We get it – life is busy! Some days it feels like you just don’t have enough time to do everything you need to AND get exercise in as well. On these days, the important thing to remember is something is better than nothing.

If you don’t have an hour or more to give to exercise, why not combine it with something you know you’ll be doing, and what better place to grab some extra reps than in your kitchen whilst cooking dinner?

Your Exercise While Cooking Circuit

Print off your favourite 12WBT recipe, get out your ingredients, and get stuck into this quick workout in between your slicing and dicing!

• 20 body weight squats
• 20 push-ups with hands on the kitchen bench
• 20 high knees running on the spot
• 30-60s plank hold with straight arms, hands on the floor
• 20 reverse stepping lunges
• 20 star jumps
• 30-60 mountain climbers

You can perform these exercises in succession, making for a high-intensity circuit you can repeat multiple times. Alternatively, perform one exercise, chop some veggies, perform the next exercise, fry the onions, perform the next exercise, and so on. If you do these as a circuit, challenge yourself by timing how long it takes you to do each round, and see if you can beat it the next time.

Want to Ramp It Up?

•      Hold a 2L bottle of milk in each hand whilst performing your squats, or swap out your bodyweight squats for jump squats (just make sure there’s no water on the floor!)
•      Do full push ups on the floor, or, stay with your bench push ups, but make it a plyometric push up by driving up strongly from the bench (making sure your core stays tight!) and clapping your hands together, before landing with your hands back on the bench for your next rep
•      Swap your high knees for tuck jumps
•      Holding plank position with your body, drop down, one arm at a time, onto your elbows, and then press up again onto your hands. Repeat for the full 60 seconds
•      Grab a sack of potatoes to hold whilst performing your lunges, or swap your reverse lunges for plyometric (jumping ) lunges
•      Perform 20 burpees instead of star jumps
•      Make your mountain climbers a sprint, and aim to get your knee as high as possible up towards your chest