As someone who doesn’t drink coffee and tries to minimize caffeine intake, 3pm hits me like a truck. In quarantine, it was especially hard to resist the pull of a nap when fatigue hit and I had nowhere to be. Looking for a way to give myself a quick jolt of energy, I came up with this quick and easy midday pick-me-up mini workout.

The Routine

10x pushups (whichever type you like best. I’m working on tricep pushups from my knees right now. The most important thing is to get depth, meaning your chest to the ground. If that means you need to scale to your knees, then as Jess Sims says, No Ego Amigo.)

12x mountain climbers each leg (go hard here to spike your heart rate)

12x bicycles each leg (never a bad day for abs)

Repeat 3x

Fair warning: the first few movements will be tough to get through, but by the third set I usually want more. I find it’s important to stop after 3 rounds though since this isn’t meant to be a workout and should ideally fit within 5 minutes. That way, there’s no reason not to crank it out anytime you’re feeling sluggish.

Feel free to modify with whatever movements make you feel your best. I always try to hit the main three muscle groups (upper body – pushups, lower body + a sprinkle of cardio – mountain climbers, core – bicycles) but sometimes add movements like hip bridges for posterior chain work, squats or squat jumps to really blast legs, jumping jacks to get the heart rate going, tuck-ups to get more central core or Russian twists for obliques.

Give it a try and let us know what you did and how it went. Tag us on Instagram at @runningbysix, drop us an email at runningbysix@gmail.com or post in the comments below.