If losing fat and building muscle simultaneously is your goal, our new Build and Burn four-week training plan for Women’s Health COLLECTIVE members is all you need. Designed by strength coach Laura Hoggins, it’s a four-week programme complete with three workouts per week, plus recommendations on how to maximise your recovery days. Below, you’ll find the first full-body strength session from the plan, to give you a headstart on your goals. Follow along with coaching from Laura in the real-time video above, or screenshot the session below to do in your own time – then scroll down to find how to trial the plan for free.
35-minute full-body strength workout
- Equipment needed: 2 x medium/heavy dumbbells or kettlebells
- What weight to use: Choose weights that feel challenging by the final two reps – but never compromise on form. ‘If you’re not challenging your muscles, you won’t be changing them,’ Laura says. ‘You don’t want to select a weight where you go to failure. First and foremost, focus on good range and form. It should look and feel good, and you’ll learn what feels right over time. Don’t choose a weight that’s too heavy for you to complete all the reps. If the rep target is 10 and you get to rep eight and start to hate me, but you can still complete rep nine and 10 with good form, that’s the right weight.’
- How to do it: Complete three rounds of each superset or triset, giving yourself one minute to complete all exercises in the set, and resting for any remaining time until the one minute is up. Rest for 60-90 seconds between rounds.
Warm-up:
- Cat-cow x 10
- World’s greatest stretch x 5 each side
- Kang squat x 10
Workout:
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Take one minute to complete all A exercises, resting for any remaining time if you finish before one minute is up. Repeat three times, resting for 60-90 seconds between rounds.
Take one minute to complete all B exercises, resting for any remaining time if you finish before one minute is up. Repeat three times, resting for 60-90 seconds between rounds.
Take one minute to complete all C exercises, resting for any remaining time if you finish before one minute is up. Repeat three times, resting for 60-90 seconds between rounds.
Cool-down:
- Child’s pose and reach x 30 seconds
- Supine rotation x 30 seconds each side
- Arm stretch x 30 seconds each side
Laura’s tips and modifications:
- Move with control, intention, aiming for quality reps over speed.
- To make the goblet squats and lateral lunges easier, use only bodyweight.
- To make the renegade rows and push-ups easier, use only bodyweight.
- Romanian deadlifts can be performed with resistance bands, dumbbells or kettlebells.
Sign up to the plan
Losing fat while building muscle is the goal for many fitness fans – and while it isn’t easy, it is possible, says FIIT personal trainer and coach Laura Hoggins. In this four-week plan – created exclusively for Women’s Health COLLECTIVE members – you’ll get the workouts and nutrition guidance needed to improve body composition in 2026.
Ready to build and burn? Tap the link below to unlock 14 days of free access to the WH app, find the plan and start training today.
As Women’s Health UK’s fitness director and a qualified Pilates and yoga instructor, Bridie Wilkins has been passionately reporting on exercise, health and nutrition since the start of her decade-long career in journalism. She secured her first role at Look Magazine, where her obsession with fitness began and she launched the magazine’s health and fitness column, Look Fit, before going on to become Health and Fitness writer at HELLO!. Since, she has written for Stylist, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, The Metro, Runner’s World and Red.Now, she oversees all fitness content across womenshealthmag.com.uk and the print magazine, spearheading leading cross-platform franchises, such as ‘Fit At Any Age’, where we showcase the women proving that age is no barrier to exercise. She has also represented the brand on BBC Radio London, plus various podcasts and Substacks – all with the aim to encourage more women to exercise and show them how.Outside of work, find her trying the latest Pilates studio, testing her VO2 max for fun (TY, Oura), or posting workouts on Instagram.