor. Lower your chest towards the floor, then push back up. For the wall variation, lean against a wall supported by your hands with arms straight. Bend your elbows to “lower” your chest towards the wall, then push away.

Working out with resistance bands is a great thing for everyone to do. The coloured bands aren’t as intimidating as hulking great weights but still offer a challenge. They are also a great way to start exercising with resistance since it’s easier to bail out of a resistance band squat than a barbell one. Don’t ignore them if you’re in the “heavy weights only” camp either – resistance band exercises are great for core activation and training the tiny stabiliser muscles which help you handle heavier loads. They’re also the cheapest bits of kit going. 

To help you get started with resistance band workouts, Ed Conway, a Level 3 PT and founder of boutique fitness studio FIT AS, has created this 30-minute workout that works the upper and lower body, and incorporates some cardio too. Half the moves require a resistance band, while the other half are bodyweight exercises. 

“There are a few types of resistance bands,” says Conway. “The one we’ll use for this workout is called a pull-up band, which is very thick. This type is often used to help with assisted (banded) pull-ups; however, they’re also very versatile and can be used in a full-body workout.” If you need to acquire this type of band, shop our recommendations of the best resistance bands.

Resistance Band HIIT Workout

This cardio and strength session requires a medium/light band (6kg-15kg) and instead of counting reps asks you to work for 40 seconds, rest for 20 seconds, then move on to the next exercise and follow those time periods again. There are nine moves in total to perform, and the entire circuit should be performed a total of three times. 

1 Floor taps 

Time 40sec Rest 20sec

Without the resistance band, stand with your legs wider than hip-width apart. Keeping a flat back, hinge forwards at your hips and bend your knees to reach down and touch the floor between your legs with one hand. Pop back up to standing and jump to bring your feet together, landing on the balls of your feet to go straight into another jump, then return your feet to the starting position and reach down to tap the floor again. Repeat at pace. 

2 Mountain climber

Time 40sec Rest 20sec

Again, without the resistance band, begin in a high plank position, with your hands under your shoulders, arms extended and body forming a straight line from your shoulders to your heels. Bring one knee forwards to your chest, then the other. Keep swapping legs at a moderate pace. 

3 Banded squat press

Time 40sec Rest 20sec

Stand on the bottom of the band with your feet hip-width apart and hold the top of the band by your shoulders with the insides of your wrists facing away from you and palms facing up. Push your hips back and bend your knees to squat down. Push through your heels to stand up and once your legs are extended, raise both hands above your head, pressing against the resistance of the band.

4 Chest expander 

Time 40sec Rest 20sec

Fold the band in half and hold it approximately a palms length in from either end. With your arms extended, raise the band to shoulder height. Keeping your arms straight, move your arms to the sides, pulling the band towards your chest. Reverse the move to the start.

5 Upright row

Time 40sec Rest 20sec

Stand on the bottom of the band with your feet hip-width apart and hold the top of the band in both hands in front of your hips, with your arms straight and palms facing your body. Keeping your hands close to your body, pull the band up towards your chin, letting your elbows bend and move to the side as you raise them to shoulder height.

6 Overhead press

Time 40sec Rest 20sec

Stand on the bottom of the band with your feet hip-width apart and hold the top of the band by your shoulders, with the insides of your wrists facing away from you and palms facing up. Raise both hands above your head, working against the resistance of the band. Use your core muscles to stop yourself swinging and leaning back.

7 Jumping jack

Time 40sec Rest 20sec

Put the resistance band to one side. Stand with your feet together and arms by your sides. Jump your feet apart and raise your arms, bending at your elbows, to tap your fingers together above your head. Jump back to the starting position and repeat at pace. Be sure to land on the balls of your feet.

8 Deadlift

Time 40sec Rest 20sec

Fold the band in half and stand on it with feet shoulder-width apart. Hinge forwards at your hips, keeping a straight back, and bend your knees to lower and pick up each end of the band with each hand. Stand up, thrusting your hips forwards. Then hinge forwards at the hips and bend your knees to lower.

9 Biceps curl

Time 40sec Rest 20sec

Stand on the bottom of the band with your feet hip-width apart and hold the top of the band in both hands in front of your hips, with your arms straight and palms facing away from you. Bend your elbows to lift the band to your shoulders, pause, then lower under control.

You can get as complicated as you like when devising a fitness routine, but having a 30-minute home workout to fall back on whenever you need to is worth its weight in gold.

This workout fits the bill perfectly, and features a selection of the best bodyweight exercises, all of which are suitable for beginners (with the exception of the jump squat, but beginners can choose to do an unweighted squat instead). It’s been created by Matt Young, PT at London Studio CIRQ, and not only does it engage muscles all over the body, but it also gets your heart pumping to improve your cardiovascular fitness.

Even allowing time for a warm-up and warm-down, the session will take just half an hour and involves doing four rounds of six compound exercises, many of which are explosive moves to raise your heart rate. It’s an effective session to do in a local park or in a hotel room when travelling. Plus, you’ll feel better for fitting it into your day. We promise.

And while a go-to session is important, you can add some variation with this extensive selection of home workouts.

30-Minute Home Workout

“This workout is great for improving your level of fitness and losing excess body fat,” says Young. “It consists of full-body movements while working at around 80-90% of your maximal heart rate for a period of 30 seconds. This is followed by 15 seconds of rest and recovery, in which time you will get ready for the next exercise.

“Each of the six exercises is performed once during a given circuit. Between each circuit, take 90 seconds to rest and recover before you start the next one. You will complete four circuits in total.

“The goal with this type of training is to match the intensity and energy in all four circuits. A great way to gauge this is to take a mental note of the number of reps you achieve on any given exercise during your first circuit and use that as a marker for your next three circuits.”

Warm-up

Time 3min

“The warm-up should be at a low to moderate intensity with the aim of getting the blood flowing around your body and priming your muscles ahead of more vigorous exercises,” says Young.

Check out our guide to warm-up exercises for a stretching routine that will get you ready for this workout.

1 Mountain climber

Time 30sec Rest 15sec

“Drop into a press-up position, bring one knee up towards your chest and, without your foot touching the ground, immediately take it back to the starting position,” says Young. “As soon as you make it back to this position, power your other knee towards your chest and then back again. Alternate for 30 seconds. Try to avoid raising your hips. Imagine you have a glass of water balanced on your lower back – don’t let it spill!”

2 Jump squat

Time 30sec Rest 15sec

“This exercise is a more intense version of a normal squat, because you are adding an explosive jump,” says Young.

“Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Drop and sit into a squat position. The focus here should be on your hips moving backwards, while ensuring you do not bend your torso forwards. Try to keep both your back and shin bones vertical throughout the movement. From your squat, swing your arms and thrust yourself up into the air, landing softly.”

3 Bicycle crunch

Time 30sec Rest 15sec

“Lie flat on your back and raise your heels about 20cm off the ground,” says Young. “Cradle the back of your head with your hands and curl the top of your spine up a few centimetres off the floor. Turn your right elbow towards your left knee, while simultaneously looking to bring your left knee towards your right elbow. Trying to get the two body parts to meet in the middle, then take your knee and elbow back to the start position, and immediately perform the same movement with your left elbow and right knee. You should aim for a fluid motion and ensure your feet, neck and head do not touch the ground throughout.”

4 Reverse lunge

Time 30sec Rest 15sec

“Stand and bring your hands together in front of your chest, with the fist of one hand meeting the palm of the other,” says Young. “Take your right leg and step back a comfortable stride’s length, then lower your right knee– it should not touch the ground, but try to get as close to it as possible. Come back up to standing and repeat the movement on the opposite leg.

“Ensure that your front knee is not coming further forwards than your toes. If it is, your stride backwards needs to be a little longer. If you are performing the move correctly, your thigh muscles should burn and each hip flexor should feel like it’s gently pulling.”

5 Press-up

Time 30sec Rest 15sec

“Start in a press-up position,” says Young. “Your chest, stomach and legs should be hovering above the ground. If you find it difficult to hold yourself in this position, bring your knees to the ground, and raise your feet in the air behind you to ensure you are still in a four-point holding position.

“From here, bend your elbows and slowly lower, ensuring your chest and stomach do not touch the ground. When you are within a couple of centimetres of the ground, or at a point where you can feel the muscles in your chest and by your armpits pulling, push yourself back up.”

6 Star jump

Time 30sec Rest 90sec

"Stand with your arms by your sides. Jump and simultaneously take both hands out so they are in line with your shoulders and spring your legs wide so they are more than shoulder-width apart,” says Young. “As soon as you land, jump back to your starting position.”

Warm-Down

Time 3min

“A warm-down is important because it is a gradual and controlled way of lowering your heart rate and stretching the muscles that you have been working,” says Young. “You should look to stretch the muscles you have worked the most, so you’re not feeling as sore the next day. Trust me, DOMS – delayed onset muscle soreness – isn’t nice!”

Give this stretching routine a whirl to warm down after this workout and reduce your risk of suffering DOMS.

As well as being a PT at CIRQ, Young runs coaching service Made In The Mind.

With the clocks going back and the weather taking a turn for the worse, many of us will take advantage of hybrid working patterns and stay indoors more. And with COVID-19 lockdowns a receding memory, we’re no longer bored with home workouts and can take advantage of a hit of exercise to beat lethargy.

Carrie Baxter, a Level 3 PT and fitness coach for fitness app WithU, recommends home HIIT workouts: “Think short periods of dynamic exercises followed by a brief rest, and then going again, on repeat,” she says. “Your heart rate will be elevated, and you’ll work hard, but for maximum benefit. HIIT workouts are ideal for people short on time who want to maximise their workout time. They can be done with minimal equipment, in relatively small spaces like a living room. The exercises are also interchangeable, meaning you can either work on the whole body or isolate key muscle groups you want to develop.”

No-Equipment Home Workout

Here, Baxter has programmed a five-move HIIT workout that targets the whole body, but requires no equipment. Do each of the moves for 30 seconds, resting for 15 seconds between each move. Repeat the whole circuit three times. Bursting with energy? Go for five rounds.

1 Drop squat

Time 30sec Rest 15sec

Stand with your feet directly under your hips. Perform a small jump straight up, then land and go straight into a squat, keeping your centre of gravity over your heels and sitting your hips and bending your knees to lower until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Keep your knees over your toes, making sure they don’t cave in, and try not to lean forwards, keeping your back upright and your shoulder blades back and down. Push through your heels to spring back up to the starting position.

2 Walking plank

Time 30sec Rest 15sec

Start in the low plank position on your forearms and toes, supporting your body in a straight line. Lengthen your spine by moving your head forwards and heels backwards. Engage your core, then place one hand on the floor and extend that arm. Repeat on the other side to finish in a high plank position with your hands under your shoulders. Then reverse the move back to a forearm plank. Keep your hips as still as possible as you transition from the high to low plank.

3 Bicycle crunch

Time 30sec Rest 15sec

Lie on your back and raise your shoulders slightly off the floor. Rest your fingers on your temples with your elbows slightly in front of your head. Bring one elbow and the opposite knee together, aiming to move your elbow as far as your knee, and simultaneously extend the other leg. Repeat on the other side and continue at pace. Make sure your neck and shoulders stay relaxed, and don’t hold your breath.

4 Walk-out to press-up with jump

Time 30sec Rest 15sec

From standing, hinge forwards at your hips and bend down to put your hands on the floor. Walk your hands forwards until they are under your shoulders. Making sure your body is in a straight line and your core is braced, bend your elbows to lower into a press-up, then push up powerfully back to a high plank. Walk your hands back to your feet, then lift your hands off the floor to go into a low squat, then jump straight up. 

5 Knee kicks

Time 30sec Rest 15sec

Stand with your arms overhead. Raise your left knee powerfully and bring both hands down to your left thigh. Return to the start, then repeat on the other side. Continue at pace, lightly hopping between your feet and making sure not to lean back. 

Any good training plan should have room for shoulder workouts, but they are often overlooked in favor of focusing on more glamorous areas of the body like your chest and legs. Shoulder specialist Carlos Cobiella, a London-based consultant orthopedic surgeon who treats professional athletes and regularly puts training programs together for clients, makes no bones about how important the shoulders are.

