How to cut your workout time?
Time, time, time: this is the biggest challenge for many of us and when the time is “too short”, the first thing we cancel is the workout.
Why? I see 2 main reasons for that:
- In our subconscious, exercise is not a real priority; exercising is perceived as a punishment and it’s in our nature to respond to instant gratification. It means the fact we are too busy is a very good excuse to avoid exercising! Think about it…
- We believe a workout has to last at least 45 minutes to be effective. Wrong!
First, you can cut the warm up: why spend 10-15 minutes walking on the treadmill? You get a gentle cardiovascular warm up, but what about muscles and joints?
Instead choose a few total body weight exercises and keep moving for 1, 2 or 3 minutes: your warm up will be more complete in less time.
Another way to get a good warm up is shadow boxing: do a 1 or 2 minutes round and you’ll be warmer comparing to a 10 minutes walk on the treadmill.
Second, know exactly what to do, organize your workout with timing. Put 2 or 3 exercises together and work in a superset or circuit. You’ll be able to do a workout in a matter of minutes (see the 3 minutes workouts).
Third, it’s necessary to learn how to push the intensity: pushing progressively the intensity will translate in a more effective workout, even if it last 10 minutes. Increasing intensity has to be progressive and can be done in different ways:
- increase the difficulty of a body weight exercise: for example, do your push up with the feet elevated.
- Decrease the rest between each set
- Increase the tempo of each rep (slow motion)
- Cardio interval training
- Monitor your heart rate to reach the anaerobic threshold
- Increase the load…
For short workouts, intensity will be a key for results, just be smart and listen your body.
But short workouts may also focus on energy generation, stress reduction, mental visualization… In these cases, concentration, deep breathing and body awareness are keys.
Why? I see 2 main reasons for that:
- In our subconscious, exercise is not a real priority; exercising is perceived as a punishment and it’s in our nature to respond to instant gratification. It means the fact we are too busy is a very good excuse to avoid exercising! Think about it…
- We believe a workout has to last at least 45 minutes to be effective. Wrong!
First, you can cut the warm up: why spend 10-15 minutes walking on the treadmill? You get a gentle cardiovascular warm up, but what about muscles and joints?
Instead choose a few total body weight exercises and keep moving for 1, 2 or 3 minutes: your warm up will be more complete in less time.
Another way to get a good warm up is shadow boxing: do a 1 or 2 minutes round and you’ll be warmer comparing to a 10 minutes walk on the treadmill.
Second, know exactly what to do, organize your workout with timing. Put 2 or 3 exercises together and work in a superset or circuit. You’ll be able to do a workout in a matter of minutes (see the 3 minutes workouts).
Third, it’s necessary to learn how to push the intensity: pushing progressively the intensity will translate in a more effective workout, even if it last 10 minutes. Increasing intensity has to be progressive and can be done in different ways:
- increase the difficulty of a body weight exercise: for example, do your push up with the feet elevated.
- Decrease the rest between each set
- Increase the tempo of each rep (slow motion)
- Cardio interval training
- Monitor your heart rate to reach the anaerobic threshold
- Increase the load…
For short workouts, intensity will be a key for results, just be smart and listen your body.
But short workouts may also focus on energy generation, stress reduction, mental visualization… In these cases, concentration, deep breathing and body awareness are keys.
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