You only need these six moves and a resistance band to strengthen your arms, abs and legs

If you want to strengthen muscles across your entire body, you could do an arm workout today, a leg workout tomorrow and an abs workout the next day. Or you could hit all three areas in one time-efficient routine. 

This short, full-body workout only uses a humble resistance band, so you don't need to own a lot of different equipment to try it. If you don't already have one, take a look through our round-up of the best resistance bands for some recommendations. 

Once you've got your gear, then you're ready to try the new routine from Sweat app trainer Britany Williams. Williams provides 10 exercises to choose from (which she demonstrates in the video below). You can do all 10 if you're feeling fresh, or pick your favorite six if you're short on time. 

Watch Britany Williams' thighs, arms and abs workout

Perform the exercises as a circuit for 12-15 repetitions each (or 10 repetitions on each side, if it's a one-sided movement like the kickstand deadlift) and try not to rest for too long between moves. 

Once you've completed all of the exercises, rest for one minute then repeat the sequence. Continue this until you've finished three rounds for an efficient workout that should take less than 30 minutes.  

How it works

Part of the reason Williams is able to fit so much into just half-an-hour is her use of compound exercises. These movements use multiple muscles at once, making them an efficient and effective training tool. 

For example, the sumo squat pullback sees you hold a half-squat position, keeping your leg muscles under constant tension. You're also using your back and biceps muscles to pull the resistance band towards you, while stable shoulders are needed to hold the band steady. So you're working a broad range of muscles with just one movement. 

The exercise band also adds resistance to each of the moves, providing a bonus challenge for your muscles. Challenging your muscles is a prerequisite of building strength, as per the progressive overload principle, which requires you to regularly increase the demand on your muscles to make them bigger and stronger. 

If you wanted to keep getting stronger, you could try buying a band that offers more resistance, or you could simply increase the number of repetitions you do of each movement.