Full Body Outdoor Workout: High-Intensity Strength and Conditioning in the Great Outdoors

This is a full body outdoor workout designed to get you into great shape. I believe that nobody should feel obligated to “go to the gym” to get into great shape. Nobody. There is so much available to you in the great outdoors. If you, like me, are a minimalist and looking to skip the drive to the gym, waiting for machines and reduce a monthly expense, I’m going to show you a solid training session that you can do anywhere with minimal equipment.

Let’s start with listing off the workout and then we’ll get into the specifics…

Full Body Outdoor Warm Up

100 Jumping Jacks
10+10 Standing Knee to Chest Stretch
10+10 Alternating Hacky Sack Stretch
10+10 Standing Quad Stretch

Full Body Outdoor Pre-Fatigue

Stair Sprints with 20 Push Ups at the top (5 rounds)

Full Body Outdoor Work Sets

5+5 One Arm Kettlebell Clean and Press with 10 Barbarian Macebell Squats (5 rounds)

Full Body Outdoor Finisher

Stair Sprints with 20 Push Ups at the top (5 rounds)
30 Flutter Kicks + 30 Twists + 50 yard jog (5 rounds)

Full Body Outdoor Workout Breakdown

OK, let’s get into the specifics… Do get this done right you’ll need some equipment. You’ll need a set of stairs that you can run up. Additionally you’ll need a kettlebell that you can Clean and Press 5 times and you’ll also need a mace bell you can do barbarian squats with for 10 reps. I’ve been using a 24kg Kettlebell and 15lb mace.

Top 3 Benefits of Outdoor Stair Sprints + Push Ups

Improved Cardiovascular Fitness (VO2 Max): Stair sprints spike your heart rate and force your body to process oxygen more efficiently, leading to better endurance and faster recovery during runs or daily activities. This makes it an ideal “snack” workout for building aerobic capacity without long sessions.
Enhanced Lower Body Power and Strength: Fighting gravity builds explosive strength in your glutes, quads, hamstrings, and calves, improving sprint mechanics like knee drive and propulsive force. This translates to better hill running, agility, and overall athleticism.
High Calorie Burn and Fat Loss Efficiency: As a HIIT-style exercise, stair sprints torch calories during and after the workout via elevated metabolism (EPOC effect), making it a time-efficient fat-burner compared to steady-state cardio.

So this is where the workout gets fun. It’s like an extended warm up. Near my house there’s a nice flight of stairs with about 100 steps that leads down to the beach. They’re great for running up. When you get to the top you want to add to the fun by banging out some push ups. 20 is the preferred number. Your effort level on this work should be about an 8 on a scale of 1-10. If you don’t have access to stairs a good hill will do. Get creative if have to. Worst case scenario, a 50-100 yard dash would work. Start at 3 rounds and work your way up to 5 rounds

Functional Strength with Kettlebell Clean and Press and Barbarian Squats

Elevated Metabolic Conditioning and Fat Loss: The back-to-back nature of the superset keeps your heart rate spiked through anaerobic efforts, triggering excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) for prolonged calorie burn—up to 15–20% more than isolated sets. The clean/press’s explosive hip drive pairs with the mace squat’s rotational load to create a HIIT-like flow without rest, enhancing endurance and torching up to 400–600 calories in a 20–30 minute session.
Enhanced Core Stability and Unilateral Strength: Alternating one-arm work challenges anti-rotational forces—the kettlebell press demands shoulder and oblique bracing, while the mace squat’s requires hip and spinal stability to resist torque. This duo corrects imbalances, builds functional strength across the posterior chain, and fortifies the core for real-world power, reducing injury risk by 20–30% through better neuromuscular coordination.
Improved Power Output and Functional Athleticism: The superset trains explosive hip extension (from the clean) followed by loaded rotation and depth (mace squat), fostering seamless transitions between push-pull and lower-body drive. This builds athletic power for sports or daily tasks, increasing overall explosiveness and coordination without gym access.

Weight Selection for Kettlebell Clean and Press and Barbarian Squats

Pick weights that you can get a solid 8 reps in on the clean and press and 12 on the Barbarian Squat. Personally, I’m using a 24kg kettlebell and 15lb mace. You want a weight that’s challenging but not a weight that will force you to sacrifice good form. Keep in mind, after 5 rounds of stair sprints and 100 pushups, you’re practicing strength under fatigue.

Set up an interval timer for 2 minute rounds.

Perform 5 solid clean and presses on the right side followed by 5 more on the left. Whatever time is left is your rest period. From there do 10 solid barbarian squats. That’s one round. Work up to 5 rounds in total.

Full Body Outdoor Finisher: Stair Sprints + Push Ups Part Two

Once you’ve recovered from your Clean & Presses and Barbarian Squats, it’s time for MORE Sprints and Push Ups. Whatever you’ve done so far, simply duplicate it. If you did 3 rounds earlier, it’s 3 rounds again. Same idea, work up to 5 rounds total. Keep in mind, you’ve done a lot of work up to this point so you’re going into this fatigued. Watch your technique, manage your fatigue and be a master of your breath.

Cool Down and Wrapping it Up

And after that it’s time to “cool down” with 3-5 rounds of 30 flutter kicks plus 30 twists and a VERY gentle, easy, light jog. You can even walk if you want, it should be super easy. After this feel free to stretch out a bit and then wrap it up. When I do this workout, afterwards when I get home and store my gear my next move is getting some easy to digest protein followed by 20 minutes in my Healix Glow Light Pod and then a cold shower. GREAT recovery routine for me after a solid training session!

If you give this workout a go please let me know your results in comments and if you needed to tweak this a little to fit your fitness level or available equipment also let me know how you tweaked it.