As well as my gym-based workouts, I have devised a total body workout that can be done at home, in the office (when the boss is away), in a hotel, in the garden – anywhere in fact. If you want, you can use this as your only exercise routine, never go near a gym, and get a whole lot fitter just on this – provided you follow decent nutrition too.
As you’ll have gathered by now, I’m a bit of a fan of going to the gym. But sometimes, I am somewhere with no access to one. These are usually the worst business trips, or the best holidays – as it means I’m somewhere miles from anywhere. As I write this, I reckon I am 100 miles from the nearest gym. But even though I am on a great holiday, I don’t want to let my training disappear.
So I have devised the 20:20 Workout. It’s what I do once per day – usually late afternoon or early evening – and I do it every day while staying anywhere without access to a gym. It’s called the 20:20 as the workout contains 20 exercises, each of which has 20 repetitions. That may sound a lot, but it should take less than 20 minutes – another reason to call it 20:20.
The 20:20 Workout includes exercises for all 8 major muscle groups, plus abs, plus an element of cardio, and some optional recommended stretching and flexibility work at the end. The only equipment you need is a chair, a door with doorknobs either side, and a wall. Every hotel room should have most of these, if it doesn’t I suggest you move on pretty quickly to somewhere that does.
I’ll make it take a bit less time, a bit less intense than a gym workout, but it’s still an important part of my daily life. It probably should be more so, as without doubt I’m eating and drinking rather less healthily than usual. I was going to put in a really bad joke here about 20:20 is the perfect vision to fitness, but I decided not to. Oh I just have.
The exercises are grouped into 4 groups, each with 5 exercises:
1. Warm-up/Cardio,
2. Upper Body,
3. Lower Body,
4. Abs / Core.
I have chosen the exercises to be particularly applicable to the 50+ age group, nothing too difficult (so no one-arm handstands, for example), but hopefully a little bit challenging for most people. Most of the resistance exercises work multiple muscle groups – I have indicated the major muscle group worked by each exercise in the description.
The target is 20 repetitions (‘reps’) or 20 seconds. But if you’re new to it, start by attempting 5 repetitions. If you fail before this on any or all exercises, that’s fine, make a note of the number you fail one, and try to do one closer to 20 next time. But always fail and stop doing that exercise at that point rather than continue to do an exercise with dodgy form. If you do the 5 reps of any exercise, then make it 6 next time and so on up to 20. Take a few moments rest between each exercise, but not too long or you’ll blow that 20 minutes.
For each exercise, a rep is once you have completed a movement and are back at the starting position. Note that within each rep within the upper body and lower body groups, there are two movements: the exertion phase, where you push or pull some weight against the force of gravity, and the returning phase, where gravity is taking the weight downwards.
Two of my favourite words are ‘Lower Slower’ – you should resist gravity on this second phase, don’t let gravity do the work. The returning phase should take twice as long as the exertion phase on average – say 2 seconds lowering following 1 second of the exertion phase.
And another favourite word is ‘Exonex’ – OK its not a real word, I made it up – but it means Exhale on Exertion. So breathe out as you push or pull the weight quickly, then breathe out as you lower slower.
Here are the 20 exercises, and this is where your 20 minutes starts. We start with some warm-up exercises that get the cardio system moving a little, and get you a little (or more) out of breath.
Warm-up/Cardio (5 exercises)
High Knees Running:
Running on the spot, getting those knees as high as possible in front of you – ideally past the point of the upper leg being horizontal. A rep is once you have lifted both right and left legs. So for your initial 10 rep pattern, you lift each leg 10 times.
Full Star Jumps:
Stand upright with hands by your sides.Jump up and spread your legs while jumping, so that when you land, your feet are apart, ideally wider than shoulder width apart. While jumping, raise your arms in a wide arc so that, when you land, your hands are touching vertically over your head. Try to keep arms straight throughout. Reverse the movement back to the starting position.
Low Burpees:
Similar to the Mountain Climbs, but both feet move in the same direction at once. Start face down on the floor, weight on hands and toes, arms straight. Bring both feet forward, so that the knees are right by the chest. Now quickly push both legs down to the starting position. Lift both feet off the floor briefly as they move (not dragging along the floor). Wait a fraction of a second before the next rep.
Squat Jumps:
Start standing upright, feet close together and arms by your sides. Squat down as low as you can go, drop your hands so your fingertips are touching the floor in front of your toes. This is the starting position. Then jump up a high as you can, reaching overhead with your hands as far up as you can. The come back down (gravity does the first bit) to the starting position, touching the floor with your fingertips. Wait a fraction second before the next rep.
