If you are a fan of dancing and you love HITT, then this Strong by Zumba sequence is right up your ally.  It takes the best of both worlds and meshes it all into one butt-kicking workout that’s also super fun. So expect exercises that focus on body weight, muscle conditioning, cardio, and plyometrics, set against some cool original tunes that basically make it easy to keep up. And when you add in that ball of energy known as celeb trainer Jeanette Jenkins, who whips everyone from Pink to Alicia Keys into shape, it’s a guaranteed good time.

The best part is that you don’t need a stitch of equipment. (Translation: There is no excuse for you not to get your sweat on.)

Watch the video to follow along with the creative and effective moves described below, which offer a good a sample of what a traditional hour-long Strong by Zumba class (you can find one here) has to offer. Then work the moves into your next gym sesh to not only help you get stronger, but ramp up your ticker too.

Sequence 1 Moves

Fighting Stance

With feet staggered one in front of the other, and a slight bend in knees, continually shift weight from front to back foot. This is meant to be an active recovery.

Katana Strike

Pretend as if you are grabbing a samurai sword; pull “sword” back as you step back and then slam it down while simultaneously jumping up.

Knee Heal

Raise right knee on an angle, tapping it to hands. Lower back to start, and then immediately step right foot forward and diagonally in front of left; tap right heel to ground. Bring right foot back to start and then repeat entire sequence

Traveling Knees

Stand tall with feet shoulder-width apart. Raise left knee as high as possible and step down. Repeat with right knee. Continue alternating back and forth, as you move to one side.

Battle Rope Smash

Pretend as if you are holding the ends of a rope at arm's length in front of hips with hands shoulder-width apart. Brace core and act like you are slamming ropes down as you hop to one side.

Battle Rope Squat Jump

Similar to the Battle Rope Smash, except you stay in one place, and jump higher and pause briefly after slamming “ropes.” 

To get more smart workouts in your inbox, sign up for the HEALTH newsletter

Sequence 2 Moves

Jumping Jack to Knee Lift

Keeping hands at chest height, jump legs out and then back in and raise left knee up. Lower knee and then jump legs out and in again, performing another jack and then lift right knee up. Lower back to start and then repeat; continue alternating.

Curtsey Lunge to Side Lunge

Stand with feet together; step left foot behind right leg, and at the same time, drop your right knee into a lunge position as if doing a curtsy. Press through both feet to rise to standing, as you push butt back and step left foot out to side, lowering into a side lunge. Repeat.

Skaters

Stand with feet shoulder-width apart and knees slightly bent. Hinge forward at the waist as you raise left foot. Push off your right foot and explode toward the left, landing on your left foot with knees slightly bent; touch right toes to ground behind left foot. Push off left foot and explode back toward right, landing on right foot with left toes touching behind it. Repeat, alternating sides.

Punch + Jack cross

Stand with feet wider than shoulder-width apart. As you punch left hand down and to the right side, pivot left foot, turning left knee. Return to start, jump feet in, crisscrossing them, and then jump feet back out. Repeat.

Punch + Kick

Stand with feet wider than shoulder-width apart. As you punch left hand down and to the right side, pivot left foot, turning left. Step left foot in, rotate body to left, turning hips, and then kick right leg out to the side; keep foot flexed. Lower leg back to start.

When you think of a ballerina body, you may picture a petite, slender physique. But many dancers have rejected that rigid idea of what a ballerina is supposed to look like—and instead, they've led a shift towards embracing a diverse range of athletic ballerina bodies. One woman who's played a major role in that movement is none other than Misty Copeland, the iconic principle dancer at the American Ballet Theater.

“We are real women and ballerinas, muscular, feminine but also strong, lithe but also curvaceous,” Copeland writes in her new book, Ballerina Body: Dancing and Eating Your Way to a Leaner, Stronger, and More Graceful You ($30, amazon.com). But Copeland doesn’t pretend she always felt so confident in her skin. “None of it was easy. Not my climb in the ballet world, not my arrival at a place of personal contentment and peace, not my journey to the body I stand in.”

Her book is her way of helping other women reach the same state of body confidence that she now exudes to the world. “I dream of sharing what I’ve learned—of showing women everywhere how to reach their body goals and achieve what they see as their best selves," she says.

For Copeland, that has meant prioritizing exercise, as an integral and positive element of her day. “Working out, so essential to our mental and physical well-being, can and should be woven through every part of our lives,” Copeland says.

Below are four exercises that she incorporates in her cross-training routine, to help maintain her ideal ballerina body—“one that is lean but sinewy, with muscles that are long, sculpted, and toned.” But you certainly don't have to be a dancer to reap the benefits of these challenging moves. Try them out to get toned from head to (pointed) toe.