“Working out your shoulders isn’t just good for aesthetic reasons,” says Cobiella. “As the most mobile joints in the body, the shoulders are responsible for many different muscle actions so it’s crucial to protect the shoulder joint with strength exercises.”

Whether you’re doing home shoulder workouts or hitting the gym, it’s important to work all three of the main muscles in the shoulder: the front deltoid, side or lateral deltoid, and rear deltoid. “These are the primary muscles involved in shoulder strength and power,” says Cobiella. “There is no shortage of shoulder exercises, and you don’t need weights to build strength and muscle.”

Cobiella has put together a bodyweight shoulder workout for us that targets all three of the big shoulder muscle groups, and it can be integrated into any workout plan. Once you’ve tried it you’ll know that weights are not a necessity for building stronger shoulders, but if you want to use them this dumbbell shoulder workout is another good option for your training routine.

Bodyweight Shoulder Workout

Train your shoulders at least twice a week with a minimum of a day’s rest between workouts. If the allotted reps below are too high, start with six reps and work your way up over time. Aim for three sets per move, resting for 30 to 60 seconds between sets, but again, adjust as necessary. 

1 Pike push-up

Sets 3 Reps 12 Rest 30-60sec

Start in a press-up position with your hands shoulder-width apart. Push your hips up and back so your body forms an upside-down V. Bend your elbows to lower until the top of your head is as close to the floor as possible, then push back up until your arms are extended. 

2 Press-up handstand

Sets 3 Reps 12 Rest 30-60sec

Facing away from a wall, place your hands on the floor and kick your feet up to adopt a handstand position against the wall. Keep your core tight and squeeze your glutes. Bend your elbows to lower, then push back up. This is a challenging move: lower yourself as far as you can, even if that’s only a centimetre or two! 

3 Spider walk

Sets 3 Reps 12 Rest 30-60sec

Facing away from a wall, place your hands on the floor and kick your feet up to adopt a handstand position against the wall. Keep your core tight and squeeze your glutes. Simultaneously walk your hands away from the wall and your feet down the wall. Once you are in a push-up position, walk your feet back up the wall. 

4 Plank shoulder tap

Sets 3 Reps 12 Rest 30-60sec

Start in a press-up position with your hands shoulder-width apart. Brace your core, then lift one hand and tap the opposite shoulder, moving your hips as little as possible. Return your hand to the floor, then repeat with the other hand, alternating hands with each rep.

5 Rock the plank

Sets 3 Reps 12 Rest 30-60sec

Start in a press-up position with your feet hip-width apart. Keeping your arms straight, push your body back towards your heels so that your glutes touch your heels – this position is a little like a child’s pose in yoga but with your knees off the floor. Return to the start and repeat.

6 Walking plank

Sets 3 Reps 12 each side Rest 30-60sec

Start in a plank position on your forearms. Lift one arm, place the hand palm-down on the floor under your shoulder and extend your arm to push your body up. Repeat on the other side to finish in a press-up position. Reverse the movement under control. Alternate which arm you start each rep with.

Home HIIT workouts are just about the most effective way to get fit possible. For starters, you’re exercising at home, which saves time getting to and from the gym (as well as the cost of a membership), and with HIIT (high-intensity interval training) you can fit a workout into just 20-30 minutes.

Unsurprisingly, the popularity of home HIIT workouts exploded during the COVID-related lockdowns of the past few years, and there are lots of guided sessions available to those new to HIIT. You can find workouts on YouTube or use one of the best workout apps to find appropriate sessions for you.

If you’re simply looking for a HIIT workout that’s suitable for beginners, then we’ve got just the thing. The workout has been created by Joe Mitton, founder of MittFit, and it cycles through five fundamental exercises to work muscles all over the body while getting your heart pumping.

Home HIIT Workout

Run through the following five exercises, doing as many reps as you can in 50 seconds. Rest for ten seconds, then move on to the next exercise. Don’t worry if you need to take more rest when you’re starting out – ten seconds of rest is short for HIIT. An interval timer on a fitness tracker like a Fitbit or Garmin device will help you keep tabs on the time, or you can use a dedicated interval timer – there are web-based ones, as well as apps on the App Store or Google Play.

You can perform the sequence just once for a short five-minute HIIT taster, repeat it three times for a 15-minute workout or six times for a 30-minute session. Adjust your intensity according to how many rounds you plan on doing – you should aim to maintain the same intensity throughout, so dial it down if you’re going to work for 30 minutes.

Before you start make sure you perform some dynamic stretches to warm up and spend some time winding down afterwards to avoid stiff and sore muscles later.

Here’s Mitton to run you through the workout.

1 Squat

Time 50sec Rest 10sec

Stand with your feet slightly wider than hip-width apart. Bend at your knees and hips to lower, pushing your bum back as if you were sitting down. When your thighs are roughly parallel to the ground, push through your heels to stand back up. Keep your back straight throughout.

2 Press-up

Time 50sec Rest 10sec

Get on all fours with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and your body forming a straight line from your head to your heels. Lower your chest to the floor, then push back up. Go from your toes to your knees if you need to make it easier.

3 Lunge

Time 50sec Rest 10sec

Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Keeping your torso upright, step forwards, bending both knees and lowering until your rear knee is about to touch the floor, then return to standing. Alternate legs with each rep.

4 Jumping jacks

Time 50sec Rest 10sec

With your feet almost together and hands by your sides, jump your feet wider than hip-width apart and simultaneously raise your hands to the sides, bringing them back together above your head. Reverse the movements back to standing.

5 Crunch

Time 50sec Rest 10sec

Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Using your abs muscles, raise your shoulders off the floor, pushing your chest towards your hips, then lower back to the start.

Try One Of These Home HIIT Workouts Next

We have a wealth of HIIT workouts to help you pick your next workout, – so many, in fact, that you’ll be at risk of decision fatigue. If the above has whetted your appetite, allow us to point you in the direction of the two most popular HIIT workouts.

30-Minute Functional HIIT Circuit

This session comes from a branch of F45, a global brand of studios which, in normal times, holds intense group classes. One move requires a kettlebell and another dumbbells, but you can either improvise (a backpack loaded with books can work for both) or skip that pair. You’ll still work up a sweat. The format of this session is work for 35 seconds, rest for 25 seconds, and do three rounds in total.

1. Kettlebell swing
2. Burpee
3. Bear crawl
4. High knees
5. Press-up
6. Star jump
7. Dumbbell overhead press
8. Bodyweight squat
9. Bicycle crunch

See the HIIT circuit

Joe Wicks’s Four-Week Fat Loss Workout Plan

The godfather of HIIT himself blessed us with this bodyweight plan, which asks you to do four 15-minute workouts a week. There are five moves in each workout. Perform each exercise for 30 seconds each, then rest for no more than two minutes. Repeat that sequence three more times. Here’s Monday’s workout.

1. Jump squat
2. Squat
3. Star jump
4. Press-up
5. Bicycle crunch

See the Joe Wicks HIIT workouts

If there’s one area of the body that doesn’t require heavy weights to strengthen, it’s the shoulders. In fact, the best shoulder workouts should make liberal use of dumbbell exercises, which are a smart way to target the different muscles around the joint with less risk of injury.

Barbell or cable machine exercises are of course useful for working the shoulders, but for home workouts picking up a set of dumbbells will suffice. You’ll still be able to lift challenging weights but will put less pressure on your rotator cuff using dumbbells, which allow you to change your grip position more than with a barbell.

When picking out a set of the best dumbbells for your home shoulder workouts it is smart to opt for lighter weights than you’d use for training other parts of the body. With moves like the lateral raise or overhead press it’s better to move slowly with control to keep the right muscles under tension, and you’ll be amazed at how heavy even light dumbbells feel by the end of a set.

This home workout targets multiple parts of the shoulders, including the stabiliser muscles of your rotator cuff, and it works the delts from three angles so they grow in every direction. It will help you build broad, strong shoulders with less risk of injury. You need dumbbells for this workout, so if you don’t have those to hand this bodyweight shoulder workout is a great session to do at home instead.

For another shoulder session, try the fourth workout in this dumbbell workout plan.

Home Workout For Shoulder Strength

Workout Instructions

Start with the push press: do 10 to 15 reps over 30 seconds, then “rest” for 30 seconds with the weights held overhead. Repeat once for a two-minute set. Rest properly for two minutes, and do the whole thing twice more. Next, do 12 reps each of moves 2A, 2B and 2C without resting, then rest for one minute and repeat three times. If your shoulders feel toasty at the end, you’ve done it right.

How To Warm Up For This Workout

Once you start this workout there’s not a lot of rest, and your shoulders will be under pressure for long stretches. That means it’s essential to warm up your shoulders first, and even though the workout itself is fairly short. 

Warming up will not only ensure you start your first set of the workout ready to perform at your best, but also reduce your risk of injury. Shoulder injuries are no fun—they often take a long time to heal, disrupt your everyday life and can hamper your ability to sleep if you lie on your side.

This eight-move shoulder warm-up uses light dumbbells and resistance bands to thoroughly prep the joint for the workout to come. It works the shoulder from all angles and while it might take 10 minutes to complete, it’s a worthy time investment to keep your shoulders safe during the workout that follows.

1 30/30 push press

Sets 3 Time 2min Rest 2min

For the working time, alternate between doing 10 to 15 reps over 30 seconds, then holding the dumbbells overhead for 30 seconds.

Hold the weights by your shoulders, then lower into a quarter squat. Push up through your heels and press the weights overhead, then lower them under control. The “hold” is the challenging part, so use a weight that allows you to complete the move easily. During the hold, keep your midsection tight and brace your glutes to keep your lower back aligned and safe.

2A Lateral raise

Sets 3 Reps 12 Rest 0sec

Start with the weights at your sides, then raise them to the sides, keeping them in line with your body and keeping your thumbs pointing slightly downwards. Stop just shy of shoulder-level to keep the tension on your delts.

2B Front raise

Sets 3 Reps 12 Rest 0sec

Switch the focus to your front delts. Starting with the weights in front of you, slowly bring them up to just below eye level. Pause at the top, then lower slowly, keeping the weights under control.

2C Reverse flye

Sets 3 Reps 12 Rest 60sec

With a slight bend in your arms, bend forward at the waist – back straight, please – and bring the dumbbells up as if you were flapping your wings. Bring them back to the centre to complete the rep.

Need help deciding? Our guide to the best dumbbells for home can help.

No matter what your current level of fitness is, resistance band workouts are an effective way to add strength exercises to your routine – something everyone should be doing at least twice a week. The best resistance bands are cheap and easy to store, making them a piece of kit worth picking up.

They’re not just useful for home workouts either. The bands are easy to slip into a bag and take with you to exercise in a local park, or when traveling so you can slip in a quick workout in your hotel room before working or sightseeing.

There are a variety of ways to use resistance bands. Heavy bands can be used for slow strength sessions or to help you warm up before lifting free weights, while bands with less resistance are great for increasing the challenge of high-paced HIIT workouts. 

The full-body resistance band workout below was created by Let’s Bands master trainer Ben Fildes and it takes just 15 minutes. If you’re not tight for time, you can carry on for another couple of rounds of the exercises to gain even more benefits. 

The Resistance Bands You’ll Need For This Workout

Resistance bands all work in the same way but they’re not all the same. You can get looped bands or various sizes and strengths, or a straight band which has two ends. Often the latter will have handles to make them easier to hold. The color of a band is usually a clue to how strong it is: blacks and blues tend to offer greater resistance than reds and greens, which in turn are tougher than yellows. However, this is not always the case, so do check you’re buying something that’s appropriate for your fitness level.

In the workout below, two types of bands are used. A small looped band is good for stepping into and placing just above or below your knees for moves like the glute bridge, while you’ll need a larger looped band that can go around your shoulders while you stand on it for exercises like squats.

Full-Body Resistance Band Workout

1 One-arm biceps curl

Sets 1 Reps 12-15 each side

Stand with feet shoulder-width apart with both feet on the resistance band. Grasp the band with one hand and hold it with your arm down at your side, palm facing forwards. Bend at the elbow and lift your arm toward your shoulders until you get a good biceps contraction. Then lower slowly back to the start. Do all your reps on one arm, then switch.

