Burn calories while doing dance-inspired moves.

Drop it like it’s hot? How about drop it like a squat? If you usually shy away from lower body exercises in favor of above the belt training, it’s time to wise up. Whether or not weight loss is your goal, you’ll get serious pay-off by training your lower half. Your quads, hamstrings and glutes are home to some of the biggest muscles in your body, and those muscles will torch calories both during and after your workout, thanks to excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC), the process by which your body replenishes its oxygen stores.

Plus, working your lower body will pay off in about a million different ways. “Lower body strength, much like your core, is a foundation for all fitness,” says Justin Rubin, Daily Burn trainer for True Beginner. Challenging your legs and glutes will translate to better balance, strength and agility — all of which are important for day-to-day activities like racing up the stairs (without burning thighs) or even getting low on the dance floor.

Best of all, you don’t even need a pimped-out gym to get started. We asked Rubin to demonstrate four beginner-friendly moves that can be done pretty much anywhere. (Translation: No equipment required!) For a solid workout, repeat each exercise for one minute, doing as many reps as possible. Then recover for 30 seconds. Complete five rounds and you’ll start to feel the burn! If you want an extra challenge, try the optional towel modifications listed below each description to engage your upper body as well.

RELATED: 15-Minute Leg Workout to Tone Up Fast

4 No-Equipment Lower Body Exercises

1. Reverse Lunges

Targets: Quads, hamstrings, glutes, core

How to: Begin standing with your feet hip-width apart, hands on your hips (a). Shift your weight onto your left leg and step your right leg straight behind you (b). Lower directly downwards until your front and back knees are at 90-degree angles. Hold for one second (c). Next, engage your left thigh and push off your right leg, coming back to a neutral, standing position (d). Repeat on the other side, alternating sides for a minute.

Extra credit: Hold a towel taut between your hands. When you step back for a lunge, twist your upper body in the opposite direction of your back leg. (Example: Twist to the left when you step back with your right leg.)

RELATED: Hate Squats? 7 Glute Exercises for an Instant Butt Lift

2. Squats

Targets: Glutes, quads, hamstrings

How to: Begin with your feet under your hips, legs no wider than your shoulders. Your bodyweight should be in your heels and your arms should be relaxed by your sides (a). Keeping your chest upright and your shoulder blades pulled back, bend your knees and sink down, making sure your knees do not extend beyond your toes. Your arms should extend straight in front of you. Imagine you are touching your butt to a chair (b). Now, drive through your legs and squeeze your glutes to stand back up, letting your arms come down to your sides again (c). Repeat for one minute.

Extra credit: Hold a towel taut between your hands. As you squat down, bring your arms overhead, so your face is in between your biceps. When you drive upwards to stand back up, slowly let your arms come back to your sides.

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3. Side Lunges

Targets: Quads, hamstrings, glutes, core

How to: Stand with your feet hip-width apart, hands on your hips (a). Take a wide step to the left, letting your left foot point diagonally away from you and keeping your right foot planted (b). Keeping your weight in your heels and your chest lifted upwards, turn your left foot and knee out slightly as you sink down into a lunge. Make sure your knees do not come over your toes (c). Next, push off with your left leg, engaging your inner thighs and glutes, and bring the leg back to the neutral starting position (d). Repeat on the other side, alternating sides for a minute.

Extra credit: Want to engage the muscles in your arms? Hold a towel taut between your hands, with your arms extended straight upwards. When you step to one side for a lunge, bring your arms down so the towel touches your outer thigh. Bring your arms upwards as you step in.

RELATED: 3 No-Equipment CrossFit Workouts You Can Do at Home

4. Curtsy Lunges

Targets: Glutes, quads, inner thighs

How to: Stand with your feet hip-width apart, hands on your hips (a). Shift your weight to your right side and step your left leg behind your right leg so your legs are crossed. If you imagine a clock underneath you, your left toes should be at roughly 4 o’clock (b). Bend both knees, not letting them come over your toes, and sink into the lunge, keeping your chest upright (c). Engage your quads and squeeze your glutes as you drive off your left leg, standing up and bringing it back to the starting position (d). Repeat on the other side, alternating sides for one minute.

Extra credit: When standing upright, hold the towel taut in front of your chest. As you step to each side for the curtsy lunge, extend your arms and bring them down so the towel is in front of your shin. Be sure to maintain good upper body posture. Once you drive off your back leg, bring your arms and towel back to your chest.

