We all have busy lives full of work and family, and many of you may not exercise because you probably don’t have a lot of free time. Here is the solution to your problem! Contrary to popular belief, studies have actually shown that a shorter workout, with a higher intensity can be even more effective than a longer workout with moderate intensity. This is great news for those of you who do not have a lot of time (which seems to be most of us!)
Ideally, you should be exercising 3-4 times a week for up to 45 minutes per day. Almost all of my classes at The Studio and Grappling Unlimited are only 45 minutes long. These shorter classes allow you to maximize your time in the gym. This really isn’t that much time to do something good for yourself. With a little understanding of how your body works, you can optimize your workout and get great results.
First, the bottom line is if you're not sweating you're not working out! It really comes down to your heart rate. In order to get a good workout you have to get your heart rate up. (If you are injured or recovering from an injury, always make sure that you get clearance from your doctor to exercise.)
Let’s get to the work out. I have created this workout to be high intensity, but simple enough that a beginner will not have any trouble doing it. This workout is only 20 minutes long, which includes a warm up and warm down (which is just important as your workout). Turn on some high energy, motivating music and let’s get started!
First, you’ll start with a 5 minute warm up. I suggest a quick stretch (1 minute) and then jumping rope (4 minutes) to get your heart rate going and your body warm. This is a typical warm up that I use in most of my classes at The Studio. Now that you’re warmed up, let’s start your “circuit”. In this workout one “circuit” consists of:
10 High Knees (pictured below) running in place, brining your knees as high up as you can
1 Burpee (pictured in the series below) From standing position, place hands on ground, jump back to a push up position, jumping back foward where you started, then jumping in air with hands extending above head.
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Step 5
Do this 10x
Then 10 crunches (pictured below)
10 touch toes (pictured below) Keeping legs straight in the air, reach up and touch toes
30 sec. v-hold (pictured below) Hold this position, feeet about 6 inches off ground; with hands at your sides; palms facing up.
Do this 2x
Rest 2 mins.
At the end of your two minute rest, you are going to start all over again, repeat this process for a total of 20 minutes. At the end of your 20 minutes, you will immediately start your 5 minute warm down. Warm down should include some walking around to get your heart rate down and then some stretching. That’s it!
Any kind of exercise is great, but the thing to remember is that there is no magic pill or magic diet that will keep you in shape. It really is just plain old hard work and sweat. It's as simple as this: you need to burn more calories than you take in. How you do that it is up to you. If you have the time to take an hour long jog or work-out in the gym for hours…that’s great, but I’m guessing that most of us don’t have the time. Remember, you can take an hour long walk or do a more intense 30 minute workout and you’ll burn the same amount of calories with 30 minutes to spare!