2 Flye

Sets 1 Reps 12-15

Hold the resistance band in both hands, arms stretched straight out to the sides at chest height, with the band going behind your back. Press the band straight out in front of you, bringing your hands together with your arms fully extended, keeping your elbows up throughout and squeezing your chest muscles as you press. Slowly return to the starting position.

3 Front squat

Sets 1 Reps 8-15

Stand on the resistance band with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, and bring the top of the band up to rest on the front of your shoulders. Lower into a squat, with your chest up and your knees over your toes. Then push up to the starting position.

4 Side-lying hip abduction

Sets 1 Reps 10-12 each side

Lie on your side with your hips and knees bent at 90° and the resistance band looped just above your knees. Raise the upper leg to pull your knees apart while contracting your glutes for two to three seconds, then slowly return to the starting position. Do all your reps on one side, then switch.

5 Glute bridge

Sets 1 Reps 10-15

Loop the resistance band just above your knees and lie on your back with your feet on the floor and your knees bent at 90°. Lift your toes off the floor, then raise your hips until you form a straight line from your knees to your shoulders, contracting your glutes throughout the entire movement. As you raise your hips open your knees slightly to press against the resistance band.

6 Band pull-apart

Sets 1 Reps 8-10

Stand with your knees slightly bent and your feet shoulder-width apart. Grip a shoulder-width section of the resistance band with both hands in front of you at shoulder height. Keeping your arms straight, pull the band out and back until your shoulder blades contract. Slowly return to starting position.

7 Lateral walk

Sets 1 Reps 8-10 steps in each direction

Loop one resistance band just above your knees and another around your ankles. Drop into a half squat position with your feet shoulder-width apart to create tension in the bands. Then take a small step to the side, keeping tension in the bands as you move. Do all the steps in one direction, then switch.

8 Press-up

Sets 1 Reps 5-15

Get in a plank position, draping the resistance band across your upper back and holding the ends under your hands. Drop your chest down towards the floor, then contract your glutes and abs and push straight up until your arms are fully extended.

9 Squat to overhead press

Sets 1 Reps 8-10

Stand on the resistance band with your feet shoulder-width apart. Position your hands at shoulder level with your palms facing up, holding the resistance band. Drop into a squat, then push back up and fully extend your arms so you raise the resistance band overheard. Then lower slowly into another squat.

To find out more about resistance band training or to buy powerbands, visit letsbands.com

FAQs

More Resistance Band Workouts

Resistance Band Glute Workout

Resistance bands are a great tool for glute workouts. Loop one around your thighs and tackle the four moves in this session and your glutes will be on fire in next to no time no time. Do each move in the circuit for 30 seconds for two minutes’ work in total, then rest.  Repeat for as many rounds as you like. You can do this as a standalone workout or add it on the end of a longer legs workout as a glutes finisher.

See the resistance band glute workout

Upper-Body Resistance Band Workout 

Used in the right way, resistance bands are great tools for building upper-body muscle, and this 21s workout is the right way. With each move broken down into 21-rep bursts where you do seven of the bottom half of the movement, seven for the top half and then seven full reps, expect muscles you didn’t even know existed to ache the next day.

See the upper-body resistance band workout

Posture Workout To Relieve Shoulder Stress

This three-move workout is perfect for those who spend long days hunched over a desk, since it will relieve the tension in your shoulders and help improve your posture. You just need a long looped resistance band and five minutes – keep a band near your desk and break up the day with the exercises.

See the resistance band shoulder workout

30-Minute Resistance Band HIIT Workout

This home HIIT workout involves powering through a circuit of nine exercises, working for 40 seconds and then resting for 20 seconds, completing three rounds in total. You need a large looped resistance band for it, with a medium/light band (6kg-15kg) the best option for most people.

See the resistance band HIIT workout

You probably had your fill of home workouts over the past few years, but just like the office there’s no going back (at least not five days a week, OK boss?). And besides, the current cost-of-living crunch makes splashing out on or maintaining a gym membership less appealing than ever.

To get fit at home you can do workouts here and there, but we heartily recommend using a structured training plan. It’s not hard to find one-off workouts to use each time you train, but we find following a plan helps to train regularly and consistency often matters more than the individual workout.

Below we have a training plan that requires three workouts a week and is a fantastic starting point for anyone. Each workout begins with a warm-up, which can be all too easy to skip at home (never skip the warm-up), and the only requirements are some space and a sturdy, knee-high platform (stairs can work). Each workout combines upper-body, lower-body and core exercises for a well-rounded session, and the first workout will get your heart rate up to improve your cardio fitness as well.

Home Workout Plan

This plan has been put together by Jared Blunden, personal trainer at Milton Keynes PureGym.

Session 1

Warm-Up

Complete three rounds of the following without taking a rest.

1 Walkout

Reps 5

From standing, bend down, place your hands on the floor and walk your hands out to a high plank position (hands under your shoulders, arms extended, with your body forming a straight line from your head to heels), then walk your hands back to your feet and stand up.

2 Spider-Man lunge

Reps 5 each side

Start in a high plank position. Bring your right foot forwards and place it outside your right foot, then step back and do the same on your left side.

3 Shoulder tap

Reps 10 each side

In a high plank position, reach up with your left hand and tap your right shoulder, then use your right hand to tap your left shoulder.

Workout

Rest as required during the workout, but aim to keep each break to 10-20 seconds. The first exercise is a superset. Do all the reps of exercise 1A followed by all the reps of exercise 1B. Repeat that sequence for three times in total, then move on.

1A Jump lunge

Sets 3 Reps 10 each side

Step forwards with your right foot and lower until both knees are bent at 90°. Jump up and switch legs so you land in a lunge with your left foot forwards.

1B Burpee

Sets 3 Reps 5

From standing, drop your hands to the floor then jump your feet back so you go into a high plank. Jump your feet forwards again so they’re next to your hands, stand and jump straight up, raising your hands above your head.

2 Step-up

Sets 1 Reps 10 each side

Find a step that’s about knee-high. Step onto it, leading with your right foot. Bring your left foot onto the step as well, then step down, left foot first. Lead with your left foot on the next rep your right as you step down. Keep alternating.

3 Chest-to-floor burpee

Sets 1 Reps 5

From standing, drop your hands to the floor then jump your feet back so you go into a high plank. Lower your chest to the ground, press back up and jump your feet forwards again so they’re next to your hands. Stand and jump straight up, raising your hands above your head.

Session 2

Warm-Up

Do two rounds of the following without taking a break.

1 Downward-facing dog toe tap

Reps 5 each side

Start on your hands and knees and then push your hips up and back so your knees come off the floor, your arms and legs are straight and you form a triangle with the floor. Tap your right arm with your right toes, then repeat on the other side.

2 Yoga press-up

Reps 5

From your downward-facing dog position, lower your chest towards the floor, then push back up.

3 Scorpion kick

Reps 10 each side

Lie face down on the floor with your arms out to the sides. Bend your left knee to lift your left lower leg, then rotate your torso to bring your left foot over to touch the floor by your right hand. Repeat, alternating sides with each rep.

4 Glute bridge

Reps 10

Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Raise your hips so you form a straight line from your knees to your shoulders. Squeeze your glutes at the top, then lower back to the start.

Workout

Aim to complete up to four rounds of the following without taking any rests.

1 Squat to floor

Reps 45

Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Bend at your knees and move your hips back to lower into a deep squat so your hands can touch the floor while keeping your chest up and forwards. Drive back up to standing.

2 Unweighted renegade row

Reps 30 each side

Start in a high plank position. Hold the position while bringing your right elbow up past your back, then repeat on the other side.

3 Butterfly sit-up

Reps 15

Lie with your back on the floor, with your knees bent and out to the sides, and the soles of your feet together. Engage your abs to lift your head and shoulders off the floor, then lower with control.

Session 3

Warm-Up

Do two rounds of the following without resting.

1 Cat-cow

Reps 10

Start on your hands and knees. Push your spine upwards so your shoulder blades move away from each other. Then roll your shoulder blades together and push your chest towards the floor.

2 Thread the needle

Reps 5 each side

Still on your hands and knees, take your right arm under your left and out to the side, bringing your right shoulder down to the floor. Then repeat on the other side.

3 Kang squat

Reps 10

From standing, hinge at the hips and bend forwards until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings (as if doing the good morning exercise), then rock back and down into a deep squat. Come back up into the good morning position, then return to standing.

4 Samson lunge

Reps 10 each side

From standing, step forwards into a lunge, then clasp your hands together and stretch them out above your head. Stand back up and then repeat, leading with the other leg.

Workout

This is a 20-minute AMRAP – As Many Rounds As Possible. Complete as many rounds of the following four exercises as you can in 20 minutes.

1 Elevated single-leg glute bridge

Reps 10 each side

Lie on your back and rest your feet on a raised surface like a table or chair. Lift your right foot and then raise your hips so your body is straight from your neck to your left foot. Lower and repeat 10 times, then swap sides.

2 Bulgarian split squat

Reps 10 each side

Stand facing away from a low table or sofa. Rest the top of one foot on the surface behind you. Lower until your back knee almost touches the floor, then push back up. Swap legs after you complete 10 reps.

3 Press-up

Reps 5

From a high plank position, bend at the elbows to lower your chest until it’s just above the floor, then push back up.

4 V-up

Reps 5

Lie on your back with your legs extended and together. Simultaneously raise your shoulders and lift your legs, keeping them as straight as possible, so you form a V shape. If you find this too challenging, start by doing it one leg at a time for five reps each side.

More Home Workout Plans

Once you’ve mastered the above you may be looking for your next challenge. To continue in a similar vein, this strength training for women (and men) plan continues the routine of three workouts a week and introduces different exercises to keep you progressing.

To kick things up a notch, dig out the dumbbells you purchased during the pandemic (or buy a pair using our recommendations of the best dumbbells) and tackle this four-week dumbbell workout plan that involves doing four workouts a week. Pro tip: you can extend the length of the plan if life gets in the way or you need more time to recover between sessions.

If you prefer to stick with your own bodyweight but are willing to test yourself to build muscle, turn to this bodyweight workout plan (although you will need a pull-up bar to follow it). There are also plenty of single workouts at the bottom of that page for you to dip into, and we’ve collated some of our favourites below.

No-Kit Home Workouts

10-Minute EMOM Workout

EMOM stands for “every minute on the minute”, so in these workouts you complete a set number of reps in a minute and then rest for the remainder of the minute, going again when the next minute starts. It’s a great way to get a lot out of short workouts, like this 10-minute session where you cycle through three moves every minute, with an optional fourth you can do instead of resting.

1. Press-up (Reps 5)
2. Jump squat (Reps 5)
3. Chest-to-floor burpee (Reps 5)
4. Beast hold (Optional, for remainder of minute)

See the 10-minute EMOM workout

20-Minute Abs Workout

If you’re prepared to work hard with little rest, it really doesn’t take long to get a top-quality abs workout in, as this tough 20-minute circuit shows. Do three rounds in the time allowed, or add another two or three if you’re more experienced and have more time.

1. Crunch (Reps 20)
2. Crunch pulse (Reps 20)
3. Reverse crunch (Reps 10)
4. Lying leg raise (Reps 20)
5. Plank toe tap (Reps 15 each side)
6. Planks shoulder tap (Reps 15 each side)

See the six-pack home workout

30-Minute Full-Body Circuit

This session involves four rounds of six exercises, and there’s still time to fit in a proper warm-up and warm-down in the half-hour – now that’s efficient. In the main workout you’ll be working for 30 seconds and resting for 15 seconds, then taking a 90-second rest between complete rounds.

1. Mountain climber (Time 30sec Rest 15sec)
2. Jump squat (Time 30sec Rest 15sec)
3. Bicycle crunch (Time 30sec Rest 15sec)
4. Reverse lunge (Time 30sec Rest 15sec)
5. Press-up (Time 30sec Rest 15sec)
6. Star jump (Time 30sec Rest 90sec)

See the 30-minute home workout

Fat-Burning Bodyweight Workout

This full-body session consists of two circuits of three exercises. You do three rounds of the first circuit to get your core activated and your heart pumping, then tear through five rounds of the second circuit as fast as you can.

