Can you get creative with your workout using just a mat? Of course you can. Try these three moves for an exercise mat workout that will keep your training fun while toning the body from head to toe
Words: Lucy Miller | Images: Shutterstock & Eddie Macdonald
If you have little budget to buy kit, and little room to store it, don’t panic. There’s no excuse to miss a workout or get bored, as just having a mat can be more than enough to keep you fit and looking fabulous. Coming in all shapes and sizes – and budgets, too – a mat can simply be rolled up and put away, yet is suitable for yoga and Pilates or HIIT and plyometrics. They are so diverse.
The following three moves are each designed to target a certain muscle group using just a workout mat and your body for resistance, so if you do an entire circuit of the three moves, you’re going to get a full-body workout anytime – and anywhere you choose.
Exercise mat workout
What to do
- Complete three sets of the indicated number of reps for each exercise, moving from one exercise to the next, taking 15 seconds of rest in between each.
- Move through the entire circuit once, and, if you really want to up the intensity (and time), incorporate 10 reps of squat jumps or a plyometric move, such as tuck jumps in between each exercise.
Explosive push up
Benefits: This upper body move will work your chest while working your biceps and shoulders, too.
- Get into a push-up position, with your wrists placed under your shoulders and body in a straight line. You can also do this on your knees as a modification.
- Keeping your bum and core engaged, bend your elbows and lower your chest down to the ground (A). At the bottom of the move, energetically push yourself off the floor with enough force so your hands become airborne (B). Land back onto the ground with arms slightly bent. That’s one rep.
- Complete 15 reps in total.
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Oblique heel taps
Benefits: This core exercise will target those hard-to-reach obliques, which are sometimes called your love handles!
- Start on your back with your knees bent and feet on the ground. Lift your chest towards the ceiling, so your shoulder blades come off the ground.
- Tap the left hand to the outside of your left ankle, using your left obliques to crunch sideways (A) and then come back to centre, keeping your shoulders off the ground.
- Reach to the other side and then tap your right hand outside your right ankle (B). Continue switching sides.
- Complete 30 reps in total.
Overhead squats
Benefits: This full-body exercise will help with your balance as well as hip and shoulder flexibility.
- Standing with your feet hip-width apart (A), engage your core as you hinge at the knees to come into a squat position – making sure your knees track over your toes. As you lower down, raise your arms over your head (B).
- Once your knees hit a right angle and you feel low enough to be sitting on a chair, push up through your heels to stand, squeezing your glutes at the top. Bring your arms down to your sides before lowering into a squat again and raising arms back overhead. Complete 12 reps in total.
Lucy wears: Clothing: Nike Crop Top (nike.com); Nike Leggings (nike.com or iconattheo2.co.uk); Earrings and hairbands, (Claire’s Accessories at 02 Outlets at iconattheo2.co.uk); Kin Yoga Mats Halcyon Moon ALL-IN-ONE Mat (kinyogamats.com); Nike Air Max 270 Ladies Trainers (sportsdirect.com).
