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The Independent
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
I tried Harry Styles' intense 20-minute workout, and I severely underestimated how difficult it would be
Being called Harry, I have a high bar to live up to. One Harry is a literal prince, another is England men's all-time leading goalscorer, a further fictitious wizard needs no introduction, and then there's Harry Styles – grammy-winning heartthrob. As The Independent's fitness writer, one of the few areas I can hope to hold a candle to my cohorts is athleticism. So when I had the chance to chat to Styles' former trainer Thibo David, I was keen to sample some of Styles' workouts. Styles trained with Executive Peak Performance founder David ahead of his Love on Tour shows in 2021 and the pair would regularly meet for 10-20km runs and two-hour gym sessions. If you want to provide a high-energy stadium show, impressive fitness levels are a prerequisite, it would seem. Within these brutal gym sessions, Styles regularly faced 20-minute conditioning protocols inspired by David's background in MMA. Intrigued, I asked for an example, then headed straight to the gym to give it a go. And it left me on my back. How to do Harry Styles' 20-minute MMA-inspired workout Complete four rounds of: Alternating arm kettlebell clean x30sec Burpee x30sec D-ball or sandbag over shoulder (Styles uses 30kg) x1min Max height tuck jump x30sec Max effort SkiErg x1min Fast run/treadmill x30sec Rest x1min 'For the conditioning workouts, we would do three or four rounds of four minutes with minimal time in between,' David tells me. 'I take that from fighting conditioning. Fighters train like this to get ready for the five-minute rounds in MMA. I've found this to be a very good way of building VO2 max [the maximum amount of oxygen your body can take in and use during exercise].' The point of the workout is to push, and push hard. 'Doing that circuit four times is a big achievement,' David adds. What happened when I tried Harry Styles' workout I fall to the ground and flip onto my back; legs leaden, dragon's breath firing into the freezing cold air. My chest is rising and falling like the tide, and there doesn't seem to be a single muscle in my body that isn't sore in some way. To find out how I wound up in this situation, we need to rewind a little. I rock up to the gym on a freezing cold Tuesday morning to give this workout a try, and I'm feeling optimistic. I've tried a lot of workouts from celebrities, athletes and even Olympians in the past, and always survived to tell the tale. After a quick warm-up, I ready my equipment – a 24kg kettlebell, 40kg sandbag, SkiErg machine and accessible running route – then set a 20-minute clock and hit 'start'. The workout begins The workout kicks off with 30 seconds of alternating arm kettlebell cleans; a full-body exercise requiring a decent dose of strength, power and coordination. I begin by switching hands with the weight on the floor, but when the kettlebell moves smoothly I switched to transitioning as I lower it from my shoulder. This speeds things up significantly, and I soon find my heart is pounding. Then come the burpees, which again recruit muscles across my upper and lower body to keep my heart rate high. But CrossFit is my go-to training style, so I'm no stranger to this exercise, and rattle through 10 without too much trouble. Next on the agenda is one minute of sandbag-over-shoulders – a move which very much does what it says on the tin. Styles usually uses a 30kg D-ball (or slam ball) for this, David says, but I only have a 40kg sandbag handy so sub it in. I'll regret this later. 'We do a lot of heavy ball throws,' David tells me. 'We would grab a 30kg ball from the floor, opening up the hips, getting into the most natural squat position to lift up an object, then clear the shoulder, turn around and do it again.' I usually weave a fair amount of sandbag exercises into my regular training, so I'm not too nervous about this part. But after 30 seconds, my quads and upper body are on fire, and the sandbag is spoon-feeding me some humility. Fatigue sets in From here, I move on to 30 seconds of tuck jumps. My battered legs strain to gain some height, but I can feel each bound getting less and less powerful. I'm forced to take a short break in the middle, then transition to the SkiErg machine. 'This is a max-effort, along with the run,' David advises. But after accumulating a good deal of fatigue over the last two-and-a-half minutes, my maximum effort is far from impressive. I challenge myself to hold a pace of 1,000 calories/hour on the Concept2 machine throughout, and just about succeed. Finally, I wheel away and lollop to the door for the 30-second run. It's like wading through a swimming pool filled with custard, but I manage to cover a bit of ground before the timer sounds. That's round one complete. In one minute, I'll do it all again, then again, and again. A quick glance at my watch suggests my heart rate has shot beyond 170, which doesn't happen particularly often. This could be a long 20 minutes. Rinse and repeat Over the next two rounds, though I continue to push just as hard, I lose a couple of reps on each exercise. Burpees fall from 10 reps to eight, sandbag-over-shoulders fall from 12 to nine, and I'm so tired by the time I get to the tuck jumps that I lose count. For the final circuit, I resolve to try and reclaim my pace from the first round, and attempt to access one final reserve of energy to do so. But it's not easy. My muscles feel like they've been sapped of all strength, keeping my breathing steady requires conscious effort and my Celtic genes mean my face now resembles a perfectly ripe tomato. However, I manage it, then allow myself to collapse and recuperate. 