Circuit 1

1. Dead bug (Time 30sec Rest 15sec)
2. Side plank (Time 30sec Rest 15sec)
3. Plank jack (Time 30sec Rest 15sec)

Circuit 2

1. Hand-release press-up (Reps 10)
2. Reset jump lunge (Reps 6 each side)
3. Alternating V-sit (Reps 7 each side)

See the workout to burn fat at home

Core Workout For Women

Personal trainer and menopause fitness expert Kate Rowe-Ham shared this five-move core workout for women. Aim for three to four rounds, taking up to 90 seconds’ rest between rounds.

1. Dead bug (Reps 10 each side)
2. Plank shoulder tap (Reps 10 each side)
3. Side plank (Time 30sec each side)
4. Bird-dog (Reps 10 each side)
5. Mountain climber (30sec)

See the core workout for women

Nine-Move Leg Workout

Work all the major muscles in your legs and glutes with this nine-move bodyweight workout. If you do have weights to hand, it’s easy to incorporate them to increase the difficulty of each exercise.

1. Squat (Sets 3 Reps 10)
2. Lunge (Sets 3 Reps 10 each side)
3. Pistol squat (Sets 3 Reps 10 each side)
4. Good morning (Sets 3 Reps 10)
5. Donkey kick (Sets 3 Reps 10 each side)
6. Side lunge (Sets 3 Reps 10 each side)
7. Calf raise (Sets 3 Reps 10)
8. Glute bridge (Sets 3 Reps 10)
9. Stiff-leg deadlift (Sets 3 Reps 10)

See the home leg workout

Workout To Improve Your Posture

The combination of stretches and strength exercises in this quick workout will help to improve your posture and the state of your back. It’s just what you need if you’re feeling creaky after a few long days spent hunched over a desk.

1. Cat-cow (Sets 1 Reps 20)
2. Bird-dog (Sets 1 Reps 10 each side)
3. Glute bridge (Sets 1 Reps 20)
4. High plank (Sets 4 20sec)
5. Superman (Sets 1 Reps 15)
6. Half cobra (Sets 1 Reps 15)

See the posture workout

Spending your nine-to-five on your backside – whether at a desk or in a driver’s seat – is a fact of life for many of us. No matter how much you break it up, this sedentary existence is a common cause of non-specific lower back pain. One study estimates this affects roughly one-third of the UK adult population each year. 

You can, however, take preventive action. Strengthening your glutes with simple bodyweight exercises can help take the strain off your spine. “Your glutes are the largest muscles in the body and making them strong can help prevent back pain, a common result of our sedentary lives,” fitness influencer Krissy Cela tells Coach.

The Insta-famous PT (2.7 million followers and counting) and co-founder of workout app Tone & Sculpt swears by this bodyweight circuit to activate all the muscles of the posterior chain, from the hamstrings and glutes to the lower back. “Strong glutes help to keep the pelvis in alignment, power us forward when we walk and help us to sit, stand and move,” Cela says. “This glutes workout is perfect for any level, any goal – anyone.” 

How To Do The Workout

All you need is a chair or sofa to use as a support for one of the exercises and a mini looped resistance band for the final move. This type of resistance band is as cheap as chips – here are our mini-loop resistance band recommendations, many of which cost less than a fiver.

Perform each exercise without rest between moves. Rest for 60 seconds between rounds, aiming for four rounds in total. “You can use this as a stand-alone lower-body workout or do just one or two rounds to activate your muscles before a run or lower-body weights workout,” says Cela.

1 Squat hold

Time 30sec

Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Keeping your chest up and back straight, push your hips back and bend your knees to lower until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Push your knees out during the movement to keep your knees over your toes. Hold this seated squat position for 30 seconds, keeping your breathing steady, then push through your heels to stand back up.

2 Frog pump

Reps 30

Lie on your back with your knees bent and the soles of your feet together. Push your knees out to the sides and lift your hips as you would for a hip thrust (see below), squeezing at the top of the movement. Bring your knees back together, lower your glutes and repeat. 

3 Hip thrust

Reps 30

Sit on the floor and lean your upper back against a sturdy chair or sofa. Bend your knees and keep your feet flat on the floor. Tuck your chin into your chest and drive through your feet to raise your hips until your body forms a straight line from shoulders to knees. Squeeze your glutes at the top of the movement, then slowly lower to tap your bum on the floor and repeat. 

4 Glute bridge

Reps 30

Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the ground. Keep your arms at your sides with your palms down. Engage your core, then lift your hips off the ground until your knees, hips and shoulders form a straight line. Hold the bridged position for a couple of seconds, then ease back down. 

5 Kneeling hip thrust

Reps 30

Kneel with your knees shoulder-width apart (place a mat or towel under your knees if the position is uncomfortable), your feet together and your bum resting on your heels. Push your torso up and forwards, extending your hips. Squeeze your glutes together at the top and return to the starting position. This is a great beginner alternative to squats if you don’t yet have the mobility to move through the full range. 

6 Crab walk

Reps 60

Stand with your feet just wider than shoulder-width apart. Lower into a quarter squat position with your toes pointed out. Keeping your chest up, take sideways steps, maintaining the space between your feet as you step. This move can be done with just bodyweight but it’s even better if you wrap a mini resistance band around your legs, just above your knees, and keep resistance in the band with each step. You’ll know if it’s working because your glutes will be on fire.

While we’re big fans of a dedicated space that has all the latest fitness gear and experts on hand, no-one actually needs a gym to get in great shape. With the right approach you can achieve just as much at home, and what the right approach is will depend on you and how you like to exercise.

That’s because there are plenty of ways to get fit at home. If you have the budget you can replicate the experience of a gym by investing in free weights or cardio machines like one of the best treadmills or best exercise bikes, or if you want to save some cash you can keep yourself in shape using nothing but bodyweight exercises.

If you’re someone who prefers to take classes at the gym or a studio – whether that’s for guidance or motivation – you can also choose from an array of home fitness apps, and the best workout apps now offer both on-demand and live video workouts. There’s been an increase in the range of these online tools recently, in part because so many of us have been stuck at home for so long, and many offer free trials so you can flit between them without spending a penny until you find one you like.

We’ve got all the advice you need to help you nail your at-home training whatever your favoured approach is, so let’s dive in, starting with a simple home workout format.

Home Workout Ideas

A fitness routine doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, keeping it simple makes doing it consistently much easier – and that consistency is what will make a difference to your fitness. Take this straightforward session from PT Adam Jones. “A favourite of mine is to work in a 30:30 format,” says Jones, “which means 30 seconds of work with 30 seconds of rest on each exercise for a set amount of rounds.

“A good circuit would be bodyweight squats, reverse lunges, press-ups, burpees and mountain climbers. Perform the squats for 30 seconds, rest for 30 seconds, then move on to the lunges and continue like that. When you’ve done that for all five exercises, rest for one to two minutes, then go again. Complete the circuit four to six times in total.”

Don’t be deterred if at first you find some of the exercises too difficult to do for the full 30 seconds. “If you find press-ups difficult, you can place your hands on a chair,” says Jones. “If you struggle with a normal unweighted squat, you can try squatting onto a chair – it shortens the range of motion, which helps you maintain correct technique throughout.”

If you want to up the challenge when doing press-ups, “try placing your feet on a chair,” says Jones. “With the incline you’ll target different areas and place more emphasis on your upper chest and shoulders.” And there are plenty of ways to make squats more challenging, including jump squats or single-leg squats.

And there’s another way to make almost any exercise fiendishly difficult. “Tempo – the speed at which you perform a move – is probably one of the most overlooked elements of training,” says Jones. “Focusing on it can ramp up your results massively. Taking longer to perform a move increases tension in the muscle, forcing it to work harder, which in turn will increase stress and lead to muscle gain. When performing press-ups, try taking four seconds in the lowering phase, and add a slight pause at the bottom of the move.” To find out more, read our guide to tempo training.

Home Workout Plans

Whether you work out at the gym or at home, having a plan to follow can make all the difference, in most part because it takes a lot of the decision-making – and therefore opportunities to procrastinate – out of your hands. Here are three options to get you started.

Goal: Get fit with no kit This plan contains three workouts you can do each week to build full-body strength. The workouts are made up of bodyweight moves so you can do them anywhere you have space in your house without needing any equipment. See the home workout plan

Goal: Start strength training Fitness instructor Ruth Stone created this plan to help women start strength training. The workouts are 25-30 minutes long and ideally you’ll have a set of dumbbells for them. Strength training is obviously great for everyone, but it can be particularly invaluable for women during the during the menopause when hormones affect bone density. See the home strength training plan

Goal: Lose weight The inimitable Joe Wicks shared this plan, which is four sessions a week for four weeks. You don’t need any equipment to do these 20-minute high-intensity circuits, although give yourself at least five minutes either side to warm up and down and catch your breath. See the fat loss workout plan

Goal: Get strong If you have (or don’t mind investing in) a set of dumbbells, use this four-week plan to build strength and power throughout your entire body. The three workouts are intended to be done on Monday, Wednesday and Friday so you have the weekend free to recover. Now you’ve got the plan, use our round-up of the best dumbbells to get the weights. See the dumbbell workout plan

Goal: Build muscle This is a muscle-building workout plan with a difference – it uses just your bodyweight to stimulate muscle growth. That means there are some tricky moves in here so beginners should start elsewhere or substitute in easier variations. You’ll need to set aside three one-hour slots a week and find yourself a pull-up bar and a bench (or any sturdy platform). See the bodyweight workout plan

Home Gym Equipment

If you like to work out with weights or use your gym’s cardio machines, but are tired of travelling to and from the gym every time you want a workout or having to wait your turn when you’re there, investing in some equipment of your own can solve both problems in one fell swoop.

Free weights are a great place to start, because you can get a set of dumbbells or one of the best kettlebells pretty cheaply and they won’t take up much space at home when not in use.

A pull-up bar is another useful bit of home equipment and many don’t need permanently fixing to a wall and it can be used for more than just pull-ups. Find the right one for your set-up in our best pull-up bars round-up.

The best resistance bands are also a very cheap and versatile bit of kit that allow you to train anywhere, while the best suspension trainers can really take your home strength sessions to the next level.

Finally, those who are ready to throw a little more cash at their home workouts might want to consider picking up a multi-gym, though you will need a fair chunk of free space for it.

If cardio is more your bag then you are spoilt for choice when it comes to home machines. Treadmills are usually the first thing that spring to mind, but they take up a lot of space and tend to be pricier than other cardio machines. Exercise bikes have the smallest footprint and are the cheapest pick, while cross-trainers and rowing machines have the advantage of working both your upper and lower body in addition to raising your heart rate.

Home Workout Apps

We’re pretty certain you’ll find a home workout to suit you somewhere on Coach, but if you prefer to follow video instructions then a workout app might be the way to go. Most of these will allow you to select workouts that suit your fitness level and allow you to use whatever equipment you have to hand. Each will guide you through one-off sessions or longer training plans to whip you into shape.

• Fiit – One of our favourite premium apps, Fiit has video workouts in different categories like strength, cardio, and yoga and Pilates sessions.
• Centr – Another effective app with lots of varied workouts, meal plans and meditation sessions, although the meal plans are time-consuming.
• Zwift – Apps can also help you power through sessions on cardio machines, especially ones like Zwift, where your indoor cycling or running powers an on-screen avatar in a virtual world.
• Peloton – Many home cardio machines now link up to apps, and Peloton is the most well-known home spinning experience, containing a huge library of cycling and other workouts. You can also find third-party apps like iFit and Kinomap that can link to a variety of machines from different brands.
• Apple Fitness+ – If you have an Apple Watch then Fitness+ is a fantastic app with all kinds of guided workouts to follow.

30-Day Fitness Challenges

If you want to keep things as simple as possible with your home workouts, a 30-day challenge is the way to go. Pick one exercise, or one part of the body you want to target, and just hammer away at it for a full month. You’ll be amazed how much you can progress, and also how doing even just one type of exercise over and over again can improve your overall fitness. Hopefully, by the end of the 30 days, you’ll have caught the fitness bug and be ready to embark on a more rounded workout programme.

