Need a sweat sesh that can be done almost anywhere? Look no further.
Chris Roche is a Level 3 personal trainer at Huel and he has devised this exclusive home workout for Coach. It involves six exercises, aimed at testing your endurance and stamina.
“This workout will fire up your metabolism and get your heart, lungs and body working. It’s a great challenge and will leave you with a big dopamine hit,” says Roche. As part of our 12 days of Christmas workouts, we’ve selected it as a fantastic Boxing Day session to help you blow the cobwebs away, in case Christmas indulgences have left you feeling sluggish.
The exercises are mostly bodyweight movements and a couple of dumbbell exercises. If you don’t have dumbbells to hand, use a bag with books in or other DIY weights for the thrusters and do the burpees without weights (you’re welcome). To add a set to your home gym, start with our recommendations of the best dumbbells.
How To Do This Workout
This session is formatted as a ladder workout, so every round the reps increase until you hit 12 reps, then decrease until you’re back to one. Roche has given rep schemes for beginner, intermediate and advanced levels.
The beginner option works in multiples of four, so you perform seven rounds of the exercises below with the following reps per round: 1, 4, 8, 12, 8, 4, 1.
The intermediate option increases or decreases by two reps each round, so you do 11 rounds starting on two reps, while the advanced option adds or subtracts one rep per round as appropriate.
1 Thruster
Hold dumbbells by your shoulders with your feet hip-width apart. Bend your knees and push your hips back to lower into a squat, then drive up explosively through your heels, pressing the dumbbells overhead.
2 High knees
Run on the spot, pumping your arms and lifting your knees as high as possible. For this move, two knee pumps equals a rep.
3 Jump through
Begin in a high plank position with your wrists directly under shoulders and your body in a straight line from head to heels. Jump both feet forwards to your hands, raise your hands off the floor and rise into a low squat position. Plant your hands back on the floor and jump your legs back into a high plank position.
4 Broad jump
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Bend your knees and swing your arms backwards, then jump forwards, landing with soft knees. Turn around, and repeat the move.
5 Dumbbell burpee
Stand with a pair of dumbbells on the floor between your feet. Squat down and take hold of the dumbbells, then jump your legs back into a high plank position. Jump your feet forwards to land either side of the dumbbells in a low squat position. Push through your heels to rise and bring the dumbbells up to your shoulders as you reach a standing position. Drop into a squat, lowering the dumbbells to the floor between your feet.
6 Mountain climber cross
In a high plank position, drive your right knee to your left elbow, then as you return to the start position, drive the left knee to your right elbow. Keep alternating, maintaining a strong core and keeping your hips in line with your shoulders. For this move, two knee drives equals a rep.
