If you’re used to lifting heavy weights or clocking speed intervals outdoors, indoor workouts featuring zero gear can appear boring and easy. But they’re often the opposite, offering a fun, challenging way to get fit anywhere. Plus, bodyweight indoor workouts are super convenient, especially during the holidays, when travel, family, and other obligations take the front seat to time spent sweating—not to mention when it’s cold and snowy outside.
Thankfully, Dane Miklaus, C.S.C.S., founder of WORK Training Studio in Irvine, California, took on the puzzle of creating a tough, no-equipment indoor workout and pieced together this creative, total-body routine that’s sure to make your heart rate spike and your muscles feel the burn.
The Benefits of this Indoor Workout for Runners
“I chose to focus on areas where traditional endurance athletes may have weaknesses due to underutilization,” Miklaus tells Runner’s World. Because running and most of our daily movements occur in the sagittal plane of motion—that’s forward and backward—we tend to neglect muscles used in lateral (or side to side) and rotational movements, causing weakness in these areas. While that not only leads to sub-optimal performance, it can also kick up your risk of injury, he explains.
“By implementing a lower-body routine that incorporates lateral and rotational movements, as well as upper body and core training, runners can increase their overall athletic standards and the functional capacity of their bodies,” Miklaus says.
In addition to making you move in different planes of motion, this workout also alternates lower-body and upper-body or core exercises. That way, one muscle group gets rest as the other works, Miklaus explains, without you having to take much actual rest time. The lower-body moves also get more difficult as you work through the seven-exercise circuit, while the upper-body ones become less intense. “This is intended to provide a balanced challenge and allow each athlete space to scale the difficulty [of the workout] to their own fitness level,” Miklaus explains.
How to do the workout: Do each exercise below, in order, for 45 seconds. Rest for 15 seconds while also transitioning into the next move. Repeat for 4 total sets.
You don’t need any equipment for this workout, but an exercise mat is optional. Miklaus demonstrates each exercise in the video above so you can learn proper form.
1. Curtsy to Lateral Lunge
Why it works: Target the muscles that support the hips—including the gluteus medius and minimus (the smaller backside muscles) and the piriformis (deep butt muscle)—as well as the hamstrings, adductors (inner thighs), and gluteus maximus (biggest muscle of the butt). “A more stable hip is a stronger hip, and because runners rely on their hips for every stride, exercises like these are a must,” Miklaus says.
How to do it: Stand with feet hip-width apart. Step right foot back on a diagonal, coming slightly behind left. Bend both knees about 90 degrees, front left knee tracking over toes, and back right knee hovering just off the floor. Drive through feet to stand back up, and without placing right foot down as you step forward, immediately step out to the right side. Bend right knee, sending hips back, and keep left leg straight. Drive through right foot to stand back up, feet coming back to hip-width. Repeat for time. Then switch sides.
2. Push-Up Shoulder Tap
Why it works: While you’ll hit your chest and shoulders, push-ups are also great for strengthening the deep core muscles and shoulder stabilizers, Miklaus says. The shoulder tap also adds an anti-rotation element to turn up the core- and hip-stability challenge.
How to do it: Start in a plank position, shoulders over wrists, forming a straight line from head to heels. Bend elbows, about 45-degrees from torso, and lower body to floor in one straight line. Push back up to plank. Then, tap right hand to left shoulder. Place it back down in plank. Tap left hand to right shoulder. Place it back down in plank. Repeat the sequence from the top for time.
3. Hop Squat With Twist
Why it works: “When all you have for equipment is in your own bodyweight, adding a speed or power component is a great way to increase muscular recruitment,” Miklaus says. “So, by dropping into the squat and absorbing that force, then rebounding back out of it quickly, we turn on more of our leg muscles than if we performed a basic bodyweight squat.” The twist at the top means more fire in the rotational hip and core muscles, too.
How to do it: Stand with feet hip-width apart. Hop the feet out to shoulder-width and immediately lower into a squat by sending hips down and back. Drive through feet to hop back up, feet coming back to hip-width apart. Immediately hop to twist hips to the right side. Then hop them back to center, and jump the feet back out to shoulder-width apart and lower back into the squat. Repeat, this time twisting to the left. Continue alternating for time.
4. High to Low Plank
Why it works: While runners get some biceps activation during the arm swing, they often neglect their triceps, Miklaus says. This move changes that, plus it still taps into core strength.
How to do it: Start in a high plank position, shoulders over wrists, forming a straight line from head to heels. Arms start straight. Place right forearm on the floor, elbow right under shoulder. Then place left forearm on floor, elbow right under shoulder. Pause, then press through right forearm to bring right hand to floor, under shoulder. Then, press through left forearm to bring left hand back to floor, under shoulder. Repeat, starting with left side. Continue alternating for time.
5. Lunge Toe Tap to Single-Leg Hop
Why it works: Build hip strength and stability with this exercise that creates a “triple extension” a.k.a. when the hip, knee, and ankle joints all get in on the action. Plus, “just like with the drop squat, this single-leg hop variation will recruit almost every fiber in an athlete’s glutes, quads, and calves, to make them more forceful and dynamic,” Miklaus says. “What runner couldn’t stand to be a bit more explosive?”
How to do it: Stand on left leg. Lower into a lunge, left knee over toes, as you tap right toes behind you, leg straight. Keep left knee bent as you tap right toes forward, next to left foot. Extend right leg behind you again, tapping toes to floor, straightening leg. Then, drive through left foot to explode up and off the floor, right knee driving up toward chest. Land softly on left foot, bending left knee and repeating the entire sequence for time. Then switch sides.
6. Beast to Plank Knee Drive
Why it works: “When performing bodyweight exercises, it’s very difficult to stimulate the back muscles,” Miklaus says. But this move activates the latissimus dorsi (major muscle of the back), teres major, and posterior deltoid (both on the back of the shoulder). “This is important for helping to provide postural balance for athletes who only incorporate pushing movements into their upper-body routines,” he adds. Finally, the plank hold with knee drive means your abs and obliques get worked, too.
How to do it: Start in a plank position, shoulders over wrists, forming a straight line from head to heels. Send hips to heels, bending knees, keeping arms straight. Drive forward back to plank, and then drive right knee to outside of right elbow. Step it back to plank. Drive left knee to the outside of left elbow. Step back to plank. Repeat the sequence.
7. Skater
Why it works: The skater exercise forces you to slow down momentum, stabilize, and then explode again, Miklaus explains. “When moving laterally, and into a hinged position, we are able to recruit more of the deep hip muscles than is possible when only moving in the sagittal plane,” he says. In addition to strengthening muscles at the hip, it also improves ankle stability.
How to do it: Stand with feet hip-width apart. Drive off left foot to hop to the right, bending right knee, sending hips back, and bringing left foot behind right. Then, drive off right foot to hop to the left, bending left knee, sending hips back, and bringing right foot behind left. Continue alternating.
Mallory Creveling, an ACE-certified personal trainer and RRCA-certified run coach, joined the Runner's World and Bicycling team in August 2021. She has more than a decade of experience covering fitness, health, and nutrition. As a freelance writer, her work appeared in Women's Health, Self, Men's Journal, Reader's Digest, and more. She has also held staff editorial positions at Family Circle and Shape magazines, as well as DailyBurn.com. A former New Yorker/Brooklynite, she's now based in Easton, PA.
