I like exercise but never team sports and I've never liked going to the gym, nor lifting weights for the most part. In the past I've (rock) climbed, done a lot of martial arts including Xing Yi which is an excellent workout that requires zero equipment but is very rare, so it's hard to find a teacher and it's genuinely something you need a teacher for and done some yoga which I love but also think a teacher goes a long way. Then I did some BJJ and a bit later being a big martial arts nerd I came across a HIIT workout by a (at the time of release) famous MMA guy, and I have been doing it for ten years. It's arguably harder than anything I've done in the past but it has over time made me strong and healthy, lean and defined but not 'big' by any means.

Anyway I definitely recommend it, you only need a laptop/phone, a yoga mat, a towel (you will sweat) and two dumbbells. Best of all you can do it in a small space (like a spare room or a balcony) and from warm up to workout to cool down the whole thing is done in 45 mins. Very hard to find better value for the time. The down side is it's brutal, spartan brutal. Initially it will take your body a week to recover from the workouts, and it's important you let all the soreness go away but then get after it again as soon as possible afterwards, otherwise your body will need a week to recover again. There were times when my heart rate would be elevated for 2-3 days afterwards, one of the workouts in particular is very tough. Sometimes I think that it's too much but over a long time, longer than I ever thought possible in terms of these things, my body adapted to handle the work required. Now I can do even the toughest routine and still be good to do anything the rest of the day, I'll still be sore the next day though. I think anyone who is not crazy fit should proceed with extreme caution, I can definitely see these workouts giving some one a heart attack. But over time this type of exercise is I feel the best anti-aging, anti heart attack stuff you can do. Anyway if anyone is interested someone uploaded them to youtube a while ago:

- the one I started with, I thought I was in pretty good shape from BJJ but no! - the hardest one - my favourite go-to one

The warm up and cool down is the same for each. The program features two other workout routines but I dropped them, I think these 3 are the money. It's also possible to mix up the rounds so you have 5 rounds that don't require dumbells, helpful if you are on holiday or something.

I won't be able to do this forever but I'll try for as long as I can, eventually I will go back to yoga and taiji/xingyi.