It is completely normal to feel a temptation to skip exercising every once in a while. After all, our work schedules coupled with an insane number of obligations, both private and professional, turn our lives into a whirlwind of stress. Schedules shift constantly and nothing appears to align for your own convenience. Naturally, if you have 30 to 45 minutes of spare time, you’ll hardly think that going to the gym can reap effective results. You’d be wrong. Believe it or not, there are some nifty tricks out there that can render your short workout session super effective!
Limit your warm-up and rest periods
The point of a warm-up is to ensure that any injury is prevented during an intense exercise. This is why you should not strictly omit this step even if you are short on time. Instead, limit your warm-up to holistic stretching and some gymnastic moves coupled with one or two light exercises. Ideally, your gym will have one or several steppers somewhere in the vicinity, and you can occupy one with a few smaller weights in each hand in order to get ready for the short but intense session. In addition, you should exclude the rest periods between sets and reserve them for pauses between exercise types, but only if you feel that a particular exercise has taken a lot of air out of you.
Focus on the core
There is a good reason why the fitness world has dubbed the area above the waist and below your chest (including the back) your core – it is the pillar of your physical prowess and capability. The strength of your core determines your stamina and its integrity extends to aid the entire body – the posture, the spine health, and resilience. Naturally, if you have only 20 to 30 minutes tops for an exercise, doing an intense series of sit-ups and other core exercises will go a long way. Furthermore, there are several sauna suit styles for men that will aid your perspiration, which promotes weight loss and toxin release. In other words, you’ll actually double or even triple the effects of the short exercise.
Do an eclectic set
That being said, the core is not the only part of the body you should hit during your short-but-sweet workout session. In fact, if your time is limited, every trainer will encourage you to mix it up as much as you can and do an eclectic set of completely different exercises that will employ every muscle on your body. Furthermore, the time limit will push you out of your routine and prompt you to think of an inventive set that will exhaust you just as a feature-length gym session. If you get out of the gym feeling as if you have spent, at the very least, two hours draining every ounce of energy out of your muscles, you have managed to create a potent mix-up, and it has been a worthwhile session in spite of its brevity.
Include the road itself into your routine
If you have up to 45 minutes of free time and you are contemplating going to the gym, chances are that your destination is located 10 to 15 minutes away from you. In other words, you will hardly need to use a car or public transportation to get there. This is good news because you can ‘include’ the road into your routine by running all the way there and back again, and possibly dabbling in a high-intensity interval training (HIIT). A solid jog can be a good way to wind-up before and wind-down after the session.
Conclusion
If someone told you that you shouldn’t bother with shorter workouts because they cannot reap desired results, you’re taking advice from an egregiously uninformed person. It all depends on the method, and going with more intense, shorter burst of exercise will not only build your resilience and muscle mass, but it can also actually improve your endurance by a significant margin that may surprise you.
