January is a funny ol' time for "getting fit". Everyone’s on a health kick after the festive celebrations, so the gyms are rammed with people chasing that "new year, new me" mantra - all while being too skint to splash out on fancy home workout gear.
If that’s you, no judgement - but there is an alternative. Like this body weight-only full-body workout that you can do it in your living room, a hotel room, or basically anywhere you’ve got enough space to lie down and regret your life choices for a bit.
It’s designed to hit your whole body - legs, glutes, core, chest and shoulders - using just your bodyweight, with a mix of strength moves and higher-tempo exercises to get your heart rate up.
The routine comes via fitness trainer shainamarie.b on Instagram. The idea is based on doing each move for a set number of reps, repeating for a certain number of rounds, and keeping your rest tight enough that it feels like a workout - but not so tight that your form falls apart.
A quick note before you start: the rep schemes below are written exactly as shared (for example “10x5” means 10 reps for 5 rounds). If that sounds like a lot, just scale it down. Even two or three rounds will still get the job done.
Here’s the workout
- Good Morning to toe-cross taps - 10 reps x 5 rounds
- Pike push-ups - 12 reps x 5 rounds
- Pop squats - 12 reps x 4 rounds
- Wide push-ups - 10 reps x 4 rounds
- Side plank rotations - 20 reps x 4 rounds
- Bodyweight hip thrusts - 12 reps x 4 rounds
- Jump squats - 15 reps x 3 rounds
- Push-back push-ups - 10 reps x 3 rounds
shainamarie.b’s suggestion is to do the first few exercises on their own for all rounds, then group the last four moves into two supersets.
A simple way to structure that is:
Block 1
Good Morning to toe-cross taps - 10 reps
Repeat for 5 rounds
Block 2
Pike push-ups - 12 reps
Repeat for 5 rounds
Block 3
Pop squats - 12 reps
Wide push-ups - 10 reps
Repeat as a superset for 4 rounds
Block 4
Side plank rotations - 20 reps
Bodyweight hip thrusts - 12 reps
Repeat as a superset for 4 rounds
Finisher
Jump squats - 15 reps
Push-back push-ups - 10 reps
Repeat for 3 rounds
Rest just enough to keep your reps clean. If you’re newer to training, take 30-60 seconds between rounds. If you’re more experienced, try to keep it closer to 15-30 seconds, especially on the supersets.
Regressions if you need them
If pike push-ups or push-back push-ups are a bit savage, elevate your hands on a sofa or bench, or drop to your knees. For jump squats, swap to bodyweight squats if you’re trying to keep things low-impact. The point is moving well, not smashing yourself for the sake of it.
And if you want to make it harder without equipment, slow your reps down on the good mornings and hip thrusts, and add a pause at the top of each rep. It’ll light up your hamstrings and glutes in the best possible way.
If you enjoyed this workout, then make sure you give this other bodyweight workout a go – it’s a little more low-impact than this one, as you’re not working against the clock, and you get rests between exercises.
Alternatively, if building muscle is your main focus, then a fitness trainer has shared two bodyweight circuit workouts that can help you add on size instead.