Mountain Climbs:
Start face down on the floor, weight on hands and toes, arms straight. Bring one foot forward so that the knee on the side is right by the chest. This is the starting position. Now quickly push that leg down, and bring the other one up, so that the positions are reversed. Lift both feet off the floor briefly as they move (not dragging along the floor). Pause for a fraction of a second, then reverse the movement back to the starting position, where you pause again before the next rep. 10 reps is 10 times bringing each leg forward alternately – so there are 20 moves in your initial 10 rep pattern.
You should be well warmed up by now, heart-rate appropriately elevated, ready to move on to the next group – 5 exercises for the upper body.
Upper Body (5 exercises)
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- Press Ups:(Chest)
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- There are many ways to do a press up, but I like the simplest one. Face down, body flat on the floor, hands flat on the floor alongside shoulders and fingers forwards. Press up while exhaling until elbows are almost locked, and then lower slower. Stop when any part of your upper body is very nearly touching the floor. Keep the body straight as a plank from the heels upwards throughout the movement. If it’s too difficult, the easier variant keeps the knees on the floor as well as toes, and the plank goes from the knees up the body. And if that’s too hard, try it leaning up against a wall. And if you want to make it more difficult than the basic, push up harder and try to lift the hands of the floor at the top position.
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- Overhand Pulls:(Back)
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- Find a door with a handle on both sides. Hotel room bathroom is my favourite. Stand facing the edge of the open door, holding each handle in an overhand grip. Move your feet forward, alongside the bottom of the door, and sink backwards so that your arms are straight. This is the starting position. Then, with elbows going outwards (not downwards), pull yourself forwards as far as possible – which is usually when your head is about to hit the door edge. Hold for a fraction of a second, feeling a bit or a squeeze in the upper back, then lower slower back to the starting position. Keep the body straight throughout, don’t lead forwards. Remember Lower Slower and Exonex. And please don’t pull the door off its hinges – try a couple of lightweight pulls the first time you do this to get a sense if the door fixings can take it! Putting the feet further forward makes this a harder and better exercise. You can use a horizontal bar instead if you have one to use.
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- Underhand Pulls:(Biceps)
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- Find a door with a handle on both sides. Stand facing the edge of the open door, holding each handle in an underhand grip. Move your feet forward, alongside the bottom of the door, and sink backwards so that your arms are straight. This is the starting position. Then, with elbows going downwards (not outwards), pull yourself forwards as far as possible – which is usually when your head is about to hit the door edge. Hold for a fraction of a second, feeling a bit or a squeeze in the biceps, then lower slower back to the starting position. Remember Lower Slower and Exonex. Keep the body straight throughout, don’t lead forwards. Putting the feet further forward makes this a harder and better exercise (but increases the pressure on those hinges!). You can use a horizontal bar instead if you have one to use.
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- Tricep Dips:(Triceps)
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- Find a chair that is stable – a dining chair is ideal. Wheels are a no-no. Sit on the edge of the chair, hands gripping the outer edge of the arms of the chair – or gripping the front edge of the chair if the chair has no arms. With legs straight, and heels on the floor, move forward slightly so your weight is on your arms and heels only. Then lower through your arms as the elbows flare outwards. When you can go no further, push back up to the starting position. Lower Slower than the push back up, and Exonex. If there is any instability in the chair position, try pushing it up against the wall. Make this easier by making the chair higher and vice versa. Make it extra hard by raising the feet on to something solid.
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- Shoulder Walls:(Shoulders)
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- Stand upright facing a wall, away from the wall by the approximate length of your upper body. Tilt forward at the waist so your back is horizontal and with your hands on the wall, alongside your head, fingers upwards. You should be looking downwards, with the top of your head very close to the wall. This is the starting position. From here push with your hands so your upper body moves backwards – don’t move your feet. The ideal end position has your back and arms in a straight line – horizontal. Reverse back to the starting position. Make it much more difficult, if you want to, by doing it one arm at a time (sorry, have to double the reps if you do this).
By now, you are half way through and should be sometime around 10 minutes into it (obviously much longer the first couple of times as you are getting used to it and still reading the instructions). Good news is if you’ve done the 20 reps per exercise, you’ve done 200 reps in total – a great first half.
