Our Favorite Workouts of 2024 So Far

The sun is out, the days are long and it feels like everyone is outside exercising. Building a fitness habit requires commitment and creativity, and summer is the perfect time to start.

Being disciplined about movement doesn’t mean you have to be a gym rat or marathon runner; part of developing a routine that sticks is finding a way to move that makes you happy.

The first step, of course, happens before you even lace up your shoes. We all have our favorite excuses for why we don’t work out enough, and some of them can be paralyzing. The way through starts with setting comfortable expectations and just creating some accountability. You might have to hack your brain now and then to get started, but the most important thing is to be persistent and forgiving of yourself when you backslide.

Here are a few of our favorite workouts so far this year — whether your goal is to bench 230 pounds, up your pickleball game or just squeeze in a high-intensity routine when you barely have time to exercise.

Building strength

Power Hungry

We’ve written a lot about the importance of building and maintaining strength, especially as one gets older. But you don’t just need strength, you also need power, or the ability to deploy strength quickly. Strength helps you dig a shovelful of snow, power helps you dump it. Strength lowers you into a chair, but power gets you out again.

Building power doesn’t have to be hard, but it does require concerted effort. First, try our 30-second power test to see how you stack up. Then check out our short workout to get started on a path to real power.

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