We spend a lot of time sitting down nowadays. At work? Sitting at a desk. Chilling out at home? Sitting on the couch. Getting from A to B? Sitting in a car. You get the picture.
That's a short strength-building, fitness-boosting workouts—like this five-minute routine—can help. You don't need any equipment, but it can help to wear a pair of the best cross training shoes to support your ankles as you switch between exercises.
"Short workouts added throughout the day can help break up sedentary habits, and they are also great if your schedule is chaotic," explains Les Mills trainer Lyndsey Hunter-Long.
"Adding short workouts throughout the day can improve your focus without causing exhaustion. [Plus, they are] also great for beginners, breaking your exercise sessions into short, manageable sets."
If you're ready to join the short workout revolution, try following along with this Les Mills session via the video below. The main workout is just five minutes but is sure to raise your heart rate and get your muscles firing. There's also a few short demonstrations so you can practice your technique before you start.
Watch Les Mills' five-minute workout
This session comes from Les Mills' BODYATTACK series; high-energy, fitness-boosting sessions designed to offer something for everyone by using moves that are accessible for anyone.
"BODYATTACK is a whole-body workout that burns calories while toning and shaping [the muscles]," says Hunter-Long.
"The workouts combine athletic movements like running, lunging and jumping with strength exercises such as squats, helping you build stamina, train using sports-inspired moves, and improve your coordination and agility."
Quick routines like this one fall under the umbrella of "exercise snacks". These are short bouts of activity that can be scattered throughout the day to help you stay active when you don't have time for an hour-long gym session or lengthy home workout.
According to an article published in the Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews journal, exercise snacks are an efficient and manageable way to work out that can help undo the damage of too much sitting down by boosting your fitness and heart health.
If that's piqued your interest in exercise snacking, you might be on the lookout for more short routines to sprinkle into your day. Luckily, we've got you covered with our roundup of five-minute workouts to build strength without weights.
