Limited time? Here are the best workouts in the least amount of time
Schedule limited these days due to too many demands?! Whether it is the increased demand of work, having a family at home to keep track of and all other demands life gives us - workouts sometimes is the last thing on your mind!
Did you know that you didn’t have to sacrifice your workout just because time is tight? You can easily get in a GREAT workout in 30 minutes, 20 minutes or even 15 minutes! Whatever time YOU DO HAVE - USE IT!
Try these tips next time you are limited on time, so that you don’t have to miss your workout (which we all know is a great stress reliever and boosts mental health!)
1. Try these types of workout formats: HIIT, TABATA, EMOMs, AMRAPs - by using these formats you can specifically make the workouts to fit your time.
2. Perform compound exercises - You don’t need multiple exercises for each body part. Create a compound exercise that uses more than one muscle group at a time. (Example exercises: squat press, push up to mountain climber, lunge to bicep curl, deadlift to high row, etc.)
3. Perform superset exercises - Perform two exercises back to back with limited rest between them. Be mindful of what exercises you are putting back to back. Choose muscles that are opposing muscle groups so that your body gets the rest it needs.
4. Increase intensity - Whether it be you increase your weight which means you can decrease your reps OR doing sprints instead of steady state cardio, increasing the intensity gives you more bang for your buck when the clock is ticking!
5. Break down the time - You don’t have to get your entire workout in at one time IF THAT DOESN’T WORK FOR YOU. Do two sessions at 15 minutes (1 in the morning, 1 at night). Do three 10 minute walks throughout the day. Find what works for you in order to get that movement in.
6. Miss your workout - DON’T sweat it and throw in the towel. Tomorrow is a new day full of new opportunities to do better. Life happens, but do not let it over run you - you have to put the effort in to see the results you are looking for.
~~~Questions I get if you are focused on lifting heavy like squats, deadlift and bench press: “How can I get in a good strength workout in 25-30 minutes, it doesn’t seem feasible and I will never be able to get stronger.”
Well first off, if you skip it all together it will be harder to see progress and 100x slower! Just because you are limited on time does not mean you have to miss the lift (especially if you are working on a progressive program!)
Example: heavy barbell squat day
3-5 min warm up (body weight squats, glute bridges, band walks, etc.)
10 reps just barbell
5 reps at 50% max
3 reps at 75 % max
2 reps at 100% max
ALWAYS WARM UP EVEN IF YOU ARE SHORT ON TIME! WE DON’T WANT YOU GETTING HURT - ULTIMATELY THAT WOULD LEAD TO YOU MISSING MORE WORKOUTS IN THE FUTURE
Time is only a factor if you let it be.
Use your time wisely and just focus on moving.
Everyone has at least 15 minutes in their day to get something in (even if just stretching- which is important!)
Meg DeSalvo Fit