The school summer holidays are in full swing, and for me that means a lot of traveling, mostly to visit family members who are very kindly providing childcare while I work.
It’s a fun time, but travel is the enemy of a consistent fitness routine, in my experience. My main sport is running, which is easy enough to keep going wherever you are, but my regular strength sessions fall completely by the wayside when I’m away from home.
My usual strength training schedule consists of a couple of short dumbbell workouts a week, but I don’t want to carry any equipment with me when traveling, so I turn to bodyweight sessions instead.
This 15-minute calisthenics workout from fitness trainer Anna Engelschall (best known as growingannanas on YouTube) is exactly the kind of thing I like to do while traveling.
It doesn’t require any kit or even that much space — you just need room to sidestep while standing and get into a plank position on the floor — and it works muscles all over the body while also getting the heart pumping.
Watch GrowingAnnanas' 15-minute full-body calisthenics workout
The workout contains 15 exercises, each of which you do for 50 seconds before resting for 10 seconds. At the end there’s a 40-second finisher, which I couldn’t do at all; more on that later.
You don’t need any equipment for the session, but if you’re on a hard floor then rolling out a yoga mat will make many of the exercises more comfortable.
I’d say this is an intermediate-level session, and because it contains a lot of push-ups and planks, those worried about putting pressure on their wrists and shoulders might need to adjust those moves.
I slipped in the workout one lunchtime before a run; here’s what I made of it.
It’s more about maintaining strength than building muscle
Maintaining my current fitness is generally my main aim when traveling, rather than going all out to make big strength gains, and this workout fits the bill.
I wasn’t maxing out or finishing any of the moves completely exhausted, but I felt the challenge of each exercise and ended the session confident I’d had a good workout.
Rather than pushing myself in strength sessions while traveling, I find it better to try to stay consistent.
The workout lives up to the full-body tag
It’s not a long workout, but Anna packs in a lot of different moves and each area of the body gets a good workout, with lots of squats and lunges to hit the lower body, push-ups for the upper body, and planks and sit-up variations for the core.
Those looking to really hit their chest, arms and back will probably be better off with a more focused upper-body session, but I enjoyed the full-body approach of this workout.
It’s a fast and sweaty workout
I sometimes enjoy short, slow strength workouts where I don’t even really need to change into gym clothes, but this is definitely one you’re going to sweat during.
The pace is fast, so you pack in a lot of reps and don’t get long breaks; if you’re also doing it in the heat of summer like me, you’ll quickly get your heart pumping. It’s not an all-out HIIT session, but you’ll get some cardio fitness benefits alongside boosting strength.
It focuses on classic moves
In keeping with the back-to-basics theme of the session, you do multiple variations of classic exercises like squats, lunges, push-ups, sit-ups and planks.
This isn’t a workout where you’re going to try all manner of novel moves and challenge your body in new ways; it’s all about hitting the fundamentals hard for a short, effective full-body session.
You might have to pick your own last move
I thought the workout was done after 15 minutes had ticked by, but Anna sprung a surprise with a 40-second crow pose finisher.
For those not acquainted with the crow pose, it involves supporting your entire body on your hands, with your knees resting against your upper arms.
I can do it for a few seconds before falling over, so I switched to a wall sit hold instead to round out my workout.
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