Burn fat and boost your metabolism with this knee-friendly 20-minute workout

Your joints are what help your body to move so when you experience any niggles or long-term pain in your joints, it can feel like exercise should be avoided in order to prevent further pain. However, it's really important you keep your joints mobile and you can do this with lower-impact workouts, like this 20-minute no-jumping routine.

Maintaining good mobility across your body through exercise will help strengthen the muscles around your joints and help lubricate the cartilage around your joints to combat stiffness. It's worthwhile adding in some light weights to improve your strength during a short workout, for example, working with a pair of the best adjustable dumbbells will allow you to modify the weight as you train and they are space efficient.

This workout designed by personal trainer Heather Robertson, is a full-body no jumping workout designed to protect your joints and improve your fitness. The option is there to add in some light dumbbells but the workout is still effective using just your body weight throughout. 

During this 20-minute session, you will complete four circuits of exercises. Each circuit contains two different exercises. You will perform each exercise for 20 seconds followed by 10 seconds of rest and complete four rounds of each circuit. Be sure to keep one of the best water bottles for gym workouts by your side to stay hydrated as you get in a good sweat session.

Watch Heather Robertson's 20-Minute Joint-Friendly Workout

This style of workout is known as Tabata. If you sometimes struggle to find time to do a HIIT workout for fat loss then Tabata is an even quicker way to raise your heart rate, boost your metabolism and burn fat. 

Tabata is still a form of high-intensity interval training but has much more specific active periods of spending 20 seconds on an exercise, followed by shorter rest periods, typically around 10 seconds like in Robertson's routine above. While HIIT may be a little more flexible with timings you are guaranteed a speedier workout using Tabata.

The level of intensity is particularly high during a Tabata workout, this will make use of your anaerobic energy system, meaning your body will need to work hard in order to get back to normal. During this process, your metabolism will remain high and your body will continue to burn calories even while resting.

Of course, this particular Tabata is also gentle on the joints, especially the knees so hopefully, this will be an added bonus for anyone suffering from joint pain. Some people may already be taking measures to ease joint pain such as adding one of the best supplements for joints to their daily routine.

But as long as you are being mindful of the load you place on your joints while working out, according to Harvard Health exercise can improve the symptoms of joint pain by increasing your range of motion, strengthening your muscles, bettering your endurance, and improving balance.