Leave No Muscle Behind With This 8-Minute Cardio Workout

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More time spent being active = less time spent sitting. But there isn’t always time to log a complete 45-minute strength and cardio workout. Enter this gloriously short and tough mini routine. The workout below will only take about eight minutes (I tested the timing at my desk this week…just another day at the SELF office). But, you’ll have to work hard (really hard!) during each of those precious minutes. Let’s get started.

First, you’ll need to know how to properly do two different bodyweight exercises:

1. Hip Escape – 30 seconds, alternating sides with each rep

Justin Steele

Works core, arms, legs

• Start on hands and knees; lift knees a few inches.
• Lift left arm as you bring right leg across body, twisting left to flip over and balance on right arm and left leg.
• Extend right leg and reach left hand to right foot.
• Return to start and continue alternating sides.

2. Combo Deal – you’ll start with 10 reps (on each side) and do two less reps each round

Justin Steele

Works glutes, legs

• Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, elbows bent, hands in front of chest.
• Squat, then stand and lunge forward onto right leg (as shown).
• Return to start. Do all reps on one side, then complete reps on the opposite side. 

Now, here’s how to do the full eight-minute cardio workout:

• 30 seconds of Hip Escape
• 10 reps (on each side!) of Combo Deal
• 30 seconds of Hip Escape
• 8 reps (on each side!) of Combo Deal
• 30 seconds of Hip Escape
• 6 reps (on each side!) of Combo Deal
• 30 seconds of Hip Escape
• 4 reps (on each side!) of Combo Deal
• 30 seconds of Hip Escape
• 2 reps (on each side!) of Combo Deal

Got all that? Keep a towel and water bottle handy because you’re going to work up a serious sweat.

These two moves are part of a bodyweight-only agility routine that Alex Silver-Fagan, a Nike trainer and CityRow instructor in New York City created for SELF. If you want more muscle-toning, calorie-blasting agility drills, check out the full no-gear-needed workout here. The Hop To It exercise is brutal. Consider yourself warned.

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