Even if you don’t have any dedicated fitness equipment in your home like dumbbells or kettlebells, there are always ways to improvise and improve your workouts using common household objects.
A simple step, for example, can be used to create variations on common exercises to make them easier or harder, as well as for dedicated moves like step-ups. For this 20-minute workout from fitness trainer Kat Boley, you can also use a low table or wall — you just need something that can support your weight without wobbling at all. If you do have access to a gym, you can use a bench for the workout.
If you have one of the best yoga mats it might also be worth rolling out by your step to give you better traction for some of the exercises, but really all you need to this full-body workout is your step
Watch Kat Boley’s 20-minute bodyweight workout
There are five moves in the circuit you’ll be doing for the workout, and your aim should be to do three full circuits. For each move do 10 to 12 reps in total, so if it’s a move where you work one side of the body at a time, do five or six reps on one side then switch to the other.
Rest for a minute at the end of the circuit, but aim to move between each move quickly without taking too much of a break so you get your heart pumping and gain some cardiovascular benefits from the session along with strengthening your muscles.
Boley demonstrates each of the exercises in the Instagram post — here are the five moves you’ll be doing:
- Single-leg step-up
- Incline push-up
- Bulgarian split squat
- Triceps dip
- Elevated side star plank
Once you start doing the exercises you’ll quickly see how using the step makes them easier or harder. For example, push-ups are easier when you do them with your hands raised like this, but if you were to turn around and put your feet on the step for a decline push-up, it becomes harder than doing a regular one.
You can also increase or decrease the difficulty of some of the moves depending on how close your feet are to the step. Dips are harder with your feet further away, and easier with them closer to the step, and the same is true of the side plank.
That means it’s simple to adjust this workout to suit your fitness level, even during the workout itself — if one exercise is proving too hard or easy in the first round, you can adjust your position a little during the second and third rounds accordingly.
If you do have dumbbells to hand and want a more traditional training session, try this 20-minute full-body workout, whereas if you do want a bodyweight workout but can’t find a suitable step to use for Boley’s routine, give this 20-minute session a go.
