Hannah Waddingham shares the 2-minute daily exercise she 'never underestimates' for building stronger leg and core muscles

You won't find Hannah Waddingham in the gym, but the star says she always makes time to "activate" her muscles with short daily workouts and quick bursts of exercise.

Her favourite workout? Calisthenics. This is the practice of using bodyweight movements like squats to challenge strength, balance, and endurance, as in any weighted strength workout.

It's this exercise that the star recommends to her friends. "Activate your muscles - every day. People are very lovely; they talk about my arms. I just keep activated. And never underestimate the value of doing squats the whole time you're brushing your teeth," she tells Women's Health.

Squats are a compound exercise, meaning they work multiple muscles at the same time. Hannah is building strength, stability, and balance at her bathroom sink in as few as two minutes at the start and end of each day.

Otherwise, Hannah says she doesn't do loads of exercise. "Just calisthenics [with] my own body weight and some light weights for 20 minutes in the morning," she says.

Hannah learnt the value of bodyweight exercises after returning to exercise from a back injury a few years ago. After doing no exercise at all for a year and a half, she told Glamour magazine: "I've come out the other side of it now, and so I need to get back into [exercise]. But having been a dancer all my life, Pilates, reformer Pilates, and band work, your own weight is great for the female form."

All of these workouts use bodyweight exercise to some degree, and studies support the practice for healthy ageing. Not just for the body, either. A study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health reviewed older adults and found improvements in decision-making processes, attention span, and general brain health after a dedicated bodyweight workout program.

Benefits of squats

• Boosts full-body strength: Squats aren't just a quadriceps exercise. You'll feel them in your glutes (buttocks), core muscles, and back.
• Improves posture: As squats train the core and back, and force you to straighten your back to do the exercise properly, your posture will naturally improve.
• Boosts bone density: Squats are a loaded exercise. Every time you squat down, you load your legs, spine, and hips, boosting bone density and helping to ward off conditions like osteoporosis.
• Great for progression: How many squats can you do in two minutes? Make a note and see if you can increase it from one week to the next. You'll know you're getting stronger and fitter if the number goes up.
• No equipment required: As good as a set of dumbbells can be, you don't need any equipment to do regular squats and get stronger.

If you're looking to get back into regular exercise like Hannah did, combining something you're already doing with a new practice is worth trying. It's known as habit stacking.

James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, made the concept popular, but it essentially helps you introduce a new habit into your life by linking it up with an old one. E.g. doing squats (new) while brushing your teeth (old). That way, you remember to do it regularly.