Please enjoy the latest in a new article series from the Franchise himself currently running as a blog on Broadwayworld.com.
While the appropriate length of a workout depends on a number of factors (the goals, your training experience, free time, etc.), the great news is you really can get a lot done with limited time.
One of the biggest barriers for people looking to make fitness a part of their life is time. And let’s face it, we can all relate to wishing we had just a few more hours each day!
That said, if you use your time well, you can get a fantastic workout with just 30 minutes. To make it as effective as possible, your best bet is to take your first 5 minutes with a general full body warm-up, then dive right into 20 minutes of training, and allow a few minutes to cool down at the end.
For the “workout proper,” you’ll want to focus on alternating strength training moves. Specifically, while some of your body is resting, you want to use other parts of your body to do stuff. So for instance, you could do push-ups, take a very brief break, then do jump squats, another brief break, then repeat.
By alternating between non-competing exercises, you can keep your heart rate pumping while the muscles themselves get a break. You’ll notice our bodyweight only workouts in MyBroadwayBody.com are built around a similar pattern. And with good reason! It’s a very time effective approach.
This style of training is sometimes called “circuit training,” or when I’m wearing my fanciest pants, I could also call this “metabolic resistance training.” I’m using resistance training (or strength training) to create a “metabolic,” or calorie burning, effect.
So the next time you’re short on time, challenge yourself to be as economical as possible. If you go hard enough, you can most certainly get a fantastic workout in as little as 30 minutes.
Want to learn more? Click here to get our free report, The 5 Most Common Fitness Mistakes Performers Make. (HINT: Many of these apply to non-performers too!)