Beach workout: a no-equipment session on the sand, and what the sand changes

A beach workout is a bodyweight workout on a floor that moves. Soft sand gives under each step and each landing, so a move costs a little more and gives back a little less bounce. A 2014 review of sand training puts it in one line: sand surfaces can offer a higher energy cost than firmer training venues such as grass.¹

This page gives a session you can do with no equipment, what the studies of jump training on sand found, barefoot or shoes, and how a beach day fits a week. Running on the sand has its own page: running on sand covers the energy-cost studies and sand against firm ground. It's a training page, not a health page: it makes no claim about weight, injuries or how you'll feel, and the trials here were in athletes, not beginners.

A beach workout with no equipment

Practical, not a protocol from a trial. Warm up with five minutes of easy walking or jogging on the sand. Then do the circuit: each move for 40 seconds, about 20 seconds to get to the next, 3 rounds, with 2 minutes' rest between rounds. Use the easier version whenever you can't keep good form for the whole 40 seconds, and stop each move with a couple of good reps left (reps in reserve).

Finish (practical): 4 to 6 runs of about 20 meters on the sand, walking back between them. Running on sand explains why those 20 meters feel longer than they look.

Looking for one area? Legs: the squats, lunges and jumps. Arms and chest: the push-ups and bear crawls. Core and abs: the plank and the flutter kicks. Doing two rounds of one group is a shorter session, not a different one. The whole circuit is the full-body version, and it's built on the same five patterns as a full-body plan.

What training on sand changes: the jump studies

Three trials and a review, each in athletes training for their sport:

• Soccer players, 4 weeks. In a randomised trial, 19 players did plyometric training on sand and 18 on grass. Neither surface did better for sprint times, and both groups improved the squat jump by a similar amount. The countermovement jump (a jump with a quick dip first) improved significantly more on grass. The sand group reported less muscle soreness on a rating scale.²
• Badminton players, 8 weeks. 28 male collegiate players did plyometrics twice a week, 14 on sand and 14 on a hard surface. Both groups improved their jump, balance and agility results, with no significant differences between the groups.³
• Tennis players, 8 weeks. In 30 male collegiate players, 10 trained jumps on sand and 10 on hard ground three times a week, and 10 kept to regular tennis. Both jump groups ended with higher countermovement and squat jumps than the tennis-only group. Hard ground gave the larger gains in reactive strength and the approach jump; sand gave the larger gain in the standing long jump, and only the sand group improved significantly in a single-leg balance reach.⁴
• A review of 35 studies. A 2025 systematic review of plyometric training in team-sport athletes found that sand surfaces seemed more effective than other surfaces at improving neuromuscular performance, and that rigid surfaces needed fewer jumps to reach similar gains.⁵

Read together: jump training worked on sand in every one of them. Two trials point to hard ground for the quick, springy jump (the countermovement jump in the soccer trial, reactive strength in the tennis trial), and the review found hard ground got there in fewer jumps. So sand is a fine place for a jump session, and a hard floor still has a job if bounce is what you're after (how to jump higher has that plan). These were athletes in their sports, so it's a pointer for the rest of us, not a measurement of you.

For speed, a 2026 meta-analysis of 19 randomised trials in 433 competitive athletes found that sand-based training of at least 4 weeks improved sprint performance, compared both with the athletes' own starting point and with comparison groups.⁶ The sprint trials are on running on sand.

Barefoot or shoes on the beach?

For running on soft beach sand, two studies found no significant difference in energy cost between barefoot and shoes.^7,8 For jump training, the 2025 review found that minimalist and rigid footwear led to higher improvements in various performance measures.⁵ No study here tested barefoot against shoes for a beach circuit, so it's your call (practical): many people go barefoot on soft sand, and either way, look over the spot where you'll land before you jump.

Training on a South Florida beach

Diogo Camera is an online fitness coach based in South Florida, where a beach session is on the table all year, with one catch: the sun. NOAA's 1991–2020 normals put the Miami International Airport station at 91.4 days a year at or above 90 F.⁹ Summer heat by metro has the numbers for other cities and when to move outdoor sessions to the cooler hours. On a hot day, the practical answer is early morning or evening. Coaching is online, wherever your beach is: online coaching in Florida.

How a beach day fits a week

Practical: count the beach circuit as one of your full-body sessions, not an extra on top. The World Health Organization asks adults for muscle-strengthening activities on 2 or more days a week,¹⁰ and two beach sessions plus one other full-body day covers that.

Practical: if you lift legs heavy in the week, keep the jumps and sand runs off the day before. When three rounds get easy, add a fourth before you add anything else.

Common questions

What is a good beach workout?

One that trains the whole body with no equipment: the seven-move circuit above, three rounds, then a few short runs on the sand. It's a practical session, not one from a trial; the trials on this page tested jump training.^2,3,4

Is working out on sand harder?

For running, yes, as measured: in one lab study, running on sand took 1.6 times the energy of running on a hard surface at the same speed.¹¹ For jumps, the trials measured results rather than effort, and the review describes sand as a higher energy cost surface than grass.¹

What are the benefits of sand workouts?

What the studies measured: jump and sprint results improved after weeks of jump training on sand, about as much as on firmer ground in most measures, with hard ground ahead on the springy jumps.^2,3,4 The page makes no health or weight claim.

Are sand workouts good for athletes?

The athletes are who they were tested on: soccer, badminton, tennis and other team-sport players.^2,3,4,5 For speed, the 19-trial meta-analysis found sand-based training improved sprint performance.⁶

Do I need shoes for a beach workout?

No study here answers it for a circuit. See barefoot or shoes above: it's a practical choice, and check where you'll land.

I'm a fitness coach, not a doctor: if you have pain, an injury or a joint problem, ask a doctor or physical therapist before you train on sand.

If you'd rather have the week planned

A beach circuit twice a week is easy to plan and easy to skip. Coaching is the version where your workouts are built around the days and places you actually train, beach included, and a weekly call looks at the week you just had and rebuilds the next one. Coaching explains how it works, and apply is the first step. Otherwise: do the circuit once this week, three rounds.