Wouldn’t it be great if we could all dedicate an hour a day four to five times a week to exercise? It would sure make getting and staying in shape a lot easier wouldn’t it. But for many of us, we don’t have that luxury and we can only dedicate a limited amount of time to exercise over the course of the week.
So what are we to do if we can only get in twenty minutes of exercise here, thirty minutes there, fifteen there? The most important thing you must do if you have a limited amount of time to exercise is be very selective with your exercise choices.
For example, if your goal is to lose twenty pounds in the next four months and you can only spend twenty to thirty minutes a day three times a week exercising you simply cannot afford to choose small isolation exercises like bicep curls, tricep extensions, or leg extensions.
These exercises only work one muscle group at a time, burn a very limited number of calories and have a very limited affect on your hormone levels. And unfortunately you cannot afford too cruise on an elliptical for 10-15 minutes at a pace that is neither pushing your limits nor functioning as an active recovery period either.
If you are exercising and are constrained by a tight time budget, for your resistance training component you must choose complex compound exercises. In English, these are exercises that work the largest muscles in your body and work multiple large muscle groups at the same time. Examples include squats, deadlifts, kettle bell swings, push ups, and bent over rows.
For your cardio component you need to utilize interval training. Set your intervals relative to your current abilities, but make sure your high intensities genuinely challenge you. Your heart rate needs to be significantly elevated and your breathing needs to be significantly challenged.
It’s a bummer we all don’t have more time to exercise, but if we plan our workouts intelligently, we can maximize our bang of our buck.
Here’s to training harder and smarter!
As Always,
To Our Health.
Zach
