Skip the run – this HIIT workout strengthens your heart and lower body at home

Just because your friends are heading out for a 6AM morning run, doesn’t mean you have to follow in their footsteps. Running may be great for our heart, lungs, and bone health but, if it’s not your bag, then there are plenty of other ways you can get your cardio fix. This workout from Alo Moves Instructor is one of them – it’s a bodyweight HIIT workout that will only take you 20 minutes, yet works many of the same muscles that you work during a run, including your quads, hamstrings, calves, glutes, adductors, and arms.

While HIIT and running share many of the same benefits, such as improved cardiovascular health and burning lots of calories, HIIT can also be beneficial for fat loss. PureGym says: "Minute for minute, HIIT workouts are better for burning calories than running at a moderate pace, so you can burn the same number of calories in a short HIIT workout as a longer running workout." They also note that when it comes to cardiovascular health, "HIIT has been found to have the same effect in a shorter period of time".

For this HIIT workout you’ll be doing 40 seconds of work, followed by a 20-second rest. Start with exercise one and do five roundsof this, then move on to exercise two and repeat, then exercise three…and so on. If you stick to the timing correctly, you should smash through this in 20 minutes. Make sure you have a water bottle and towel to hand – we think you’ll definitely need them. Here’s the workout:

Do five rounds of each exercise for 40 seconds on, 20 seconds off

• High knees
• Lateral ski jumps
• Jumping jacks
• Jump squats

Make sure you spend at least five minutes cooling down after this workout to help bring your body back to a resting state. You can do this with either some stretches or, if you’re at the gym, you could even do some gentle walking on the treadmill. If you’re looking for similar workouts, then here’s another bodyweight workout – this one's a 30-minute AMRAP. Alternatively, if you’re looking to work your muscles a little more, then give this high-intensity resistance training workout a go. We wouldn’t recommend more than three HIIT workouts a week.