Short on time? Want to know how to get the most bang for your buck with your workouts? Having worked a lot with young moms who are crazy busy juggling life, and being a busy woman myself, I’ve learned how to make the most out of precious workout time. You don’t need to spend hours in the gym to get results. Its all about Quality, not Quantity. Your eating plays a huge part as well, but thats a discussion for another day. Whether you’re traveling and don’t have much equipment, or you have 30 minutes in between carpool pick ups, these are the tips I’ve discovered to get the most out of a quick workout.

 

  1. More muscles = greater calorie burn. Think of your muscles as calorie burners. Exercises that incorporate more muscles at once will burn more calories than a single muscle isolation exercise. For example, a squat with a shoulder press is going to burn a lot more calories than just sitting at a shoulder press machine and isolating the shoulder muscle. Take away message: When you’re short on time, combine exercises to work multiple muscles at one time.
  2. The bigger muscle groups will burn more calories than smaller muscle groups. This may seem obvious, but I thought I’d point it out anyways. Similar to my last tip, if muscles are calorie burners, the bigger once will burn more right? So for example, your legs and back are bigger muscle groups than your arms or abs. When you want to burn more calories quickly, add in some explosive leg movements to the workout. Take away message: work bigger muscle groups for a bigger calorie burn. Stay clear from single muscle isolation exercises if you’re short on time.
  3. Minimize your rest time. When you only have 1/2 hour you want to be working through as much of that 1/2 hour as you can! this means shortening the rest time in between workouts. HIIT and Tabata are great styles for quick and effective workouts. With tabata you typically do 20-30 seconds full out intensity, with 10-15 seconds rest in between. Keep spiking your heart rate through the entire workout. Avoid resting over 30 seconds between exercises. This means getting rid of distractions and committing yourself for the time you have. Take away message: When you’re short on time, use it effectively, working more, resting less.

 

So there you have it! 3 easy tips to follow when creating an effective, time efficient workout. Now here’s a little circuit I put together using only your body weight, and maximizing calorie burn with multi-muscle exercises, and incorporating larger muscle groups. 

 

THE CIRCUIT: (do 45 seconds each, with 15 seconds rest in between)

  • Plank with cross knee crunch (alternating legs)
  • Forward and Back squat jacks
  • Push up - Pike toe taps
  • Surfer Get ups

(FULL VIDEO HERE.)

Rest 30-40 seconds after each round. Repeat circuit 3 rounds for a 15 minute workout. 

You can check out more of my Time Efficient, Body weight workouts in my online trainer programs at www.bodydesignbybrit.com/store

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