Some days you might not have the time or motivation to hammer out an hour-long session at the gym, but that doesn’t mean you can’t work out. We asked personal trainer Lewis Paris for a quick, equipment-free workout that can be done from the comfort of your home (or taken to the gym if you want to get out of the house).
These moves might not require any equipment, but they are by no means less challenging: squeezing six moves into 15 minutes to work multiple muscle groups will give you a cardiovascular workout too. This is an advanced workout so it will be a challenge for beginners. Drop the pace or shorten the work intervals if it's too intense. For an easier alternative, try this beginner's bodyweight workout instead.
Set up your timer and give these six exercises a go. A single run-through with rests takes 15 minutes, but you can do two to three sets for a more intense workout.
Lewis Paris is the founder and award-winning lead trainer at Lewis Paris Fitness Ltd, based in London, UK. Paris is a specialist offering personal training, online coaching, corporate wellness, and sportswear. He is also an official partner of the Youngs Sports Academy, contributing to the cultivation of emerging talent in the sporting domain.
How to do this bodyweight workout
Part 1:
To do the first part of this workout, perform each move back-to-back for the prescribed times below, then repeat. The 30-second Superman hold offers active rest after each round.
Two rounds of:
- Quadruped to high plank: 60 seconds
- Side plank rotation with press-up: 60 seconds
- Superman hold: 30 seconds
Part 2:
To do the second part of the workout, perform each exercise for 40 seconds. After performing all three moves back-to-back, take a 40-second rest, before completing two more rounds of the workout (three in total).
Three rounds of:
- Reverse plank marches: 40 seconds
- Star jumps: 40 seconds
- Lunge iso hold: 40 seconds on each leg
The exercises
1. Quadruped hold to high plank
Sets: 2 Time: 60seconds
Muscles worked: shoulders, core, quads.
Benefits: builds stability and strength in the core.
- Start in a table pose, with your hands beneath your shoulders and your knees below your hips. Begin by lifting your knees two to three inches off the floor, keeping your back flat.
- Straighten one leg fully behind you, bringing your toes to the floor. Follow with your second leg, so you’re in a high plank.
- Reverse the process by bringing your knee back under your hips, but not letting your knees touch the floor at any point.
2. Side plank rotation with press-up
Sets: 2 Time: 60 seconds
Muscles worked: shoulders, core and chest
Benefits: improves range of motion, strength and stability in the shoulders and chest.
- Start by lying on your side and place the palm of your hand beneath your shoulder on the floor, with your fingers facing away from you. Brace your core, push into your hand, and lift your hips off the floor. Bring your legs together and straighten them, so your weight is distributed between your hand and the edge of your foot that’s resting on the floor.
- From this side plank position, rotate your body to bring your hips and chest parallel to the floor. Swivel your feet so that your weight is now resting on your toes. Place your hands parallel to each other just below shoulder height.
- Keep your shoulder blades retracted and your glutes contracted as you drive your chest toward the floor to perform the press-up.
- After the press-up, drive yourself back up to fully extend your arms into a plank position and then rotate to do a side plank on the opposite side. If this move is too challenging, you can perform the side plank and push-up from your knees, or find an elevated surface to use.
3. Superman hold
Sets: 2 Time: 30 seconds
Muscles worked: shoulders, core, rhomboids, glutes and hamstrings.
Benefits: develops the posterior chain, helping with posture development, stability, and strength in the back. Strengthens rear delts, glutes, core, and hamstring muscles.
- Lie flat on your chest with your arms fully extended in a 'Y' position and your legs straight.
- Keeping your chin tucked to maintain a neutral spine, slightly lift your chest off the floor and raise your arms higher than your ears in the extended position.
- Keep your legs straight and squeeze your glutes to elevate your feet two to three inches off the floor. Avoid overextending to minimize any strain on your back.
4. Reverse plank marches
Sets: 3 Time: 40 seconds
Muscles worked: hamstrings, glutes, shoulders.
Benefits: improves mobility in the shoulders and builds strength and stability in the hamstrings, glutes and abdominals.
- Sit on the floor with your hands by your side and your legs fully extended in front. Drive your hands and heels into the floor while lifting your hips towards the sky and squeezing the glutes. While elevated, aim to keep your hips high and your glutes engaged
- Once stable, contract your quads and abdominals to lift one leg off the floor, bend your knee and drive it toward your chest.
- Keeping your glutes and hamstrings engaged to keep your hips high, slowly lower your leg and heel back down towards the floor. Repeat on the other leg.
5. Explosive star jumps
Sets: 3 Time: 40 seconds
Muscles worked: quads, glutes and core
Benefits: elevates your heart rate, improves cardiovascular endurance and builds strength and stability in the quads and glutes.
- Stand in a squat position with your feet slightly wider than hip-width apart. Squat as low as you comfortably can, with your elbows bent and hands in front of your chest.
- From the squat position, jump up as high as you can, spreading your arms and legs out to create a star shape mid-air.
- Before you land, bring your limbs back into your body so you land in the squat position.
6. Lunge iso hold
Sets: 3 Time: 40 seconds for each leg. Follow with 40 seconds of rest.
Muscles worked: quads, glutes, and core.
Benefits: increase strength and endurance in the quads and improve stability in the feet.
- Start in a kneeling position with your front leg bent 90° and your foot flat on the floor in line with your hips. Keep your second knee on the floor stacked beneath the hips to create another 90° angle. Keep your chest upright to avoid leaning too far forward or back.
- Using the toes of your back foot, elevate your knee off the floor no more than two to three inches.
- Stay static in this position for 40 seconds, aiming to keep both legs at 90° and keeping your quads, glutes, and abdominals engaged. Switch legs and repeat.
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