Lower Body (5 exercises)
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- Lunges:(Quadriceps)
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- Start by standing upright, feet close together facing forwards, and arms by your sides. Each rep has three phases – firstly, place one leg on the floor ahead by bending the knee – keep the back leg straight and both feet facing forwards. Ideally the upper leg of the stretched out leg is parallel to the floor. Secondly, sink downwards so that your rear knee touches the ground (or gets very close to it). Thirdly, push back up from the front leg so that, in one motion, you are back at the starting position. Do it all again with the other leg. Try to keep the back vertical and head facing straight on throughout. Lower Slower doesn’t really apply, but the exertion is on the third phase, so this should be the exhale point. And yes, you can hold on to something for stability, but not to be weight-bearing. We count one rep here as the movement on either leg, so 10 reps is 5 per side alternately. Make it more difficult by lengthening the stride of the step forwards.
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- One-leg Squats:(Quadriceps)
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- Stand with one leg on behind you with that foot up on a chair. Lower down by bending the standing leg as far as feels right, then return to the starting position. Then the same on the other side. Feel free to hold on to something for stability, but not to be weight-bearing. We count one rep here as the movement on either leg, so 10 reps is 5 per side – do all one side first, then the other. Make it more difficult by lengthening the stride of the step forwards, and sinking a bit further. Also known as Bulgarian squats, don’t know why, if you do, can you let me know?
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- Wide Squats:(Hamstrings)
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- Stand with feet fairly wide apart – more than shoulder width apart, hands by your sides, feet forwards or slightly outwards. Keeping the back as straight and vertical as possible, and the head up, bend at the knees and drop the hands in front of you so that the fingertips touch the floor – if you can’t reach the floor, go as far as you feel is good. Keep looking straight in front the whole time – this helps keep the back straight. Then return to the starting position. This is made more difficult by getting more of your hand and wrist to touch the floor.
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- Stair Rocks:(Calves)
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- Stand on the edge of a stair, holding on to the handrail, weight on the front part of the feet with heels hanging over the edge. Hinge upwards and downwards to the maximum range of movement. One up and one down is one rep. Do the downward movement particularly slowly, as the Achilles Tendon is vulnerable to sudden movements such as this.
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- Hip Raises:(Glutes and Hamstrings)
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- Lie on the floor with upper legs vertical, lower legs horizontal resting on a chair. Right angles at the knee and hip. Using your hamstrings and glutes (not pushing with your hands), lift your hips off the floor so that your torso and upper legs become a straight line – probably 30 degrees or so to the ground. Lower slower but don’t quite get the hips back on the ground before doing the next rep.
Abs/Core (5 exercises)
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- Floor Sit-ups: (Upper Abs)
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- Lie on the floor, legs bent with your knees at the top of a pyramid. Then, with hands by your hips, curl upwards a short distance, then down again under slow control. Lower slower. Try to keep the feet on the floor, and don’t rock. Do go so far upwards that it is easy – keep the motion of the head in a vertical plane, not horizontal. And don’t touch the floor with your shoulders between each rep.
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- Straight Leg Lifts:(Lower Abs)
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- Lie flat on the floor, feet together. Then, keeping legs straight, raise legs as far as possible then bring them down again towards (but not quite touching) the floor. Don’t add swing or momentum, and keep the hips on the floor. If this is too hard, bend your knees so the lower legs remain parallel to the ground.
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- Bicycle Crunch:(Obliques)
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- Lie on the floor, legs straight out in front of you, hands at your temples. Lift your feet and legs slightly off the ground, then bring your right knee towards your chest, at the same time extending and twisting your upper left side so that the your left elbow touches the inside of your right knee. Return more slowly to the start position, then do the same on the other side. One rep is a complete left and right cycle – so there are forty movements in total.
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- Front Plank:(Core)
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- Lie flat on the floor face down, then raise yourself such that you are resting on your elbows and toes. The upper arms are vertical, the lower arms are on the floor. The body is to remain flat in this raised position, no sagging at the middle – Plank-like, in fact. 20 seconds holding this position.
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- Side Planks:(Core)
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- Lie on the floor on your right side, then raise then raise yourself such that you are resting on your right elbow and side of your right foot. The upper part of the right arm is vertical, the lower part of the right arm is on the floor. Left leg lies on top of the right one, and left arm is lying on the body. The body is to remain flat in this raised position, no sagging at the middle – Plank-like, in fact. 10 seconds holding this position, then the same for the other side.
That’s it – 20 exercises, each of which has 20 reps or takes 20 seconds, and all over in 20 minutes. And you can do this every day – and don’t go anywhere near a gym.
If you find you still have a few minutes left (six to be precise), I recommend adding some stretches to the end of this routine – my favourite six stretches, taking one minute each – are quads, hamstrings (2x30sec),calves (2x30sec), back, chest/shoulder and triceps (2x30sec).