Annoying fact of life: sometimes you don’t have an hour to fit your workout into – heck, sometimes you don’t even have 30 minutes. I found myself in this situation recently when I had an hour-long lunch break into which I needed to fit a workout plus do some shopping for my brother’s birthday.
I knew what I needed to buy for Fraser, so that wasn’t a drama. I allocated myself 25 minutes to get into the gym, get my workout done, and get out again. Having such a short period of time means picking your exercises wisely, therefore my preference was for big compound movements, designed to work as many muscles as possible in the shortest time frame possible.
Here is what I came up with:
Push ups x 12
Squat press x 12
Lunge jumps x 12/leg
TRX row x 12
Kettlebell swing x 12
[Repeat 4 times]
To increase the intensity of the workout I increased the weights on my squat press and swing, and let me tell you, I knew about it the next day! All up the workout took me just under 20 minutes, and I was out the door and on my way to pick up Fraser’s present in my allotted time!
So, the lesson of the day is this, next time you’ve got a limited amount of time and you’re tempted to throw in the proverbial gym towel, don’t! Keep these things in mind for the most effective workout:
1. Compound exercises are efficient, as they allow you to work multiple muscles and muscle groups at once (examples include squat press, deadlift, pullups)
2. Time based circuits can be a great way to ensure you don’t go over your allotted training time
3. Dropping your reps/rounds and increasing weight can be a great way to increase intensity and energy output in a shorter period of time
That’s all I’ve got for you today folks – just remember it’s about training smarter, not harder.
Have a great week!
Leave a Reply