'How was that?' a fellow gym-goer laughs. 'Fun,' I tell them. 'A funny sort of fun, but fun nonetheless. Fair play Harry Styles.' Harry Styles' workout: The verdict I like sharing athlete and celebrity workouts for two main reasons; one, I think it's interesting, and two, it can be a fun way to make movement more appealing. And that's always the goal – help as many people find ways to enjoy movement, and the many benefits that come with it, as possible. 'Harry [Styles] has a very playful attitude towards exercise, which makes everything easier,' David tells me. 'I think people should probably embrace that a little bit more. Nobody forces you to exercise. Training is supposed to be fun.' Saying that, this isn't one for beginners. The workout is hard – one of the hardest celebrity sessions I've tried – and exercises like the kettlebell clean and sandbag-over-shoulder require a bit of practice before you pop them in a high-intensity workout. There are ways you can scale the workout if you're fairly new to fitness and want to give it a try. Because the exercises are all performed for a set amount of time rather than a prescribed number of reps, you can go at your own speed and use weights that suit your strength level. While you build up the skill and confidence needed to tackle the workout as written, you might also swap some of the more demanding exercises out for other full-body moves you feel more comfortable with. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the workout. I love a challenge, and it delivered that in spades. By centering the session around dynamic, compound (multi-muscle) movements performed at high-intensity, David kept my heart rate high throughout and recruited muscles across my entire body. The workout also tested several facets of fitness at once, from strength, speed and power to coordination and agility, rather than honing in on one at a time. And finally, the inclusion of less common training tools like kettlebells and sandbags forced me to move my body in a range of different ways. So, if you're an experienced gym-goer looking for a celebrity-inspired fitness challenge, give this a go and you'll be golden (sorry).
The Independent
05-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
I tried Harry Styles' workout – I'm not surprised by his impressive Tokyo Marathon time
Harry Styles' impressive Tokyo Marathon time on Sunday left fans slack-jawed. But as someone who's taken on one of his daily training sessions, under instruction from his former trainer, his fitness levels came as no surprise. The As It Was singer hit the finish line in 3:24:07 – an average of roughly 4min 50sec per kilometre. And he's equally adept over shorter distances, according to former special forces soldier and Executive Peak Performance founder Thibo David, who trained the star from 2018 to 2021 as he prepared for his Love On Tour shows. 'His one-mile PB was 5min 13sec, which is incredibly fast,' David tells me. 'I train elite athletes, professional boxers and professional footballers, and I keep a leaderboard of their mile times in my studio. He was one of the fastest, only 14 or 15 seconds behind Granit Xhaka.' The pair would also go for lengthy zone two (60-70 per cent of maximum heart rate) runs around London during the Covid lockdowns. 'We built him up to that; running and swimming were staples.' says David. Then their studio sessions together comprised a two-hour cocktail of strength training, high-intensity circuits, core work and faster running efforts. This sounded exhausting, but as a fitness writer I couldn't resist pitting myself against the singer and attempting to tackle his rigorous routine when I first found out about it last year. Predictably, I was swiftly humbled. Below, David reveals more about Styles' pre-tour training, and a sample one of their demanding studio sessions. What does a week of Harry Styles' training look like? I started by asking Thibo David for a day of Harry Styles' training to try, and he gave me an intense example which you can see in full below. However, he stressed that every day wasn't a max-effort session. 'We would adapt to how he feels and his schedule,' the trainer says. 'Some days we would just focus on recovery. There would be a lot of assisted stretching, work with massage guns and some cold therapy [ ice baths ] – he loves that, so we did it quite a lot. 