As someone who decided to take on a masters degree alongside continuing to work as a personal trainer I know the need for a quick workout. I also have a tendency to not feel completely satisfied with my session unless I get nice a sweaty and out of puff! So this one is for all the people out there like me who want to feel completely done in a short amount of time.
This workout is great for getting your heart rate going and doesn’t require any equipment so can be done anywhere: gym, home, park, hotel, by the pool, at the office (jokes…you don’t wanna ruin your work clothes!) but you get what I’m saying!
The Exercises
Curtesy lunge and squat combo x10
So for this we are thinking fairly fast pace but making sure we are consciously engaging all of our lower body muscles as well as our core.
So the first move in this combination is a squat, so feet just over shoulder-width apart, bending at the hips and the knees and taking the booty back as if going to sit on a short chair! As you come up from the squat, take one foot behind and across the other to perform a curtesy lunge, you don’t want the feet to close together, just across and far enough back to be able to bend both knees! As you come up bring both feet to the start position and perform another squat repeating the whole movement on the other side. Think “squat, lunge, squat, lunge” alternating sides as you go!
Commandos x10
Start in a plank position on the elbows. Place one hand on the floor followed by the other pushing yourself up to a full plank position with the arms straight (not locked!) then reverse and repeat. Think about trying to prevent the hips from twisting (harder than you think!)
Walkouts x10
Start from standing, lower your torso until your hands touch the floor, then shifting your weight, walk your hands forward until you are in a full plank position. Then reverse and repeat! You can do this with bending your knees or keeping the legs straight depending on how flexible you are, I feel more work in the legs when I chose to bend the knees.
North-south Lunges x10
Start standing, take one foot forward and lunge, push off back to starting and take the same foot back into a reverse lunge. That’s one rep! Repeat until you have completed 10 on each leg!
Eccentric press-ups x10
Starting in a full plank position you are going to bend the elbows and perform the first half of a press up, however you are going to do it as slowly and as controlled as you can manage and take yourself all the way to the floor. Once you’ve reached the floor you can get back to the full plank position however you need to. The aim is to get slower and slower really controlling the eccentric phase of the press-up.
Mountain Climbers 30 seconds
Start in a full plank position, bring one knee as far up to your chest as you can while maintaining your torso position, place the foot back and repeat on the other leg. Then repeat and repeat as fast as you can go the full 30 seconds!
How it works
So this is a circuit, so you will perform 10 repetitions of each exercise one after the other followed by the 30 seconds of Mountain Climbers. Then take a rest of between 30-60 seconds depending on your fitness level, and start again. Repeat the circuit for 3-5 rounds, but again this will depend on your fitness level and the amount of time you have to fit the workout in- if you have the time…aim for 5 rounds!
