As we approach the end of the year, our schedules get filled up with social engagements, hosting guests, travel, work deadlines, children off from school, let’s not forget the shopping, cooking, the list goes on and on. How can you possibly fit in working out on top of that? Good question! Even in times of stress and very little free time it is important to get in a quickie workout in when you can. There are times, even as a fitness trainer in San Diego when I only have 20 minutes to workout, BUT I still workout, I just make it an intense 20 minutes. I am a fan of utilizing the following workouts when I do not have a whole lot of time to get in a quality strength or cardio session, these are great fill ins when life is a little too crazy. I have included some examples of some at home, or on the road short intense workouts you can do on your own to help you get through the next month AND most importantly not skip a workout.
A) The Ascending or Descending Ladder. With this type of workout you either gradually add or take away reps there are no scheduled rests, so the idea is to get through it as quick as you can; only resting when you need to. Below are two examples:
Go back and forth between Burpees 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 and Push-ups 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
Complete all three for each rep Jump Squats; Full Sit Ups; Mountain Climbers 16-14-12-10-8-6-4
B) The Timed AMRAP (as many reps as possible). With this workout you set a timer for 10, 15 or 20 minutes. Your goal is to get through as many rounds of a circuit in that period of time and only resting when you need to. Below are two examples:
10 yard bear crawl; 10 hand release push-ups; 10 in and out squat jumps; 10 knee to opposite elbow plank hold for 15 minutes
20 chair step ups; 20 full sit ups; 50 jumping jacks; 20 mountain climbers; 10 tricep push-ups; 20 flutter kicks for 20 minutes
C) Sprints with a short recovery. You complete short sprints of 15-30 seconds with a 2:1 rest ratio. Because these are short and intense and offer a very short recovery time it doesn’t take much time before you start feeling it. This is versatile and can be applied to stairs, hill sprints, bike sprints, row machine, and even jumping rope. An example would be doing stairs for 15 seconds, recovering for 30 seconds, and then going again. In 15 minutes, you will be feeling the burn.
D) EMOM (every minute on the minute). With this workout you complete a certain number of reps of each exercise every minute on the minute. At first it feels easy, but about two-thirds of the way through you will start cursing the buzzer. Below are two examples:
5 Chin Ups, 5 Dips, 5 Jump Squats for 10 minutes
You have to go through and complete the list of exercises, and every minute on the minute you stop what you are doing and complete 5 burpees. 40 body weight squats, 40 jumping jacks, 40 mountain climbers, 20 full sit ups, and 20 push-ups.
E) Tabatas. 20 seconds of effort followed by 10 seconds of recovery for 8 rounds (4 minutes total). I will either do one exercise or two different exercises. At the end I will rest for a couple minutes then do another couple versions of a tabata, depending on how much time I have. Here are two examples:
Alternating Burpees and Body Weight Squats
Jump Squats for 8 rounds; Mountain Climbers for 8 Rounds; Squat Thrusts for 8 Rounds
I hope you find these helpful. Feel free to let me know what you think of them once you have tried them out. Happy sweating!
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