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Daily Record
Daily Record
Lifestyle
Nicola Roy

The viral 3-2-8 workout explained as fitness expert hails 'great' health benefits

If you're getting bored of your current workout regime or looking for inspiration to get started with one, there's currently a popular trend sweeping social media that might be worth a try.

The 3-2-8 workout trend has millions of hits on TikTok and it's made up of a few different types of exercise spread across the days of the week.

According to fitness experts, it has plenty of health benefits such as improving core strength, and is even said to help regulate hormones and improve overall wellbeing.

To talk the trend through and explain what it involves, fitness influencer Shakira Akabusi appeared on This Morning on Wednesday alongside Holly Willoughby and Craig Doyle - and even put them through their paces.

The presenting duo were keen to find out whether this method was just a fad or whether it truly had any benefits, and Shakira says that lots of people are jumping on board because the concept is "really great".

She explained: "We're looking at mixing up the types of exercises that we're doing. The three stands for doing three days of strength training, we've got two days of Pilates, as well as 8,000 steps across all days [of the week].

It's a common opinion that 10,000 steps per day is what we should be aiming for - but Shakira says we can still get many of those health benefits from doing slightly less which is a lot more "achievable" for some people.

The 3-2-8 regime involves mixing up the kinds of exercises that you do in a week (Getty Images/Tetra images RF)

This may sound like an intense week of workouts, and for those with busy lives, it may not be possible to squeeze in every workout as well as the steps each day.

Shakira said: "For some people, exercising five days a week just isn't going to be achievable.

"But we can still use the concept of this plan, mixing up the types of exercise we do to get the benefits. We can take the elements that work for us."

The fitness influencer then put Holly and Craig through a few examples of strength training exercises, saying that the focus should be on "compound" movements or training a few different muscle groups at the same time.

These movements, such as reverse lunges and knee-to-standings, should be done for three sets with 10 reps each for the best results.

Then it was time for some Pilates practise, which Shakira said was "really good for our core strength."

After demonstrating some side planks and glute bridges, leaving Holly and Craig out of breath, Shakira concluded by reminding viewers that by mixing up your workouts, you can get more benefits rather than just doing the same ones all the time.

The regime was created by Pilates instructor Natalie Rose, and she described it on TikTok as her 'not-so-secret method that will leave you feeling snatched and strong'.

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