To get you started here are five of our favourite 30-day challenges for you to try:

1. Our burpee challenge is the most accessible because it uses a test on day one to make sure it’s tailored to your current fitness level. It works muscles all over the body and improves your cardio fitness to boot.
2. The press-up challenge gets you in shape to complete 100 press-ups in one go, strengthening your core and upper body along the way.
3. Tackle our plank challenge and after 30 days, you’ll be able to hold a plank for three minutes thanks to your steely core.
4. If you’re looking to build piston-like legs then our 30-day squat challenge will have you cranking out 250 before the month is out.
5. The final option is a 30-day abs challenge designed to help you strengthen your core and develop a more defined midsection. The challenge mixes core exercises with HIIT to burn fat and build muscle in your midsection.

We’ve all adjusted to home workouts by now, so how about turning things up a notch with this mean 1,000-rep workout that can be done in your living room, without any equipment, from personal trainer Beth Thayne.

“It works the entire body for a comprehensive workout that you try to complete as quickly as possible,” says Thayne. “You start with 20 reps of the five exercises, then go down to 19 reps for the second round. Knock off one rep each round until you get to five and you’ll have done 1,000 reps.

“There’s a huge emphasis on core work but with the volume of reps you also get a good leg and upper-body workout in there.

“Because it’s a descending ladder to a completion point, you also have the chance to set a time and then aim to beat it next time. Rest when you need to, but try to keep the rest to the end of a round and aim for 30-45 seconds.

“Depending on your ability this will take between 25-35 minutes, so the challenge functions as a full workout. If the total proves too much, stop when your body tells you to, then target completing more rounds next time.”

The Exercises

1 Press-up

Start in the high plank position with your hands underneath your shoulders, feet together, keeping your core braced and with your body forming a straight line from your neck to your heels. Bend your elbows to slowly lower until your chest is just above the floor, then push back up. Rest your knees on the floor if you start to fatigue.

2 Squat shoots

Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Bend your knees and, keeping your chest upright, lower until your knees are at 90°. Touch the floor between your feet, then push back up and extend your arms above your head.

3 Mountain climber

Start in the high plank position with your feet slightly apart and your hands underneath your shoulders. Keeping your core tight, drive your right knee towards your chest. Return your right leg to the floor and repeat on your left side. That’s one rep. Continue at pace.

4 Shoulder tap

Start in the high plank position with your feet slightly apart and your hands underneath your shoulders. Keeping your core tight, bring one hand off the floor and slowly raise it to touch the opposite shoulder, then bring it back to the floor and complete the same action with the other hand. That’s one rep.

5 Toe taps

Lie on your back and extend your legs straight up, or as close to that as you can. Reach up, raising your upper body off the floor, to touch your toes with your hands. Lower until your upper body is flat on the floor to complete the rep.

More Home Workouts

• Anyone Can Use This Bodyweight Workout To Get Fit At Home
• Get Stronger And Improve Your Posture With This Home Back Workout
• Stay Limber With This Home Mobility Workout

Anthony Joshua probably doesn’t do a lot of home workouts any more. Or if he does, it’s in a fully-equipped home gym that’s better than the actual gym we go to. That’s fair enough, he’s a pro, and anyway it won’t stop AJ putting together a rip-snorting home session to help you feel champion.

The world heavyweight champ is a Lucozade Sport ambassador and as well as being credited for this session, he has created his own flavour with the brand – fruit punch. Get it? Punch! Boxing! Good stuff.

Joshua’s workout uses home-made weights to increase the difficulty. You will also need a slam ball (although a deflated football kind of works) and a skipping rope.

1 Weighted ball throw

Sets 3 Reps 10 Rest 60sec

Pick a slam ball with a weight suited to your fitness level. Stand side-on to a wall, 3m away, and concentrate on the twisting movement as you throw the ball against the wall. Do all the reps on one side, then change the direction of the twisting motion with each set.

2 Weighted press-up

Sets 3 Reps 8 Rest 1-2min

A set of press-ups, but harder! Use a rucksack full of books to increase the difficulty, choosing a weight that allows you to perform all three sets without compromising form. Keep your elbows by your sides throughout.

3 Bulgarian split squat

Sets 3 Reps 10 each side Rest 60sec

You can use a sofa, a footstool or stairs to do this move. Place the top of one foot on the raised surface behind you and lower into a squat on the other leg. Do all your reps on one side, then switch. To increase the intensity hold the rucksack you used for the weighted press-ups in front of you (removing or adding books as necessary).

4 Lateral side jump

Sets 3 Time 60sec Rest 30-45sec

Bend your knees and lower into a quarter-squat position. Jump explosively to one side. Repeat this in the opposite direction, and continue jumping back and forth. To increase the difficulty, stack some pillows next to you and jump over them.

5 Wall sit

Sets 3 Time 60sec Rest 30-45sec

Stand with your back against a wall and your feet shoulder-width apart. Walk your feet away from the wall as you bend your knees, lowering until your thighs are parallel with the floor. Hold for 60 seconds. To increase the difficulty, hold the weighted rucksack on your lap.

6 Stair crawl

Sets 3 Reps 10 each side Rest 60sec

Begin at the bottom of the stairs on all fours. Crawl up the steps by moving your opposite arm and leg forwards at the same time. Speed up to increase the challenge.

7 Shadow boxing

Sets 3 Time 30sec Rest 30sec

Identify your lead foot, which will be the same side as your non-dominant hand, and step that foot forwards into a split stance. Your back foot should be pointed outwards at 70-80°. Bend your knees slightly and tuck your elbows in to your sides, with your lead fist just in front of your chin and your back fist just under your eye.

Extend your lead arm in front of you to jab. As you bring your lead hand back to your chin, extend your back arm while you twist your hip, to bring power to your cross. Bring your hand back to your eye, and repeat the combination as fast as possible.

See related :

• Work Up A Sweat With This Shadowboxing Home Workout
• The Skipping Workout You’ll Want To Do Again And Again
• The Best Punching Bags For Your Home Gym

8 Double-unders

Sets 3 Time 30-60sec Rest 30sec

This will get your heart pounding. Begin skipping with a skipping rope, then speed up the turns and increase your time off the floor so that the rope makes two full swings under your toes before you land.

9 Step-up

Sets 4 Time 30sec Rest 45sec

The aim of this final exercise is to move with speed. Stand 15cm away from a step, facing it, and place your left foot on it. Then swap the position of your feet so your left foot is on the floor and your right is on the step. Continue alternating feet at speed, pumping your arms to help counterbalance the movement. Keep your head up and your back straight throughout. Increase the difficulty by using a higher step.

Every workout environment has its advantages. Gyms are well stocked with every kind of fitness equipment along with experts who can guide you through your workout, while exercising in the great outdoors offers you the chance to get in touch with nature and enjoy some sun in the process. The main advantage of home workouts is that you don’t have to go anywhere for your exercise, saving time and ensuring you can slip in some training the moment you have the motivation.

If you are going to work out at home, however, you need to have a plan because it is highly unlikely that there will be a personal trainer standing by ready to tell you what to do (and if there is, do make sure you ask them what they’re doing in your house). So to help you get fit at home we enlisted Optimum Nutrition athlete Dom Heap for his picks of the best beginner, intermediate and advanced home exercises. We’ve added a few of our favourites, too.

Before we go into the exercises it’s important to remember that every home workout should start with a warm-up. Heap recommends five minutes of jogging on the spot followed by five 20-second rounds of star jumps, with 20 seconds of rest between each round. Then you’re good to go.

Most of the exercises below are bodyweight moves, but there are a few that use some basic equipment. Having a dumbbell, kettlebell, pull-up bar or resistance bands to hand enables you to increase the difficulty and range of exercises in your home workouts, so if you’re planning to do a lot of training at home it’s well worth buying some kit.

There’s been a stampede for home gym equipment during the COVID-19 lockdown, but there’s still plenty available: resistance bands in particular are cheap and easy to acquire, while kettlebells and pull-up bars still seem to be fairly widely stocked. Unless you require very light or very heavy dumbbells, though, you’ll be paying through the nose so maybe hold off on those until this is all over.

Beginner Home Exercises

Unweighted squat

“Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and turn your toes out slightly,” says Heap. “Put your arms out in front of you and engage your abdominals while broadening your chest and gently pulling your shoulder blades together.

“Bend your knees slowly while pushing your hips and glutes out behind you as if you are about to sit down. Lower until your knees and hips are parallel, then push back up through your heels to the start position.”

Pike press-up

“Assume a press-up position with your arms straight and hands under your shoulders,” says Heap. “Walk your feet towards your hands, keeping your legs straight until you form a V-shape. Once in this position, slowly bend your elbows so your head goes towards the ground. Go as low as you can, then press back up, locking out your elbows.”

Crab walk

“Start by sitting with your hands on the ground planted behind your shoulders,” says Heap. “Raise your hips until both your hands and feet are flat on the ground. Once in this position, proceed to walk both forwards and backwards, making sure you brace your shoulders as you move.”

Dead bug

Who’d have thought that simulating the despairing limb-flails of an upturned insect could be so good for your core strength? The dead bug works both the upper and lower abs without straining your lower back, and is one of the best core-crunching moves beginners can do at home. Start lying flat on your back with your arms extended above you and your legs raised so your knees are directly above your hips and bent at 90°. Simultaneously extend your left leg forwards and your right arm behind you, keeping your back pressed into the ground and your core engaged. Bring your arm and leg slowly back to the start, then repeat with the opposite limbs.

Bird-dog

If you’re looking for simple exercises to counter the effects of sitting at a desk all day without the risk of making things worse, let us point you in the direction of the bird-dog. It might have a slightly silly name, but it will improve your core strength and it also benefits your lower back. Start on all fours with your hands directly under your shoulders and your knees under your hips. Slowly reach your right arm out in front of you while also lifting and extending your left leg behind you. Then bring both back to the starting position and repeat with the opposing limbs. Keep your movements controlled to gain the maximum benefits. As well as your core strength, the bird-dog also boosts your balance and co-ordination.

Plank

This simple hold should be one of the first exercises a beginner masters because it will do wonders for your core strength. It’s also ideal for those starting out at home because all you need is the space to lie still.

To do a plank, support your weight on your forearms and your toes, and form a straight line with your body from your shoulders to your heels. It’s all too easy to lower your hips too much or raise your rear too high. Get someone to check your form if you can, but failing that do it in front of a mirror so you can correct yourself. Perform the plank for a set period of time – for instance, three sets of 20 or 30 seconds.

Donkey kick

This simple move is a particularly good glute-strengthener, but it also works your core, lower back and hips. Start on all fours with your hands under your shoulders, and your knees and feet hip-width apart. Squeeze your glutes and raise one leg behind you, keeping the knee bent at a 90° angle, until the sole of your foot faces the ceiling, then bring it back down slowly. Make sure the rest of your body is completely still while you raise the leg – letting your hips sag is a common mistake that reduces the move’s effectiveness.

Wall sit

The wall sit is ideally suited to being done at home because you don’t need to get in any kit at all (we’re assuming your domestic setting features walls of some kind). Put your back against the wall and slide down so that your knees are at 90° and your feet are flat on the floor. Now do nothing for as long as you decide to hold the rep – somewhere between 20 seconds and a minute should be as much as you can bear first time around. This isometric hold will do wonders for your lower body, especially your thighs. If you want to make things harder, take one foot off the ground. Even harder? Hold a weight in front of you with your arms outstretched or above you.

Intermediate Home Exercises

Plank raises

“Start in an elevated plank or top press-up position with your arms straight and elbows locked,” says Heap. “Making sure you’re looking forwards, slowly raise one arm out in front of you, bringing it up to eye level. Then lower it without planting it back on the ground and repeat the movement until you have to stop. Then do the same on the other arm. You can also try raising your arms to the sides as well as forwards.”

Resistance band squat press

“Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart,” says Heap. “Step on one side of the resistance band and grasp the other side of the band with your palms facing up and out. Bring the band up until your hands are in line with your shoulders with your elbows bent. This is your starting position.

“Squat down until your knees and hips are parallel to the floor, then push back up and press the band overhead until your arms are extended. Bring the band back down to the starting position in a controlled manner and repeat, making sure your feet stay in place throughout the movement.”

