With the busy demands of life, many of us can struggle to find the time to workout. It’s not because we don’t want to, but juggling work, family and a social life can often take it out of us. This five minute workout is perfect for slotting in around those busy schedules, it’ll get your heart rate up, burn calories and even help develop some base strength too. You don’t need any equipment either, just grab yourself an exercise mat and lace up your workout shoes.
If you're wondering whether five minutes of activity can actually make a difference, it can. A study from the University of Utah found that women who did high-intensity exercises that were less than 10 minutes had a decrease in their body mass index (BMI) and weighed half a pound less than their non-active subjects. They were also a lot closer to hitting the weekly 150-minute activity guidelines when they did these shorter bouts of exercise, in comparison to longer workouts.
The five bodyweight exercises you'll be doing are also great for developing some base strength in your body. As you probably guessed, this is a HIIT workout, so you'll do each exercise for 40 seconds and then rest for 20. If you own a fitness tracker it's worth wearing it so you can keep track of how many calories you burn throughout the workout, as well a monitor your heart rate and VO2 max. Remember, it's only five minutes, so try and give it your all. If you do have more time though and want to challenge yourself further, repeat this workout two more times. Here's your exercises:
- Reverse lunge into High Kicks (do 20 seconds on each side)
- Skater jumps
- Burpees
- Narrow squat jumping into a wide squat
- Bear position shoulder taps
Make sure you check out our beginner guide to stretching once you've finished, so you avoid any achy muscles. We've got plenty of other speedy workouts, either 10 minutes or under, that you can fit into your daily routine: like this seven-minute full-body workout, that's not only low-impact, but has no jumping involved either. For a bigger calorie burn, give this 10 minute workout a try, it's got eight bodyweight exercises that'll get your heart rate raised in no time.
