Gabby Allen shares the 3 exercises every woman needs for lifelong strength
Sure, Gabby Allen is an accomplished fitness instructor, but it was her win on Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins that cemented just how strong she really is. She passed the gruelling eight-day course with flying colours, and it’s all thanks to training with real purpose.
‘I train to feel powerful in my body and in my mind,’ she tells Women’s Health UK. ‘Feeling strong makes me feel like I can achieve anything, in and out of the gym.’ She does three-four 60-minute sessions per week: two lower-body, one upper-body and one full-body.
Each workout is programmed to build muscle and real-world strength – and there are three particular exercises she never skips. Below, she breaks down why they’re so important.
Gabby Allen's top strength exercises
‘These three exercises, used consistently, will build your overall strength as they're compound lifts, meaning they work more than one muscle group at one time. It’s all about consistency, patience, progressive overload and protein.’
1. Squats
‘Squats test everything from balance and coordination to strength and mobility. They’re a fundamental compound exercise for building lower-body strength, targeting the quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings, and core. They also increase power in the legs, boosting your athletic performance in other areas of your fitness, too.
‘There are so many different squat variations, which is great because not everybody is going to be able to squat the same way due to how we are uniquely built. Always start with building confidence on a bodyweight variation first, then you can experiment with more demanding, challenging variations, like Bulgarian split squats, for example.’
2. Lat pull-down
‘The lat pull-down is an elite exercise for building upper-body strength. It has so many benefits, from improving posture by correcting rounded shoulders to strengthening the core and shoulders. It’s great for those of us who sit for a lot of the day, and also for building functional strength for everyday tasks such as moving anything heavy. The lat pull-down has many variations, too, which makes it versatile not just as a back exercise, but for building muscle in your shoulders and arms.’
3. Overhead press
‘Having upper-body strength makes everything in life easier. From picking up your kids, to shopping and never needing a man to lift something for you again. The overhead press building strength, shape and power in your shoulders, arms and core.
‘Lifting isn’t just about building strength it’s about improving your longevity and spice for life.’
Gabby Allen’s workout week
- Monday: 60-minute lower-body strength session
- Wednesday: 60-minute upper-body strength session
- Friday: 60-minute lower-body strength session
- Saturday: 60-minute full-body strength session
Additional sessions:
- 3x 20-40-minute LISS Stairmaster cardio (low-intensity steady state cardio)
- 2-3x runs
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.
After earning a first-class degree in journalism and NCTJ accreditation, she secured her first role at Look Magazine, where 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. Today, she oversees all fitness content across Women's Health online and in print, spearheading leading cross-platform franchises, such as ‘Fit At Any Age’, which showcases 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.
