There are few goals more reliably rolled out in January than ‘getting fit’. On the following pages, you’ll find a four-week, full-body training plan courtesy of Women’s Health Collective trainer India Morse, designed to give your 2024 fitness ambitions the kick-start they need. Bookmark these pages, or download the Women’s Health app (on the App Store and Google Play now) to follow the workouts in real time. Become a member of the Women’s Health Collective and you’ll find an ever-growing library of training plans like this one, all created by our expert panel of trainers. What are you waiting for?
‘Consistency is key.’ It’s a phrase that’s been claimed by many a platformed professional within the wellness world. Peppering Instagram captions and TikToks, it drives home a simple if unsexy truth: that in order to reach your desired outcome, you must repeat a specific set of behaviours again and again… and again. Sounds tedious, we know, but the reason consistency is key is that it takes your body time to adapt; research indicates that it takes six to 10 weeks of persistent strength training for muscle growth to occur. It means building a fitness routine that feels achievable is a crucial ingredient in ensuring you actually show up to it.
Enter: the micro-workout. Research by the Public Library of Science has shown that a 10-minute workout featuring just one minute at high intensity can confer the same benefits as 45 minutes of jogging. Women’s Health Collective trainer India Morse swears by these microworkouts. So when we set our sights on a four-week, full-body training plan, we knew just the person to ask. ‘You really don’t need to spend forever in the gym to see results,’ says Morse. ‘If your workouts are formatted correctly, targeting the correct muscle groups and including appropriate rest time between moves, short workouts can be every bit as effective.’
With that in mind, Morse has put together a 28-day training plan designed to help you work smarter, not harder. Each week, she’ll coach you through three 15-minute workouts – one cardio, one upper body and one lower body. You’ll sweat on alternate days, allowing ample time for low-intensity steady state cardio (LISS), mobility work and rest – all of which are every bit as valuable as the workouts themselves for building your fitness and avoiding injury. The workouts are comprised of compound moves – exercises that utilise multiple muscle groups at once. ‘These stimulate muscle mass growth, so as the weeks progress, you’ll feel yourself getting stronger and fitter,’ Morse adds, noting that the workouts in this plan are particularly good for anyone who doesn’t enjoy traditional cardio, as the mix of faster body-weight and slower weighted exercises will work both your aerobic and anaerobic systems.
Besides increased strength and cardiovascular health, you can expect to