Relevé

“Relevé” means “raised,” or lifted, and describes the position when you rise onto the balls of your feet (demi-pointe) or onto the toes (pointe) of one or both feet.

a. Begin in first position. Demi-plié, then stretch your knees and rise onto demi-pointe (relevé). Repeat this three times and old on the count of four. When done to music, the counts are to the timing of the music.

b. Repeat once. When you get stronger, you may do four repetitions.

Remember to hold your posture. The flexing and pointing also prepare and strengthen your ankles to allow you to stand on demi-pointe (or en pointe, if you are an advanced dancer).

Balancing Adagio

“Adagio” refers to the slow movement in the ballet technique. As much as the adagio is about flexibility, strength, and fluidity in the movement, learning this exercise on the floor will give you an advantage before approaching it standing. On the floor you acquire a sense of balance and where your weight should be in order to leverage it to make you legs appear higher and more extended in opposition to our upper body.

This exercise should be done slowly to improve balance, alignment, abdominal strength, and stamina.

a. Start by sitting with your legs together on the floor in front of you.

b. Lift your legs into the air by bending your knees, holding the backs of your things with your hands with your legs still bent and parallel to each other.

c. Leaning back, with your back straight and the backs of your thighs (hamstrings) leaning into your hands, slowly lengthen both legs into the air until they are fully straight, making you into a V shape. Bend your knees so the tips of your toes touch the floor. Now do the same with each leg, alone, keeping the tips of the toes of your other leg posed on the floor.

d. Repeat the sequence, beginning with the other leg, when doing the single-leg section.

Seaweed

This exercise is great for freeing and lengthening the spine and for centering and strengthening the core.

a. Begin lying on your back, your legs together and parallel and your feet pointed.

b. Bend your legs slowly, bringing them off the floor, still bent, and lifting your feet off the floor as well, while your back hugs the ground.

c. Keeping your lower back on the floor and your shoulder blades drawn down toward your waist, curl your upper back off the floor, around your lower abs. Your arms should act like seaweed being moved by the motion of the tides, around and behind your lifted legs.

d. Float your upper back and arms down to the floor, legs still bent, body still energized.

e. Repeat four times, bringing your legs gently toward your head as your core and upper body lift, igniting the lower abdominal muscles.

f. After the last time, hold one hand or wrist (depending on the length of your arms) with the other, behind your thighs.

g. Lengthen your legs straight into the air, pressing the backs of your legs into your arms. 

h. Propel your legs to the floor, arms still around them, until you get close to the floor. Then open your arms to the sides and move them forward toward your feet, over your head.

i. Your upper back should bend forward over your legs as you transition from lying to sitting, with the backs of your hands on the floor to help stabilize and keep the backs of your legs on the floor. 

j. Roll down through your spine until your back is on the floor and you are in the starting position, with your shoulders relaxed. Repeat two to four times. 

Dégagé

“Dégagé” means “disengaged.” When preparing for dégagés in particular, but whenever you’re lying on the floor, you should feel like you are standing or jumping—not lying on the sand at the beach!

This exercise is good for length, strength, and alignment. Be sure to press the parts of your back and body that are touching the surface of the floor to the floor, allowing your working leg to float up, initiating the movement with your inner thighs and the backs of the legs rather than the top of your thighs (quadriceps).

a. Begin lying on your back with your feet in first position (heels together and toes apart, feet pointed). 

b. Place your arms at your sides with your palms facing down; you can vary the positioning of your arms depending on what makes you comfortable, as long as your arms don’t go above your shoulders. 

c. Keep your legs elongated, straight on the floor. 

d. Use your palms and arms by pressing them to the floor. This will help to strengthen 
your core and align the spine. 

e. Lift one leg two or three inches from the floor, with your toes still pointed out, by pressing the standing leg (again, whether you’re standing or lying on the floor, the standing leg is the one that is not moving; it helps to maintain balance), your arms, and your head into the floor. This will help you to lift the working leg while maintaining stability throughout your body. Do four dégagés with one leg front, then switch legs and do four with the other leg front. 

f. Now do four dégagés to each side. For these, your working leg stays on the floor, brushing along the floor as it extends to the side. Do not disturb the balance of the pelvis or the back as you move the working leg.

Excerpted from the book BALLERINA BODY by Misty Copeland. Copyright 2017 by Misty Copeland. Reprinted with permission of Grand Central Life & Style. All rights reserved.

If you’ve ever taken a barre or Pilates class, you know how tough the toning workouts can be. They're famous for micro-movements that target many of the smaller muscles we don't often use in our everyday lives. The payoff includes a lifted butt, lean legs, and strong arms—that is, if you’re doing the exercises correctly.

“I’ve met students taking five barre classes a week who still have weak glutes and hamstrings, and a very sore lower back,” says Julie Erickson, a Boston-based Pilates instructor. The reason? They're tucking their pelvis.

