Get Fit Faster

Here’s a short set of exercises you can do almost anywhere in a matter of minutes. Instead of finding time to go through your traditional weight training and cardio in the gym, this program is made up of body weight exercises in a routine that should take about 3 minutes, to be done 6-8 times per day, 5 days a week…

If you work in the open in an office full of prying eyes, you will have to get over any nervousness about doing this in front of other people! Then again, who knows, your co-workers might even join you. Well… maybe. If you have your own private office, this won’t be a problem so have at it!

If you work at home, you shouldn’t have any problem fitting these in. If you have a busy day with kids to chauffeur or meetings to attend then just try to get as many sets done each day as you can.

If you’re on a normal 9-5 office schedule, try doing these 3-minute workouts every hour on the hour, with the exception of lunch. So, you could try 9 am, 10 am, 11 am, 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm, and 4 pm.

Some of the best bodyweight exercises are:

• bodyweight squats (and variations)
• pushups (and variations)
• forward, reverse, or walking lunges
• walking up & down a staircase if one is available
• floor plank holds (holding the position at forearms and feet)
• floor abs exercises – lying leg thrusts, ab bicycles, etc.
• one-legged bodyweight Romanian deadlifts

This list is not complete by any means, this is a relatively simple example of what could be included. If you have any favorite exercises, you can add or substitute those also. You can mix some isometrics in too; although you won’t get the same calorie burn, they will help you build tendon strength and are good for you.

If you don’t want to (or can’t) get down on the floor to do any of these, then you can stick to squats, lunges, and desk-edge pushups and still get great results. Make sure it’s a sturdy desk…

What makes these great workouts so convenient is that you can do enough in 2-3 minutes to work most of the muscles in your body, get your blood pumping, get your heart rate up a bit and your body temperature raised. And, you probably won’t break a sweat in only 2 or 3 minutes, so you won’t have that to worry about! At most, you might get a little ‘glow’ on.

Here’s an example of the routine you can do – adjust the reps up or down based on your abilities or progress:

Mon/Wed/Fri…
9 am – 10 pushups/15 bodyweight squats, 2 sets
10 am – plank holds (as you can with rests in between, 3 minutes)
11 am – 5 pushups/10 bodyweight squats, repeat for 4 sets
1 pm – plank holds (as above)
2 pm – 8 pushups/12 bodyweight squats, repeat for 3 sets
3 pm – plank holds (as above)
4 pm – maximum possible pushups and squats in 3 minutes

Tues/Thurs
9 am – 6 fwd lunges/6 rev lunges, each leg, 2 sets
10 am – one legged RDL, 6 each leg/floor abs for 20 sec, 2 sets
11 am – 3 fwd lunges each leg/3 rev lunges, 4 sets
1 pm – one legged RDL, 3 each leg/floor abs for 20 sec, 4 sets
2 pm – 5 fwd lunges/5 rev lunges, each leg, repeat for 3 sets
3 pm – one legged RDL 10 each leg/floor abs for 30 sec, 1 set
4 pm – max fwd and rev lunges possible in 3 minutes

You’ll notice the way these mix it up every hour; you’d plateau in a relatively short period if this was the same routine every hour, every day, every week…

In order to progress with these workouts, you can either add reps to each exercise as you can, or do harder versions of each exercise. As an example, change to a wider spread between your hands in your pushups, do them one-armed or with just one foot on the floor (ankles crossed), do squats with arms raised straight over head, etc.

These are just 2 examples of routines you can put together with this unique style of training. Use your imagination and come up with your own. But do choose exercises that challenge you! Through these mini workouts you’ll increase your heart rate and work your muscles 6-8 times every day, burning a lot of extra calories and stimulating your metabolism.

Even though these are very quick, they add up to lots of repetitions and hit all the major muscles. And anyone can take a 3-minute break once per hour and do a couple of exercises. Also, because you’ve done your workout during the day, you’ve freed up some time for yourself in the evening.

Keep in mind that this method of training is only an alternative to weight-based resistance training and is not meant to replace it. Just rotate it into your arsenal of training methods.

Try this time-efficient workout routine for a few weeks and then go back to your normal gym routines.  You can try mixing in a cycle of these “mini” workouts every couple of months to keep things fresh.

Recommended Reading

Bodyweight Workouts, Bodyweight Exercises, Bodyweight Movements … – Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Zac Tunstall of Hood Workout, a site with videos on how to perform bodyweight exercises in the comfort of your own…

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