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“I spent my teens and early 20s as a professional ballerina, dancing with companies in New York City and Montreal. After retiring in 2008, I went into the boutique fitness field. At first, the only space I could afford was a 500-square-foot room in a church, which meant there was no room for traditional equipment. I had to figure out: What can you do in a small footprint that gives people the benefit of a total gym? I came up with a high-intensity circuit that toned the full body. When I brought in mirrors, people loved them. They found the visual feedback inspiring and also helpful in keeping their form correct.

Fast-forward to 2016, which found me running three fitness studios across New York City. Getting to my own workouts was hard, especially because I was pregnant at the time. Biking or running on a treadmill in my apartment just didn’t appeal. I tried workout apps, but they weren’t immersive enough to hold my interest.

RELATED: Use This 10-Minute Leg Workout to Get Toned While Channeling Your Inner Ballerina

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I started thinking how I could bring that small studio experience into my home…and thought back to the mirrors I’d put in that church years ago. I came up with Mirror, an interactive home gym that hangs on your wall.

In the early days, when I didn’t have a physical prototype, people couldn’t understand what the experience would be like. Then once it was made and they could experience it, I heard, ‘I can’t believe I didn’t think of this!’

Variety’s a key component of a good workout, so Mirror users can choose from live and on-demand classes in cardio, strength, yoga, barre, boxing, HIIT, and more… without leaving their home. I’ve heard from parents who say that for years they’ve struggled to find time to get out of their house and work out—and then felt guilty once they did. Being able to work out at home isn’t just a solution for them, but helps their whole family.

RELATED: 10-Minute Cardio Workout You Can Do at Home

Many wellness-based goals are focused on future rewards—like making you stronger one day. Or thinner. Or healthier. That makes it really challenging to be successful. If you enjoy the experience now, future rewards will come. So that’s another mental shift I’m hoping Mirror will bring. Many people look in their mirror at home and spend time criticizing their body. I want this to help them celebrate what they’re capable of.”

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When it comes to working out, longer isn’t always better.

Wait, what?

Believe it or not, there is quite a bit of (comforting) research supporting shorter, more intense workouts—for both performance and health benefits, including weight loss, Pete McCall, a personal trainer and author of Smarter Workouts: The Science of Exercise Made Simple, tells Health.

While high-intensity interval training (HIIT) is not new—interval training has been around for decades—there is a recent surge in using this approach for fitness and weight loss.

“In the last 20 years, HIIT has been studied for its effects on boosting performance and its high caloric burn,” McCall says.

When it comes to HIIT being a better workout for caloric burn, McCall gives this analogy: HIIT is city driving, while longer, slower workouts are highway driving—and calories are your gas.

“With city driving, you’re starting and stopping a lot, and you’re burning more gas,” he says. “On the highway, you’re maintaining a steady pace and you’re much more efficient.”

So how do you choose the best HIIT workout? The bottom line, McCall says, is to not make your working intervals too long and your rest intervals too short.

RELATED: This 20-Minute Treadmill Interval Workout Builds Speed and Stamina

What to look for in a HIIT workout routine

If you find a HIIT workout that’s 45 minutes, run away. It’s way too long, McCall says.

“The biggest mistake people make is thinking a 45-minute HIIT workout is great. But it should be 15 to 20 minutes,” he says.

In fact, you can reap benefits from just four, yes, four minutes. McCall cites the popular, effective Tabata method, which is a four-minute workout: You work at your max capacity intensity for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds, and repeat eight times.

“Four minutes doesn’t sound like a lot, but if you’re doing it right, that last minute really sucks,” McCall says. “When it comes to high intensity, less is more.”

If your work intervals are longer than 30 seconds, you’ll run out of energy and be unable to complete the workout. Alternatively, if your rest intervals are too short, your body won’t have enough time to recharge for the next work period.

McCall also cautions against doing more than two HIIT workouts a week. Your body needs about 48 hours to recover from the wear and tear, he says.

RELATED: Find Your Perfect HIIT Routine With These Top Workout Videos

Why does HIIT burn more calories?

The short answer is it takes energy to burn energy. When you push your body really hard for 20 or 30 seconds, you’re expending a ton of energy, McCall explains. And during your recovery interval your body is taking the byproduct of that burn—lactic acid—and turning it back into energy your muscles can use, called ATP.

When you exercise for longer periods of time at a lower intensity, you still expend energy—but not as much as during that high-intensity burst.

That said, people tend to think they burned more calories than they did, leading to overeating and weight gain, McCall says. The sustained calorie-burn from a HIIT workout, for example, is about 100 to 200 calories, which is not insignificant. But a post-workout Starbucks muffin is about 400 calories.