“For many students, tucking the pelvis into an unsafe posterior tilt, and keeping the hip flexors flexed during exercise can render movements ineffective,” she explains. A posterior pelvic tilt occurs when the front of the pelvis rises and the back drops, so it’s slightly tucked beneath the hips. 

According to Erickson, most barre and Pilates exercises require the use of the lower abs and glute muscles to keep the pelvis stable in its natural position, with the pubic bone and tailbone in line with each other. Movement in the hip flexors (on the front of the body) and the hip extensors (on the back of the body) should initiate from the the femur bones in the upper thighs rather than the pelvis.

If the body isn’t in proper alignment, your workout isn't doing much good, says Erickson. Even worse, it could cause injury. "Tuckers" often struggle with lower back pain, compromised posture, weak glutes and thighs, and a “pooch,” since a tilted pelvis can encourage the hip flexors to take over the work of the lower abs, weakening the core as a result.

To get the most out of your barre and Pilates sessions, make sure your pelvis is in a neutral position. "If standing, make sure the pubic bone and tailbone are level with each other, and the 'underbutt' is squeezing to lift the tush," says Erickson. "Keep the lower belly engaged as if you were zipping up a tight pair of pants, from the pubic bone to the belly button." And don't forget to lift the rib cage off the hips to lengthen the front and back of the body, and create space in the torso, she adds.

For more must-know fitness tips, sign up for the HEALTH newsletter!

When you lie down on your mat, keep the tailbone heavy and the sit bones pressing away from it. "Think of wrapping a corset from the top edge of the pelvis to the bottom of the rib cage," says Erickson. By using the lower abdominals and glutes to hold your pelvis still, you'll be well on your way to a stronger core and firmer booty. 

I'll admit it, I'm addicted to SoulCycle—and I know I'm not the only one. Ever since the boutique cycling studio first opened its doors in 2006, the momentum hasn't stopped. Not only does it seem like every other person you meet clips in and taps it back on the reg, but SoulCycle has expanded to upwards of 85 studios around the country and is gaining new riders daily. Now, for the first time since the brand's inception, they're launching a new spin class offering that has everyone talking (and sweating): SoulActivate.

I had the chance to try SoulActivate last week before it opened to the public. I was told the class would be "an athletic-based workout that's 60 minutes of high intensity interval training," but other than that, I didn't know what to expect. How hard, exactly, would it be? Would we have to dismount the bike mid-ride and do burpees?

I arrived a little nervous, but with an open mind. Master SoulCycle instructor Charlee Atkins instructed the class to grab three weights, two lighter ones (3 or 5 pounds) and a heavier one (5 or 8 pounds). Right off the bat, that was different. Three weights—were we going to juggle? (FYI, there was no juggling involved.) I grabbed two 3-pound weights and a 5. I'm happy I had what I did instead of upping to the 8, because the arms portion of class was no joke, but more on that later.

Before we began, Charlee took a few minutes to write on the words "Re-Cover 2 Re-Charge Up" on the mirror in the studio. She explained that we would be doing more interval training than a regular class. So, instead of the instructor telling you to keep pushing without any breaks, there would be time allotted for us to recover with the goal of training us to do so faster (both later on in class and in future workouts). In her words, this was a class for "athletes," whether you played in college or currently belong to an intramural team. Neither of which applied to me—eek! But as a frequent rider, I felt up to the challenge.

The class started like any other SoulCycle ride—but then the intervals hit and Charlee broke out the stop watch. At one point, she told us we would be doing six 20-second runs against resistance with one-minute rest periods. By that sixth run, we were all breathing heavy, but also feeling amazing (at least I was, because it felt like a great accomplishment to push myself). Similar to other rides, Charlee was coaching us through it, asking, "What would you tell sixty people in a room to do to push through this?" That really got me thinking and moving.

When it came time for arms, we were instructed to do many of the same moves I've come to expect at SC (think: bicep curls, tricep extensions, and punches), only this time with slower reps and heavier weights. This may have been my favorite part of class, because I often rely on SoulCycle to be my full-body workout, but sometimes feel that my core and upper body are neglected.

Usually, after arms, it's smooth sailing. With two songs left, I typically cruise to the finish line, but that wasn't the case with SoulActivate. Not only was the arm section longer (and involved some runs), but there were more intervals waiting for us on the other side, this time with a shorter recovery period. Oh, and there were more than two songs.

Overall, SoulActivate was both challenging and fun, and I can't wait to do again—especially now that I know what to expect. With the promise of burning 150-300 more calories than the usual 500 from a typical SoulCycle class, it's a good option for those interested in a tougher workout. If you want to sweat it out to SoulActivate, classes are available in select New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles studios starting today. You can apply a regular class credit to reserve your bike. Keep in mind that it's recommended for riders that have taken 10 or more SoulCycle classes.