

It’s winter, the weather’s cold and miserable, and the enthusiasm to lace up your running shoes is fading. While running may burn a lot of calories there are plenty of other exercises that can help you get your cardio fix, like this simple (yet deadly) three-move bodyweight workout. It will spike your heart rate, crushing lots of calories in the process, and you won’t even have to leave the house. All you’re going to need is a bit of space, a chair and to get a good pair of workout shoes on your feet.
Bodyweight workouts can certainly burn lots of calories, especially when the intensity is high and the exercises focus on compound movements. This workout hits both of these. It has high reps, short rest periods and is made up of multi-joint exercises, which work more muscles in the body to elevate your heart rate, as well as improve your functional strength too.
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This bodyweight workout from Serge Fitness follows a circuit format, where you’ll repeat one exercise after the other with little to no rest in between. You’ve only got three exercises to work through and you want to try and complete four to five rounds in total. Although Serge says to take no rest between rounds, if you need to, 100% do, however try and make it no longer than 90 seconds. Here’s your three moves and reps to work through:
- 30 squat jacks
- 20 mountain climbers
- 20 step-ups
If you want to crank things up an extra notch, you could always incorporate either a pair of dumbbells or a kettlebell into your step-ups to fire up your muscles even more! Want more similar workouts? Try this 11-minute core and cardio bodyweight workout for those days you need to squeeze a speedy session into your schedule. Alternatively, if you want a workout that’s a little more fiery than the one you just did, check out this bodyweight workout.
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Bryony’s T3’s official ‘gym-bunny’ and Active Staff Writer, covering all things fitness. She is a certified personal trainer and also a part-time fitness instructor. In her spare time, you will find her in her natural habitat - the gym - where her style of training is a hybrid of bodybuilding and powerlifting. Bryony loves writing about accessible workouts, nutrition and testing innovative fitness products that help you reach your fitness goals and take your training to the next level.
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