What’s the biggest thing standing in the way of you reaching your weight loss goals? If you’re like most people, your biggest obstacle is time. With work and home responsibilities, it’s tough to make it to the gym 3x a week for an hour each time. However, just because you may not be able to make it to the gym and have a time shortage doesn’t mean you can’t fit in a quick and challenging workout.
One of the biggest time wasters in fitness programs is the separation of cardio training and resistance training. Cardio training typically consists of a Long, Slow, and Boring trots on the treadmill or elliptical and resistance training programs are typically comprised of exercises focused on isolating individual muscles. By effectively integrating your cardio and your resistance training, you can drastically cut down the time required for a good workout. Here’s a quick list of workout time efficiency essentials:
1) Stay away from isolation exercises. Multi-Joint exercises will use more muscles which will let you get more blood pumping and more calories burned.
2) Really challenge yourself. I mean seriously. If you summon up the ferocity to push yourself to your edge (while still paying close attention to form!), you’ll be on the fast track to getting more results than the vast majority of exercisers.
3) Put exercises together in circuits. By sewing together the right combinations of exercises, you’ll be able to tap into high intensity and stay there for the duration of your workout.
4) Make use of time. Ideally use a stopwatch, but paying close attention to a clock can suffice. To make sure you’re challenging yourself properly, make goals for your performance based on time. Ex: perform more reps in the same time period, or finish the same amount of reps in less total time. Your fifteen minute workout, not including your warm up or cool down. If you’re really pressed for time,you could even decrease the amount of time to 5 minutes. Something is better than nothing!
15 Minutes of as many circuits as you can:
10 Body Weight Squats
5 Push Ups
5 lunges on each leg Mark down how many circuits you completed in the allotted time. Make it your goal to gradually increase how many circuits you can complete in whatever time period you can allot yourself. By approaching your training intelligently, you can get a great workout in just a few minutes. If all you can get is 15 minutes to give yourself the gift of fitness, take it!
Sean Flanagan is runs 360 Fitness & Conditioning in Providence, RI and is the strength coach to professional MMA/UFC Fighters. To find out more about his services, visit [http://www.three60fitness.com]