Burpee

“Start off in a low squat position with your hands on the floor, then kick your feet back so you’re in a press-up position,” says Heap. “Complete one press-up, bring your feet back into the low squat position, and jump as high as you can.”

Triceps bench dip

While you might not have a dip station in your home, you will have a suitable surface for this move – a table or chair works just fine. (You have a table or chair, right?) Facing away from the surface, place your hands on it behind you, with your feet together on the floor and your knees bent. Lower your body until your elbows are bent at 90°, then press back up until your arms are straight. To increase the difficulty, straighten your legs or place your feet on an elevated surface as well.

Skater jump

This plyometric move works the muscles in your legs and glutes, and will also improve your balance and co-ordination. From standing, push off your left foot to leap to your right, landing softly on your right foot with a bent knee. As you land, bring your left foot behind your right leg, keeping it in the air if possible – let it touch the ground if your balance is going. Pause for a beat, then leap back in the opposite direction, swinging your right foot behind your left leg. The further you leap, the harder the skater jump is, so shorten your bounds if you’re struggling to keep your balance at first.

Side plank

This plank variation complements the classic move by focusing on the obliques muscles – the ones found to the sides of the central abs. Start lying on your side propped up on your forearm, with your hips, legs and feet stacked one on top of the other. Lift your hips so you form a straight line from your neck to your feet and hold this position. You should feel the burn in the side of your midsection. Then swap sides.

Bicycle crunch

If you want to work on your abs at home, stop doing standard crunches and do the bicycle crunch instead. It’s among the most effective moves you can do because it hits the lower abs, the upper abs and the obliques all in one exercise.

Lie on your back with your hands touching the sides of your head and elbows pointing out to the sides. Lift your head and shoulders slightly off the ground, then raise and extend one leg while bringing the other knee up to your chest. As the knee rises, twist your torso so the opposite elbow comes towards the knee – they don’t have to touch. Make sure you’re not twisting your head to move the elbow – the twist should be in your torso and powered by your core. Lower the leg and elbow at the same time, and then repeat the movement with the opposite limbs.

Mountain climber

It may be easy to master, but this full-body exercise is versatile enough to put it in the intermediate bracket. Place your hands on the floor directly beneath your shoulders, arms fully extended, with your toes being the only other contact point to the ground. Your body should form a straight line from your shoulders to your heels. If you’re struggling to do this, take a step back and use the plank to firm up your core first.

Once you’re set up, bring one knee towards your chest, leaving your other foot planted on the ground for support, then return it to the starting position and bring your other knee to your chest.

Whether you perform the move slowly and deliberately or at pace is up to you. The faster you go the harder your heart will work, giving you a cardio workout, while slower movement holds greater benefits for your core and abs.

Press-up

A staple of any home workout once you’ve reached a middling level of fitness, a press-up with good form will not only work your chest, triceps and shoulders, but tax your glutes, core and legs as well.

Place your hands on the floor directly below your shoulders – the only other contact point with the ground should be your toes. Keep your legs straight and ideally together – moving the legs apart is a means of making the press-up easier. Once your hands and feet and in position, ensure your body is straight by bracing your glutes and core to keep your frame stable. Lower slowly, ensuring your elbows are tucked in, until your chest is around 2cm from the ground, then push up until your arms are fully extended. Try to take one second to push yourself up, but three seconds to lower.

Leg raise

This exercise is a mean one on the abs, so brace yourself for a bit of a burn. Lie on your back with your arms by your sides and legs stretched out. If you need to, use your arms for support, and if you’re on a hard surface – which we don’t recommend; a gym mat is a worthwhile investment if you plan on adding this to your regular routine – place your hands between your coccyx and the floor to protect your spine. Keeping your back and legs as flat as possible, and your core engaged throughout, raise your legs until they point towards the ceiling (or as far as you can go while keeping your back straight), then lower again as slowly as you can.

See related

• The Ultimate Home Workout Plan
• The Best Bodyweight Exercises For All Levels Of Gym-Goer
• The Best Home Gym Equipment
• The Best Exercise Mats For Your Home Workouts

Advanced Home Exercises

Kettlebell swing

“Stand with both hands on the kettlebell,” says Heap. “Lower yourself into a squat position and allow the kettlebell to swing slightly back between your legs, then explosively drive your hips forwards, swinging the kettlebell out in front of you. Engage your core and glutes throughout the movement. The kettlebell should come up to around eye level, then control the swing down and repeat the movement.”

Kettlebell press

“Start by holding the kettlebell in one hand at shoulder height,” says Heap. “Let the kettlebell rest on your forearm and keep your elbow close to your body. Make sure your feet are firmly planted on the ground to provide stability. Brace your abs and glutes, then drive the kettlebell up over your head, fully extending at the elbow. Bring the kettlebell down slowly and repeat. Do all reps on one arm, then switch to the other.”

Kettlebell jump lunge

“Hold the kettlebell with both hands next to your chest and stand tall,” says heap. “Step forwards on one leg, lowering your back knee into a lunge position. Drive up with both legs and jump. Switch your legs while airborne and land on the ground in the lunge position with the other leg forwards.”

Hollow-body hold

The hollow-body isometric hold is brilliant for your core, but boy does it hurt. Even if you already have a strong core and can hold a plank for three minutes, you might struggle to make it to 60 seconds in the hollow-body hold position. The good news is that even if you give up after 30 seconds, you’ll have increased your core strength – and that’s what it’s all about.

Lie on your back with your legs together and your arms extended behind your head. Lift your arms, shoulders and legs off the floor at the same time. They should hover about 15cm above the floor, while your lower back remains pressed into the floor throughout. Now hold for as long as you can.

Burpee pull-up

Burpees are no-one’s friend, but a burpee pull-up is just a straight-up bully. Stand beneath a pull-up bar, drop to the ground and complete the standard burpee movement. Once you’re back to standing, jump up and grab hold of the bar. Complete one controlled pull-up, lowering slowly to a dead hang, then return to standing. That entire action counts for one rep. HAVE. FUN.

Diamond press-up

What seems like a small change makes a press-up much more difficult by moving the focus away from your chest and to your triceps. Rather than placing your hands directly under your shoulders, bring them together, with your forefingers and thumbs touching so they form a diamond shape on the floor. Keeping your elbows tucked in to the sides of your body, lower slowly until your chest is as close to the ground as possible without touching it. Then push back up powerfully.

It’s easy to overcomplicate your workouts. While it’s great to mix things up with new moves and equipment to keep you engaged in your training, you can do your body a lot of good with minimal equipment and a handful of proven compound exercises that work multiple muscles.

This four-move home workout from Izy George, personal trainer on strength-based training platform GRNDHOUSE, shows what you can achieve by keeping things simple. The workout involves doing just four exercises and using just one piece of equipment – a loop resistance band – but it is still an effective full-body session that you can do pretty much anywhere.

Home Resistance Workout

1 Banded squat

Sets 3 Reps 12-15 Rest 30sec

Stand on one end of the band with your feet hip-width apart and loop the other end of the band over the front of your shoulders. Lower into a squat, pushing your hips backwards, keeping your chest up and making sure your knees track over your toes. Push your heels and big toes into the floor, and drive your hips up and forwards to come back to standing.

2 Banded bent-over row

Sets 3 Reps 12-15 Rest 30sec

Stand on one end of the band with your feet hip-width apart. Hold the band in both hands, lean forwards until your back is flat, with your knees slightly bent, and adjust your hand position so there’s tension in the band. Raise your hands towards your hips and squeeze your shoulder blades, then lower them again.

See related

• Blast Your Whole Body With This Resistance Band Workout
• The Ultimate Home Workout Plan
• How To Start Strength Training At Home

3 Banded good morning

Sets 3 Reps 12-15 Rest 30sec

Stand on one end of the band with your feet hip-width apart and loop the other end of the band around the back of your neck. Hinge forwards at your hips, sending your hips back and moving your chest over your toes into a flat back position. Contract your hamstrings and drive your hips forwards to come back up to standing.

4 High plank

Sets 3 Time 30-60sec Rest 30sec

Get into a high plank position supporting your body on your hands and toes, with your hands positioned under your shoulders. Brace your core to form a straight line from your neck to your heels. Hold this position.

After watching the exciting matches of Euro 2020’s last-16 stage, we could not be more pumped for our weekly six-a-side game. We’ve visualised pulling off step-overs and 30-yard screamers, and steeled ourselves to deal with a calamitous own goal after we fail to control a back pass. What will be more useful than both of those, however, will be running through this home workout, put together by Manuel Neuer.

The stalwart goalkeeper of the German national team is an investor in VAHA, which was the first company to launch a smart fitness mirror in the UK. The VAHA X is a cross between a full-length mirror and a smartphone, and can guide you through hundreds of live and on-demand classes. Its killer (forthcoming) feature is the ability to track and correct your form.

You don’t need a VAHA X to complete this no-kit home workout, although doing it in front of a mirror will help you assess your form and correct it where necessary. The combination of lower-body and core exercises, as well as yoga poses, should help keep you strong, supple and ready to step out onto that hallowed astroturf.

1 High knees

Reps 12-15 each side

Alternate raising your knees to hip height. Keep your back straight, stick out your chest and tighten your abdominal muscles. For intermediates, try slowly increasing the pace as you go. This will get your lower-body muscles warmed up.

2 Triangle

Time 30sec each side

Assume this yoga position by standing with your legs wider than shoulder-width apart, toes pointing forwards, and extending your arms out to the sides. Turn the toes on your right foot to the side, then bend at your hips to bring your right hand to your right shin. Hold for 30 seconds, taking measured breaths, and return to standing. Repeat on the other side.

3 Reverse lunge

Reps 10 each side

Stand with your feet in line with your hips. Step backwards, bending both knees to 90° and lowering until your back knee is almost touching the ground. Pause briefly and come back to standing. Repeat on the other leg, alternating legs with each rep.

See related

• VAHA Smart Fitness Mirror Review
• Football Fitness Tests: See How You Compare To The Pros
• Try This Pre-Season Football Workout From Theo Walcott And John Terry’s PT

4 Squat

Reps 12

Stand with your feet in line with your hips and your toes pointing out slightly. Raise your hands above your head and lower by bending your knees and pushing your bum backwards. Slowly straighten up again. Remember to always keep your knees in line with your toes!

5 Side plank

Time 30sec each side

Form a side plank by supporting yourself on one forearm, keeping your head, back, hips and legs in a straight line and extending your other arm up. If possible, keep an eye on your form in a mirror, because it’s common for your hips to drop without you realising. Hold on each side for 30 seconds.

6 Russian twist

Time 30sec

Sit on the floor with your back straight, knees bent at 90°, feet raised slightly off the floor and holding a weight (a ball or a large, filled water bottle is sufficient) in front of your chest in both hands. Move the weight from side to side, gently tapping the floor on each side. Remember to control your breathing.

A lot of people have started doing home workouts in the past 18 months or so, and the smart ones will have at least sampled Fiit, which we rate as the best way to do guided fitness classes in your front room.

According to Gede Foster, master trainer at Fiit, this influx of new home workout fans has led to a change in the profile of its users and created a demand for ever harder sessions.

“We’re seeing a lot more guys on the app,” says Foster, “and we’re seeing that a lot more of our users are intermediate and advanced.

“Whereas a year and a half ago comments would be things like ‘the trainers move too quickly’ or ‘this was too hard’, now it’s ‘that was disgusting – I love it, give us more!’ We see more and more comments like that where people want to be pushed and challenged, and see what they can achieve.”

Well, be careful what you wish for. In response to this demand Foster has created Fiit’s Boss Level workout, which the app is calling the hardest home workout in the world. We spoke to Foster to find out exactly how hard Boss Level is, and for some tips on how best to go about completing it.

What does the Boss Level workout involve and how hard is it?

The total workout is 90 minutes, and it’s an “engine” class. We’re not calling it HIIT because you can’t keep your heart rate that high for the full 90 minutes, so it’s more about endurance. There are six circuits of different types, like the devil’s workout and EMOM. Halfway through there is a five-minute plank challenge, which is your Boss Level active recovery. So even when your heart rate is recovering you’re still testing muscle fatigue and your mental determination.

