Spiderman’s Workout?!
Tom Holland’s 20 minute pull, push and squat circuit, why I love this style of workout, and how to adapt it to your own strength and your own clock.
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A very familiar workout
Recently I encountered an article about our friendly neighbourhood Spiderman star Tom Holland and his incredible workout, and I thought, this is familiar! Non-stop, whole-body, time-saving, do-almost-anywhere, building strength and cardio simultaneously, even some mobility and balance.
Apparently, Holland’s workout is a popular Crossfit protocol, and it goes: 5 pull-ups, 10 press-ups, 15 air squats, repeat, as many times as possible in 20 minutes. This sounds great; the ‘incredible’ bit is reading that he can do 27 rounds in the time. Just think about how many pull-ups and press-ups that means!
This protocol is exactly like (US Special Forces trainer) Mark Lauren’s ‘Stappers’. Same idea: 3-4 exercises balancing pull, push and legs, a fixed number of reps for each, repeat for 20 minutes, as non-stop as possible.
How to make it your own
I LOVE this workout style, and it is entirely adaptable to any current fitness/ strength level, and to any available time (there’s nothing magical about 20 minutes!):
- Choose a straightforward and easy-for-you version of an exercise for each of pull, push and legs, and apply a relatively easy (but not nothing) number of reps to each exercise.
- Set a timer for the time you have. 20 is plenty; 10 is a lot more than nothing; 5 minutes will sharpen you up when you’ve been stuck at your desk for a while.
- Crack on. Record how many rounds.
- See if you can do more rounds over the weeks and months. Always improve the quality of the repetitions.
What it does to you
Because the first round or three will feel fairly easy, there’s an element of built-in warm up; I wouldn’t do zero warm-up, but you can save time here.
As the rounds go on, the fatigue builds, and what started feeling easy will begin to feel tough. This will challenge your cardiovascular system – and the non-stop movement from one exercise to the next will develop some balance and mobility.
You can do this in a home-office, a hotel room, a park. It’s a brilliant guaranteed thorough, progressive whole-body workout that’ll leave you feeling great (and may or may not turn you into Spiderman). If you would like help choosing the right version of each exercise for you, that is exactly what I do.