Life is hectic these days. And, it’s far too easy to put working out on the backburner. Sooner or later, however, we pay the price with our health and or with our waistline. Finding time in a day to exercise can certainly feel overwhelming or impossible. The good news is that it doesn’t need to be 90 or 60 minutes to get a good workout in. To clarify, exercise can be done in as little as 15 minutes.
Five tips to squeeze in a 15 to 25-minute workout.
- Workout first. Before work, before the kids wake up, before checking email. Set the alarm 20 minutes early and workout before something else has the chance to come up.
- Schedule it. Make an appointment and don’t reschedule. Treat it as a medical appointment. Allow nothing to get booked over it. Commit by creating the appointment and by keeping it.
- Make a plan for your workout. Don’t show up to the gym empty handed or wake up without a workout in mind. Make a plan and use every second of your workout time to actually work out. Hundreds of free resources are available at your fingertips, take advantage of them.
- Keep your clothes close. Sleep in your workout gear if you are planning on waking up bright and early. Or, at the very least, lay it out the night before. Pack a gym bag and bring it with. Distractions happen too easily. Bypass all of the excuses by simply heading straight to the gym after work.
- Use the buddy system. Get a workout partner and set a date. You’ll be less likely to skip the workout and you’ll also have more fun. People that workout with a partner or in a group has been shown to stick with their workout program longer. It’s a win-win-win.
*Be sure to consult your physician before beginning this or any fitness program.
FAST |
FASTER |
| Set a timer for 20 minutes. Complete as many rounds as possible of the following sequence:
5 pushups 10 situps 15 squats |
30 situps
10 burpees 30 squats 10 burpees 30 mountain climbers 10 burpees |
| Pick two to four movements you love and 1 you hate. Perform eight rounds of each. One round = do as many reps as you can for 20 seconds, then rest for 10 seconds. Eight rounds will take four minutes. Move on to the next exercise after resting as needed. | 45-second lunges/rest 15 seconds
45-second plank/rest 15 seconds 45-second chair dips/rest 15 seconds 45-second jumping jacks/rest 15 seconds 45-second push-ups/rest 15 seconds Repeat for two rounds |
| 1-minute mountain climbers
1-minute squats 1-minute plank 1-minute jumping jacks Rest 1 minute Repeat for 3 rounds |
10 jumping jacks
10 squats 10 pushups 9 jumping jacks 9 squats 9 pushups 8 jumping jacks, continue down to 1 |
Tiffany Wilkerson is the JRMC Volunteer Services Coordinator and certified as a CrossFit Level 1 trainer, as well as CrossFit Kids