So it’s pretty tough! We’ve taken the popular circuits and a finisher from some of our highest-rated classes and put 10-minute versions of those together. It’s pretty intense, but because you’re using weights not all of it is high impact – you’re not jumping all the time. We did try a bodyweight one but the cumulative fatigue meant that people weren’t doing the exercises with full range. That said, people will be deep in the pain cave at one point, if not many points, I’m sure!

How fit do you need to be?

It is tough, and since we’ve made it Boss Level, the upper end of our advanced classes, we don’t offer regressions as we do in our other workouts. You can vary it to make it easier: instead of squatting with both weights you could squat with one, or you can slow the pace down and take breaks.

How can you prepare for the class?

We have a three-week preparation plan, and over that period you do sessions from all three studios on Fiit. You do cardio since Boss Level is cardio, you do strength because it uses weights, and then there’s rebalance sessions to help recovery and mobility. The more mobile you are, the deeper you can get into main lifts like squats and deadlifts, and the more power you can generate.

Also, the classes in the training plan use the circuits we have in Boss Level. So by the time you get to Boss Level you know all those training modes and have experienced shorter classes working at the intensity you’ll be working at. You could also string a couple of classes together in the prep plan to test your engine.

See related

• The Best Workout Apps
• Fitness Challenges For Every Age From 20 To 80

Do you have any tips for completing the class?

Pacing is key – don’t come in too hot. For the finisher, the final 10 minutes, you want to be able to go all-out and empty the tank, but that tank has to get you through 80 minutes first. And make sure your weight selection is slightly on the lighter side of medium: use a weight that you can press overhead for about 15 reps, because it is a cardio class.

Join Fiit | £20 a month, £45 for three months, £120 a year, 14-day free trial available

To burn fat at home you only need two things: your body and your brain. Your body to act as a weight for resistance training, and your brain to plan and execute a healthy diet. In fact your brain will have to do the lion’s share of the work because when you’re burning fat, most of the hard work is done in the kitchen.

If you can keep on top of your diet and consume fewer calories than you require over a day – known as being in a calorie deficit – then exercise will be the cherry on top.

Resistance training, even using just your bodyweight, will strengthen your muscles, joints and bones, improve your posture and make you feel great. When performed as part of a high-intensity interval-training (HIIT) circuit it can also help burn as many calories as you would on a long run, in a fraction of the time.

This simple but challenging HIIT circuit, devised by trainer Ila Divina, will help deliver all those benefits and shift your body into an elevated fat-burning mode for several hours after you finish.

For more ways to get fit at home, browse our collection of home workouts, or if you have free weights to hand (or are happy to shop our selection of the best kettlebells, best dumbbells or best barbells) work your way through these fat-loss workouts. 

The Workout

This six-move fat-burning workout is made up of two circuits. The first focuses on gradually raising your heart rate and activating the deep-lying core muscles, which need to be primed for what comes next.

The second section is made up of one upper-body, one lower-body and one core exercise. The goal is to complete five rounds at the target number of reps as quickly as possible, while maintaining good form.

The faster you get through the five rounds, the better the fat-burning effect and the more calories you’ll continue to burn over the rest of the day. Time how long it takes you to complete, then try to beat your score next time.

Section 1

Perform the dead bug for one set, then the side plank on both sides, then the high plank jack, and finally return to the first move. Complete three rounds, then move on.

1A Dead bug

Time 30sec Rest 10sec

Lie on your back with your arms pointing straight up. Lift your legs and bend your knees to 90° so your lower legs are parallel with the floor. Press your lower back into the floor to engage your deep-lying core muscles. Keeping your lower back pressed down throughout, lower one leg and the opposite arm until they’re just off the floor. Return to the start then repeat on the other side.

2 Side plank

Time 30sec each side Rest 10sec

Lie on your side with your feet stacked one on top of the other and your weight supported on your forearm, with your elbow under your shoulder. Raise your hips and squeeze your core and glutes to hold your body in position for the full 30 seconds. Swap sides and repeat.

3 Plank jack

Time 30sec Rest 10sec

Adopt a plank position with your weight on your toes and forearms, and hips raised to engage your core. From this start position, jump your feet out wide and then back again, and repeat for 30 seconds, making sure you don’t let your hips drop.

Section 2

Perform 10 hand-release press-ups, then 12 reset jumping lunges, then 14 alternating V-sits to complete one round. Rest as needed, but as little as possible. Complete a total of five rounds as fast as you can.

1 Hand-release press-up

Reps 10

In the top of a press-up position – arms extended, hands directly under shoulders, with your body in a straight line from shoulders to heels – take a deep breath to brace your core and glutes. Lower your chest to the floor, lift your hands off the floor briefly, then put them back down and exhale as you drive back up to the start.

“This progression from a standard press-up requires extra power with each rep,” says Divina. “If this is too challenging, perform it on your knees. Just make sure you keep your hips high as you drive up, to protect your lower back.”

2 Reset jump lunge

Reps 6 each side

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Jump and land in a split stance with one foot forwards and the other back, still shoulder-width apart. As you land, bend your knees to bring your back knee just off the floor, then jump back up to reset your feet in the middle. Then repeat the move to land with your other foot forwards.

“Standard jump lunge technique tends to fall apart as you fatigue,” says Divina, “so resetting in the middle will help you complete all reps with good form.”

3 Alternating V-sit

Reps 7 each side

Lie on your back with your arms extended behind your head and legs straight. Flatten your lower back on the floor to activate your abdominal muscles. Inhale and then, as you exhale, sit up to bring your right hand to meet your left foot above you. Then return to the start and repeat with your left hand and right foot.

“Keep your legs as straight as your hamstrings will permit,” says Divina. “Think about using power to drive up, then lower to the start with control. Take one second to move up and two seconds to lower.”

No-one ever regretted a good stretch, yet most of us don’t take the time to do it regularly. Stretching might not be a cure-all that fixes your posture and heals any niggles at a stroke, but making sure you stretch a few times a week will go a long way to helping your body deal with the demands you place on it.

Those demands could be spending most of your weekdays sitting at a desk or in a vehicle, or running every other day, or hitting the gym for strength workouts. Whatever your reasons are for wanting a good stretch, this full-body routine can help.

It’s been put together by Rachele Gilman, director of stretch inc., a studio with two locations in London that specialises in guided and assisted stretching.

1 Leg swing

Reps 10 each side

Leg swings are a dynamic movement that works the hips, glutes and thighs. Keep your back straight and your core engaged to get the most benefit.

Stand with your feet hip-width apart and keep your toes, knees and hips in alignment. Bring your right foot forwards, then swing it back. Do this 10 times on each side, increasing the range of motion to increase the stretch. Then perform side-to-side swings. Swing the leg out and in, crossing it over in front of your standing leg. Repeat five times on each side.

2 Tibialis anterior stretch

Time 20sec each side

This will work the lower leg and ankle. For some people, it will also provide some relief for shin splints. Most people will feel it in the ankle and toes because these are rarely stretched areas.

Stand with your feet slightly less than hip-width apart. Move your left foot behind you and place the tops of your toes on the floor, with your heel facing up. Keep the top of your foot on the floor and move your weight forwards to increase the stretch. You can also move your ankle from side to side to change the stretch. Hold for 20 seconds in any variation, then switch sides.

3 Quad stretch

Time 30-45sec each side

This is a static stretch that works the thighs and the hip flexors. Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Lift your lower right leg behind you, moving the heel towards your bum. Use your right hand to help pull the foot or ankle closer to your bum. Hold this for 30-45 seconds, then repeat on the other side. Focus on keeping your core engaged, your tailbone tucked and your knees in alignment with each other and your hips.

4 Standing figure four

Time 30sec each side

This will help to improve your balance and it’s a great stretch if you spend a lot of time sitting. It’s a deep stretch that helps keep the hips and glutes healthy and mobile. In particular, it stretches the piriformis, which is deep in your glutes and aids hip rotation. Problems with the piriformis can irritate the sciatic nerve and cause pain and discomfort in the hip and buttocks.

Shift your weight onto your left foot and lift your right knee up. Cross your right ankle over your left thigh slightly above the knee. Place your hands on your hips or in front of your chest. Hold for 30 seconds, then switch sides and repeat.

5 Trunk twist with eagle arms

Reps 5 each side

This will improve your spinal mobility and stretch your upper back, shoulders and forearms. Achieving full eagle arms often requires a lot of practice, especially if you lift heavy weights.

Extend your arms in front of you with your palms facing down. Cross your right arm under the left. Keeping your elbows as close together as possible, bend your elbows and bring the backs of your hands together. If you feel the stretch here then stay. If you want to go deeper, take the palms further by working them into prayer position without moving your elbows.

In whatever hand position you reached, slowly raise your elbows until they’re in line with your chin. Once your arms are in position, stand with your feet hip-width apart and twist your trunk to the left side. Return to the middle and twist to the other side. After five repetitions, change your arms, so you cross the left arm under the right and repeat five more times.

6 Windmill

Reps 5 each side

Windmills keep you mobile in your lower back, glutes, obliques and hamstrings, and help improve your core stability.

Stand with your feet wide apart and your toes pointing forwards. Raise one arm and bend from the waist to touch the floor (or as close as you can get) with your other hand between your feet. Switch sides without rising from the fold. Repeat five times on each side.

7 Walk-out

Reps 5

This is a dynamic movement which includes a forward fold and a high plank. This movement works your core and upper body as it stretches your glutes, lower back and hamstrings.

From standing, fold forwards, bending your knees as much as needed to place your chest on your knees and your hands on the floor. You will feel the stretch in your hamstrings. Slowly walk your hands out until you are in a high plank. Then walk your hands back until you’re in the forward fold position. Do this four times in total, and then on the fifth, finish by walking your feet to your hands and slowly “roll” back up to standing.

8 Full-body stretch

Sets 3 Time 10sec, 5sec, 10sec

Lie on your back, reach your arms behind your head and extend your legs to elongate your whole body. You should feel like your arms and legs are being pulled in opposite directions. Keep stretching as you press your lower back into the floor and pull your lower ribs in to avoid arching the lower back. Hold this for 10 seconds and then relax. Contract your entire body, hold for five seconds and release. Then repeat the stretch for another ten seconds.

stretch inc. has studios in Brixton and at Seven Dials, and offers online classes. Prices start at £15 for online classes and £25 for studio sessions.

More Stretches To Try

• The Best Stretching Exercises That Everyone Should Be Doing
• Treat Your Body To This 10-Minute Stretching Workout
• Use This Stretching Routine To Cool Down After Your Workout

Zack George is very, very fit. To the point where he won the UK CrossFit Open in 2020 and finished 26th on the global leaderboard for the competition. That means when George says a workout is tough, you better believe it’s pretty tough.

George, who is an ambassador for G-Shock watches, has created this home workout as the perfect session for those looking for a challenge in the final few weeks before gyms reopen.

The beauty of this workout is that it’s scaleable to all abilities. No matter how fit you are, you will get a quality workout because you’ll be working to time. The fitter you are, the faster you go, and since one move involves using a dumbbell, you can pick a weight to suit you as well.

Zack George’s Home Workout

The workout involves completing 10 rounds of the three exercises below as quickly as you can. Record your time, and see if you can beat it next time.

“You should aim to do all the movements without breaks,” says George. “The burpees over the dumbbell are what’s really going to jack your heart rate up, so try to use the squats as a little active recovery to bring that heart rate back down, ready to go again.

“Don’t go in too hard at the beginning and let your performance drop off a cliff towards the end. Use a watch or a timer to track how long the first round takes you, and then try to stick with that time for each round to stay consistent. In the last round, push yourself to beat it!”

1 Alternating dumbbell snatch

Reps 8 each side

Stand holding a dumbbell in an overhand grip between your legs. Sit back and lower into a squat until the dumbbell touches the ground. Drive back up to standing, lifting the dumbbell with your legs and back. Once it reaches your hips pull the dumbbell up with your arm, flip your elbow underneath the weight and press it above your head. Reverse the movement to lower the dumbbell and swap hands for the next rep.

