Emily Blunt's trainer takes us through a muscle-building 30-minute HIIT workout

Want to burn fat and build muscle at the same time? Of course you do: after all, lean muscle is one of the cornerstones of the healthy body. The dynamic HIIT workout that we're going to show you today comes from Monique Eastwood, a celebrity trainer who's coached Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci, Ruth Wilson and more.   

Filmed exclusively for our Instagram channel, Monique's hard-hitting HIIT workout just needs a set of dumbbells (if you don't have any, your first port of call should be our best adjustable dumbbells guide). For this workout, you'll just need 2kgs of weight in each hand to get your body moving.

Monique says: "Go up to 3kgs if you're used to training, but 2kgs or 1.5kgs is fine if you're not used to my style. I'm going to be fast and furious for thirty minutes, with a five-minute dynamic warmup and then we're really going to push the HIIT. 

"If you're struggling, put your knees down, take a breath, and get straight back to it."

Watch Monique's HIIT workout here:

Why do this workout?

Monique's focus on breath patterns will help you use your energy and tense your muscles more efficiently as you go through deep squats, lateral movements and core-focused movements such as mountain climbers. 

A tight core will help you through all walks of life, even as you grow older: as one study published by German researchers found core strength training improved functional mobility in older adults. The dynamic glute-focused movements will also help develop the strength in your lower body, ensuring you can walk for longer, run faster, and jump higher. 

You'll also, coincidentally, develop a more immediate benefit: ripped abs, a pert bottom and less body fat. This kind of intense exercise is great for raising your resting metabolic weight, increasing the amount of oxygen required by your muscles to recover. The end result? Not just will you burn calories over the next 30 minutes, but you'll be burning fat for hours after your workout.