'Other days he would come in and we would just focus on mobility, or we might put some boxing in there depending on what he had coming up because he really enjoys that. We would mix it up a lot.' While weekly plans could vary, one non-negotiable part of Styles' Love On Tour preparations was running. Given his pace in Tokyo, it's clear this is still at the centre of his exercise plans. He and David would do two weekly runs together – one long weekend run of up to 20km around London, and one shorter route of eight to 12km – while also incorporating running into their conditioning work in the gym. But it's David's studio sessions that really catch the eye. They start with 20-30 minutes of running at an easy pace to 'build up the legs and oxygenate', followed by 100 press-ups, 100 sit-ups and 100 squats completed within eight minutes. A one-mile time trial comes next, then it's on to strength work. 'We weren't loading on the barbell much – he would use dumbbells and kettlebells instead,' says David. 'When working with him, [I had to consider that] the risk of injury would have big repercussions on tours and shoots. 'We did a lot of dumbbell work on imbalances and stability with one-sided lifts like heavy kettlebell cleans, one-legged squats and lunges with the weight on one side to work on his balance, making him strong one side at a time and increasing his core strength.' After strength work came conditioning: four rounds of intense four-minute efforts with a one-minute break after each one. This was inspired by David's time as a professional fighter, with MMA athletes competing over three rounds of five minutes. 'I've found that to be a very good way of building VO2 max [the maximum amount of oxygen your body can take in and use during exercise],' says David. Finally, Styles would hit 10 minutes of core work – think leg raises, planks, side planks and 'a lot of ab rollouts' – then wind down with a slow-paced run, transitioning into a walk and some stretching. 'Doing high-intensity exercise can switch your sympathetic nervous system on for a long time, which is not something you want to do,' David says. 'You're always on edge and it can be tough to sleep and recover.' '[Ending the workout with a slow run and then stretches] allows you to bring everything back down and gets you ready for the rest of the day, rather than keeping you in that heightened state.' Harry Styles' workout Below is an example of one of the sessions Styles and David would do when the singer visited his studio during their time training together. Warm-up Slow jog 20-30 minutes Within eight minutes, complete 100 press-ups, 100 sit-ups and 100 squats One mile run, as fast as possible Strength work Banded activations for hips and lower back – e.g. Glute bridges, clamshells, banded knee raises Kettlebell clean and press x6,6,8,10,12 Single-leg squat x6,6,8,10,12 Conditioning – complete four rounds of the circuit below Alternating arm kettlebell cleans x30sec Burpee x30sec D-ball/sandbag over shoulder x1min Max height tuck jump x30sec Max effort SkiErg x1min Fast run/treadmill x30sec Rest x1min Core work – 10 minutes, focussing on the exercises below Leg raise Plank Side plank Hanging leg raise Ab roller Cool down Slow run into walk Stretching Harry Styles' workout routine: the verdict With David's help, I tried training like Harry Styles for a day last year, completing a session similar to the one above. Given I love exercise, and there's a whole lot of exercise to be done here, I was always going to enjoy it. But I was absolutely spent by the end. This brings me to my verdict: this workout is fun and undeniably impressive, but it's definitely not for newcomers to exercise. By all means enjoy trying parts of it, and take inspiration from Styles' dedicated approach, but you'll want to build a solid level of baseline fitness before attempting it in its entirety. 'Harry's very dedicated, and he's been working hard for years,' David says. 'Even when he started with me, he wasn't at the same level he's at now. We had to build him up.' To do this, Styles and David worked on building a strong aerobic base with long, slow and steady runs. There was also a heavy emphasis on developing a foundation of strength – 'this was paramount for keeping him fit.' 'People often make the mistake of jumping into a routine they've seen somewhere online, then they only stick to it for a little bit,' says David. 'Very quickly the body breaks down because the machine hasn't been built properly.' 'People also ask me, 'What should I do? I want to train like Harry'. It takes time, patience and sometimes some very boring sessions to build what needs to be put in place. The message I'm trying to put out there is that you need to use working out as something that's going to help you live a longer, stronger and fitter life.' There's another secret ingredient to Styles' training success too, which David believes is frequently overlooked: enjoyment. 'Harry has a very playful attitude towards it all, which makes everything easier,' he says. 'I think people should embrace that a little bit more. Nobody forces you to exercise. Training is supposed to be fun.' So, if you want to build stadium tour fitness, build from the bottom, work hard and have fun with it. As for the singing? That's outside my area of expertise, I'm afraid.