RELATED: 7 Tips for Exactly How to Eat Before and After a Workout

Try these HIIT workouts

McCall has two go-to HIIT workouts he recommends.

Lateral ice skaters

Stand with your feet hip-width apart.

Step your right foot to the right, then step your left foot to the right. Repeat the motion to the left side. Continue to repeat the motion for 30 seconds at a comfortable pace.

Then, increase your effort for 20 seconds. Repeat the motion like you’re ice-skating.

Finally, increase your effort for 10 seconds of explosive movement, like you’re speed-skating.

Repeat this entire sequence for five to seven minutes.

RELATED: Try This 30-Day Squat Challenge for a Stronger, Perkier Butt

Copenhagen protocol

McCall recommends following this routine on a bike, rower, or self-powered treadmill. (While it can be done on a normal treadmill, it takes precious time to adjust the speed, he says.)

Warm up for five minutes.

Move easy for 30 seconds; your feeling of effort should be about a five on a scale of one to 10.

Move hard for 20 seconds, about an eight on a scale of one to 10.

Move as hard as possible for 10 seconds.

Repeat the entire cycle for five minutes and then cool down.

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The idea of waking up crazy early, skipping breakfast, and dragging our butts to the gym or spin studio is enough to make us want to hit the "snooze" button, throw the duvet over our heads, and Seamless an egg sandwich to our beds.

Believe it or not, there are many people who swear by early workouts without fueling up first, because they believe that "fasted" workouts are better for you and could actually burn more fat.

Heading up the "fasted cardio" club? Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez, the fittest couple in Hollywood, of course.

"Another beautiful day in New York City, about to go do a little fasted cardio," A-Rod said in his Instagram Story on Wednesday, walking alongside J.Lo. "That means cardio before breakfast. This is from our trainer, Dodd." ("Hi, Dodd!" J.Lo playfully adds.)

But is fasted cardio really a good idea? We asked expert trainers to weigh in on if it's safe to exercise on an empty stomach, and whether or not you should. Here’s what you need to know.

RELATED: 9 Times J.Lo Showed Off Her Insanely Defined Core and Proved She's the Queen of Abs

What is fasted cardio though?

Fasted cardio is cardiovascular training performed when the digestive system is no longer processing food, which can happen four to six hours after eating or in the morning after you've woken up, explains Vince Sant, co-founder and lead trainer for VShred.com. In other words, it's doing cardio without any food in your body.

People who practice intermittent fasting have a schedule that is more accommodating to fasted training, since they're restricting calorie intake for a few hours or don't consume any food at all for a full day or longer, which by the way is not totally recommended by nutritionists. For most, early morning workouts after your body has been fasting during sleep is the best way to experiment with fasted cardio, says Sant.

The benefits of fasted cardio

Fasted cardio might help you burn more fat throughout the day, trainer Danielle Natoni tells Health. The idea is that when you work out when you haven't eaten recently, you are burning fat—aka stored energy—versus the energy from the food that you just consumed, she explains.

Fasted cardio is actually Natoni's preferred method of exercise. "On the rare occasions where I find I have to exercise no longer fasted, I feel slower and more sluggish," she says.

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Wait, will you actually burn more fat faster?

Maybe. Small studies have suggested that cardio in a fasted state can burn up to 20% more fat. But other research suggests that the difference between fasted and fed training is minimal as it relates to calories burned or fat loss, Sant notes. It really becomes a question of what is sustainable for you, he says. And what your goals are: Fed training may improve exercise performance, according to research comparing fed and fasted workouts.

Is fasted cardio safe?

As long as it's not taken to an extreme, fasted cardio is safe. Just keep in mind that your body needs fuel to function, so an intense, two-hour cardio session after eight hours of sleep might cause side effects of low blood sugar like lightheadedness. That could pose a serious safety risk when running alongside traffic or using heavy equipment at the gym, Sant says. You might also be more likely to get dehydrated during fasted training.

Should you try fasted cardio?

To see if fasted cardio is for you, start out small. First try eating something light like a banana or a piece of toast pre-workout and see how you feel, Natoni suggests. If you feel good, next time you can try exercising right after waking up in the morning. Just be sure you consume enough water before working out and do light to moderate work instead of something really intense, she adds.

Remember that every body is different, so whether you plan on working out fasted or fed is up to you and what works for your body. And ultimately, the key to weight loss is maintaining an overall caloric deficit through a well-balanced program encompassing diet and exercise, Sant says. In the grand scheme of things, when you eat probably has less to do with weight and fat loss than what you are eating and how much effort you are putting into your fitness regimen—not to mention that your genes, metabolism, and age also influence your weight, he points out.

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