“Use your legs to drive the dumbbell up, keeping it as close to your body as possible as you do so for maximum efficiency,” says George. “Also ensure you always keep a flat back – rounding it can lead to injury.”

2 Burpee over dumbbell

Stand next to a dumbbell (it can be to the side or in front of you). Drop and put your hands on the floor outside your feet. Jump your feet back to land in a press-up position, then touch the floor with your chest. Push back up and come back to standing. Jump over the dumbbell and go straight into another burpee.

“Try to stay low as you jump over the dumbbell,” says George. “This will help you move faster because you don’t waste time standing completely upright. Keeping your feet hip-width apart instead of narrow will help with the mechanics here too.”

See related

• UK Crossfit Champ Zack George’s AMRAP Workout
• CrossFit Workouts To Try In Your Next Gym Session
• A 30-Minute No-Kit Home Workout For People Swerving The Gym

3 Unweighted squat

Reps 16

Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Lower, pushing your hips back and bending at the knees until your thighs are parallel to the ground, then drive back up to standing.

“Aim for perfect form, which means your hips go below your knees while you keep a nice straight back and upright chest,” says George. “Your feet should be about shoulder-width apart.”

G-Shock Presents Zack George: Road to Redemption. Episodes air weekly from 11th March 2021 on Zack George's YouTube Channel

If you’re used to spending your legs workouts in the squat rack then you’ll have had a new dimension of frustration added to your experience of the COVID-19 lockdown. However, you don’t need access to a squat rack or heavy weight plates to improve your squat. You just need to get creative with your home workouts.

This session from PT Tom Cherry will help you do just that. “These four simple exercises are great for mobility, movement, strength and coordination, which will help improve your squatting control,” says Cherry.

The workout is also great for your running technique and joint stabilisation, and all you need to do it is a water bottle, a tea towel and a smooth floor.

Home Workout To Improve Your Squat

This workout should be done as two supersets. This means you do four rounds, alternating ten reps of 1A and ten of 1B, then move on to four rounds of 2A and 2B.

1A Sliding lunge

Sets 4 Reps 10

“This is similar to a reverse lunge but rather than a step, you slide on the slider or tea towel,” says Cherry. “Make sure your front knee does not go ahead of your toes and keep as much weight on the front leg as possible – the rear leg is for stability. Keep the tempo smooth – four seconds to lower, hold for two seconds, then three seconds to go back up.”

1B Sliding hamstring curl

Sets 4 Reps 10

“Hip thrusts with a twist,” says Cherry. “Lie on your back, place both feet on the tea towel, then raise your hips and tense your core. Extend your legs away from you, pushing away through your heels, then bring them back in, keeping your hips raised throughout. Try to keep the tempo as controlled as possible.”

2A Sliding curtsy squat

“This movement will test your co-ordination and balance,” says Cherry. “Place one foot on the tea towel, and move it back behind and across your body, all while squatting. Make sure your front knee does not go ahead of your toes. The rear leg is for balance – do not place your knee on the floor. If you find it tricky to keep your balance, spread your arms wide like a tightrope walker.”

2B Single-leg glute bridge

Sets 4 Reps 10 each leg

“Finish off with this hamstring and glute burn,” says Cherry. Lie on your back with your knees bent, one foot flat on the floor and one raised. “Push through your heel to raise your hips, squeezing your glutes throughout the movement. For the tempo, take one second to raise, hold for three seconds, and lower for four seconds.”

Try These Next

• How to master the barbell back squat
• This home cardio workout will get your heart pumping
• Stay limber with this home mobility workout

To get in shape, and then stay in shape for the long term, you need to both exercise and eat healthily. And other things, too, like sleep well, but let’s stick to the first two things for now, because they’re the focus of Be The Fittest, a new book from trainer Tyrone Brennand (@bethefittest on Instagram) that contains a 12-week exercise and diet plan to help you get fitter and healthier.

Brennand’s workouts combine HIIT with yoga poses to strengthen your muscles, increase your cardiovascular fitness, and develop your mobility and flexibility all in one fell swoop.

If that sounds good to you, we have an exclusive workout led by Brennand you can watch below. It’s an 11-minute workout that just uses bodyweight moves like squats and press-ups, so all you need is enough space for an exercise mat.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll want to enjoy a healthy dinner to refuel, and Brennand has you covered there too with this simple mackerel and asparagus salad recipe.

Ingredients (Serves Four)

• 4 smoked mackerel fillets, skinned and shredded
• 500g asparagus
• 250 cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 100g walnuts

For the dressing

• 1½tsp horseradish sauce
• 1½tsp honey
• ½tbsp lemon juice
• 1tbsp soy sauce
• 4tbsp soy sauce
• Salt to taste

See related

• 10-Minute Cardio At Home Workout
• Six Home Workouts To Build A Bigger And Leaner Body
• The Ultimate Home Workout Plan

Method

1. Steam or boil the asparagus till tender.
2. While the asparagus is cooking, mix the dressing ingredients together and toss the mackerel with the tomatoes and walnuts.
3. Top the salad with the asparagus, pour the dressing over and enjoy!

Be the Fittest by Tyrone Brennand (Quadrille, £15) Photography © Martin Poole

Be the Fittest: Your ultimate 12-week guide to training smart, eating clever and learning to listen to your body

After almost a year of living under COVID-19 restrictions, it’s fair to say that most of us have tried some form of home exercise class. In fact, there’s a good chance you’re a little tired of the usual options available to you at this point, which is why we thought it worth highlighting something a little out of the ordinary: 24 hours of free virtual Zumba classes.

The Zumba 24 event takes place between 6pm Saturday 23rd January and 6pm on Sunday 24th, so it’s ideally timed to inject a bit of fun into your weekend and reignite your motivation to exercise when perhaps the initial New Year burst has started to wear thin.

For the uninitiated, Zumba classes involve dancing to a variety of music genres, with salsa, reggaeton and Bollywood all on the Zumba 24 line-up. The intensity of the classes varies so people of all fitness levels and dancing ability can get involved in Zumba 24 by picking the sessions that suit them. The creator of Zumba, Beto Perez, will be hosting the first and last classes of the event, with presenters from all around the world taking the sessions in between.

See related :

• The Best HIIT YouTube Workouts
• The Best Boutique Gyms Offering Online Workout Classes
• The Best Workout Apps

The event is free but you need to sign up to take part, which you can do on the Zumba website. There you’ll also find three free sample workouts to give you a taste of Zumba. All three are under 15 minutes long – in fact one is just five minutes, ideal for a quick dip of the toe into the world of Zumba.

You can now browse the schedule for the event, which also tells you which country the instructors hail from for each hour of the event. If you’re looking for the UK instructors, they’re part of the team handling the 8pm-9pm slot on Saturday, along with experts from the Netherlands, France and South Africa.

Sign up | Free

If you’re looking for guided video workouts to do at home you have a lot of excellent options right now. You can head to Instagram and find your favourite gym or studio, which will probably be offering online classes during the COVID-19 lockdown, or you can turn to the many brilliant home workout apps that are available, such as our top pick FiiT.

Above all, you have YouTube, which is bursting at the seams with workout videos to follow at home. Free workout videos, at that, as long as you don’t mind sitting through the odd advert.

However, for every brilliant workout video on YouTube there are several duds. So to make sure you get all killer and no filler, we recommend these terrific channels.

The Body Coach TV

PE instructor to the masses Joe Wicks has a vast range of home HIIT workouts available on his channel, with the videos handily divided into playlists that makes it easy to find those suitable for your level.

Fable Yoga

This new channel is offering a free 30-day programme of yoga sessions that started on 2nd January. New videos come out each day, and they stay on the channel so you can start the 30 days whenever you like. It’s a great way to introduce yourself to yoga, especially especially if you're unable to get out to live classes for, um, any reason.

Blogilates

It’s not unreasonable to say that everyone should do Pilates regularly, because the core strength and posture benefits may well improve your quality of life. Cassey Ho’s channel makes it easy to slip some Pilates into your schedule, with classes of a variety of lengths suitable to all levels. There’s a dedicated playlist with videos targeted at beginners, along with plenty of abs-focused sessions for those looking to carve out a better-defined core.

EkhartYoga

While the all-conquering Yoga With Adriene has many more subscribers, and very good it is too, we’ve found that we prefer the yoga sessions on EkhartYoga. The playlists include one focusing on beginners, and you’ll also find tutorial videos on fundamental poses like downward-facing dog. No-one can correct you on YouTube, so it’s worth spending a bit of time refining your technique.

NateBowerFitness

This channel focuses on boxing workouts, but you don’t need a heavy bag in your front room to follow along at home. There are plenty of shadowboxing routines and general HIIT conditioning workouts, all of which will help get you in fighting shape whether you plan to enter the ring or not.

See related

• The Best HIIT YouTube Workouts
• The Best YouTube Videos For Post-Run Stretches And Yoga Routines
• EXCLUSIVE: Joe Wicks’ Four-Week Fat Loss Workout

POPSUGAR Fitness

You could tackle a workout a day from this channel without having to repeat one for a couple of years, and the varied nature of the sessions means you probably wouldn’t get bored in the process. There are workouts to fit any amount of time you have available, starting at five minutes, plus dance workouts, boxing workouts, Pilates workouts, HIIT workouts and many, many more.

FitnessBlender

The husband and wife team behind this channel have put together over 500 workout videos that provide an accessible challenge to all levels of fitness. If you are more experienced and looking for a challenge, at the top of your list to try should be the 90-minute, 1,000-calorie workout that includes HIIT, Pilates and kickboxing elements.

There are advantages to doing all your workouts at home. One, they’re free (or cheap if you sign up to an app or virtual gym), and two, you don’t have to worry about travelling anywhere. However, it’s also sometimes hard to find the motivation to work out at home and you might be lacking in the equipment or knowhow required to get in a solid workout.

Fortunately Jason Bone, head of strength at FLEX Chelsea, is here to help. Below you’ll find some general tips from Bone on how to go about strength training at home, along with specific advice for people with free weights, resistance bands or no equipment at all.

Plan Your Week

One of the many pitfalls of strength training at home is that you have so many distractions. Overcome this by scheduling your workouts in your diary, the same way you would book in with a personal trainer. I would recommend three strength workouts a week along with other types of training to add variation and keep you interested.

Be Consistent

Consistency is an important aspect of reaching your goals. It’s easy to fall off the wagon and before you know it you’ve missed a whole week’s training. If you miss a day’s training, try to make it up later in the week. Don’t let your head drop – stay positive and be determined to catch up.

Make Progress

Monitor your workouts and look to progress: increase the reps, add more weight, shorten your rest periods. There is nothing better than being able to train harder, feel fitter, stronger or push further.

Tips For Working Out At Home With...

No Equipment

You still have your own body or various things around the house – a chair, a big water bottle or even a member of the family! With bodyweight strength exercises it’s important to slow down the tempo and think about what muscle group you’re working. Are you engaging the right muscles?

To begin with, stick to fairly basic compound exercises like the squat, lunge, glute bridge, press-up, sit-up and plank. These are well-known exercises and the reason for that is because they work! Keep tension in the specific area you’re targeting for around 30 seconds, doing ten reps. If you’ve finished ten repetitions in 20 seconds you’re going too fast. Aim for three rounds of each exercise with a 45-second rest.

You can progress your workouts by supersetting your exercises. Do an upper-body exercise and instead of resting go straight into a lower-body exercise.

Resistance Bands

By adding resistance you’ll be putting the muscles under more tension and therefore increasing your strength capacity. Stick to similar exercises as in bodyweight workouts, although you’ll find your exertion level is much higher. You might not be able to superset or keep to the same rep range you were at previously, but that’s what progression is all about.

Free Weights

This is where you can go to the next level of strength training, though you must be careful that you still stick to the slow and steady repetitions, and be mindful of your form because injuries can occur.

If you are fortunate enough to have some dumbbells I suggest adding the deadlift, front squat, weighted lunge, bent-over row and shoulder press to your programme. Stick to a similar rep range and tempo as in your bodyweight workouts, but add more weight as your strength increases. You will also benefit from switching up your routine every four weeks to avoid plateauing and to keep your workouts interesting.