Moving your body should be fun, rather than something you dread, and this bodyweight workout from Instagram fitness trainer Kyle Knapp is hopefully a session that you’ll find enjoyable as well as effective.
It’s a training session that you can do anywhere at any time that only takes around 25 minutes if you do three rounds of the circuit — if you just do two, it’s only 16-17 minutes. It’s the perfect way to add some movement to your day, strengthen muscles all over the body, and get your heart pumping as well.
You can also scale the session easily according to your fitness level, and you don’t need any equipment bar one of the best yoga mats to make the floor exercises more comfortable. As well as helping you to get fitter, the session will hopefully introduce a load of new, enjoyable exercises for you to add to your other workouts.
Watch Kyle Knapp’s 8-move bodyweight workout
For the workout you do each exercise for 45 seconds then rest for 15 seconds before going onto the next one. There are eight moves to do and you can take a longer break between circuits if you want to. Knapp recommends doing two to three rounds of the circuit.
You can see Knapp demonstrating the eight moves in the workout in his Instagram post. There are videos that show four moves at a time, as well as individual videos for each exercise, and it’s worth watching them all through a couple of times before you start to familiarize yourself with them.
That’s because Knapp rarely sticks to the standard form for any exercise, instead livening it up by adding in extra movements or combining two moves into one. For example, you start with push-ups with a lunge step, then do side lunges into jumping split squats. Here are the eight moves in the workout:
- Push-up lunge step
- Side lunge split squat switch
- Side kick through
- High low side plank crunch
- Bridge step out
- Skydiver reach
- Rolling kickout
- 3 direction foot tap
Knapp is a bundle of energy and it’s infectious, and taking his energy into the session will make it fly by. You’ll be moving your body in unusual and beneficial ways, and it feels like a much fresher session than just rattling through the usual array of push-ups, squats and crunches. Just make sure you don’t get carried away and try to move too fast if you’re not used to the moves — get your form down pat before moving at the same speed Knapp is.
An extra benefit of Knapp’s approach is that each move challenges the core muscles and will improve your stability, flexibility and posture. It’s a functional session that strengthens your stabilizing muscle groups as well as bigger ones, and you’ll carry the benefits of easier and more controlled movement into your everyday life.
Another benefit of sessions like this is that the strength and stability you build will help you when you do workouts with weights. If you have some dumbbells to hand, you can try this 20-minute full-body workout as a way to progress after a few weeks of bodyweight sessions.
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