Modern life can be hectic and – from a health point of view – less than perfect.
When you’re trying to juggle a busy work, family and social life, it can be difficult to find time left over for health and fitness and hitting the gym for a good workout. Unfortunately many people use the fact that they are busy or “time poor” (I hate that saying and mindset with avengeance) as an excuse to neglect their body. So, before we tackle anything else, the first point we need to cover is that being busy is NOT a valid excuse for not taking care of your body and not investing in your health (I think a triple negative works).
Everyone is busy.
Life is busy.
Rather than chasing the fallacy of a quiet life with lots of downtime on our hands, let’s agree that this is unlikely to change anytime soon and move on with our lives.
Secondly, everything (especially your results) comes down to the choices and decisions that you make, on a day to day basis. If you are overweight, out of shape, tired all of the time and in pain, it is most likely because you’ve chosen to prioritise other areas of your life over exercise and good nutrition and other simple foundational health principles.
If you want to change this and build a better looking, feeling and performing body, then you need to prioritise exercise (daily movement) and nutrition (real food) and make better choices and decisions. However, like success in all areas, it is simple in theory but much harder in practise for most people, which brings us to the main part of today’s post.
What if you find yourself with only 30 minutes to workout?
Can you even have an effective workout in 30 minutes (or less) or should you just not bother because it’s not enough time to do anything meaningful?
The answer is that doing something is better than doing nothing and, although 30 minutes is not ideal for a well-structured workout session, you can still get some valuable training in and make good progress towards your goals (whatever they may be), which is the name of the game. Personally, because I’m building a new business at the moment, I’ve found myself in this position a lot over the last 6 months. Rather than damaging my results and progress, if anything, I would say it has really helped to sharpen my focus and make better decisions in the gym because it automatically limits the options and forces me to focus on the absolute essentials.
As most of us are natural procrastinators, this can only be a good thing.
If you happen to find yourself with only 30 minutes to workout (let’s face it, this is likely to happen more often than not), here’s my quick guide to squeezing the most out of your time and maximising your results.
-
Spend 10 minutes warming up (do NOT neglect this)
Whether you call it a warm up, movement preparation or full body joint mobility, you MUST invest at least 10 minutes preparing your body for movement in a progressive and functional way (as in it prepares you for the loading and movement patterns you’re about to perform). Because you’re tight for time, you’ll be tempted to skip the warm up but, be warned, this is a huge mistake. The warm up is essential because it will allow you to push harder for the remaining 20 minutes and not get injured (which will derail your progress in a major way). Sorry folks, but this is non-negotiable, so those 5 minute, token warm ups you do at the gym or Crossfit box have to go. If your coach or trainer doesn’t guide you through a proper warm up or movement preparation session that lasts at least 10 minutes, then you should find a new coach (especially if you’re over 40) and, no, 5 minutes on the stationary bike does not count.
-
Focus on 2 compound movements / exercises (not 3 or 4 or 7)
Yes, I’m afraid you’re going to have to make some tough decisions and choose what to miss out. I know that your favourite guru said that you have to do your core work and corrective exercises, breathing work, isolation work and cover antagonistic muscle groups in every workout, but the simple truth is that life is not perfect and you can’t do everything. With only 20 minutes left, your workout time really will be wasted if you try and fit in too many exercises and tick all of the boxes. What we’re after here is quality over quantity and I’m officially giving you permission to not be perfect and miss things out.
Instead, pick two complimentary, compound (big, multi-joint) movement patterns or exercises and focus on doing those with excellent form and intensity and nothing else. In my last 30-minute workout when I had to rush to the airport afterwards, I did the following:
10 mins Full body mobility and movement preparation
A1. False Grip Ring Chin Ups (strict form, passive to active) x 6 reps, 3-1-2 tempo
A2. 2 KB Front Squats x 8 reps @ 2 x 24kg KBs, 3-1-2 tempo
90 seconds rest after each super set x 5 rounds (A1 + A2 = 1 round).Now for the technical part, to prove that this works and that you shouldn’t try and fit anything else in (not even inverted rows).
Total warm up time = 10 minutes.
Total rest time (between rounds) = 12 minutes.
Total working time (actually performing the exercises) = 7 minutes
Moving between exercises = 1 minute
Total workout time = 30 minutes. -
Add a second workout, later in the day (optional)
If you are pursuing more serious goals, suffering from adrenal fatigue or will never realistically have more than a 30 minute block to workout, you can add a second, short workout in the afternoon or evening. Although the main workout will help you make good progress, twice-a-day training will really help ramp up your results, manage your energy and fit in more total work (like the important stuff that often gets neglected at the end of the workout, because you can’t be arsed).
I’ve been experimenting with this for a while and I find it really helps me to cover all of the exercises I need to in order to hit my goals and also helps me feel fresher and hit the afternoon, accessory work with more energy, intensity and enthusiasm. To do this properly, focus on your bigger, compound strength exercises in the morning (first) workout and then focus on accessory exercises (isolation work, specific core work and remedial stuff) in the second workout (afternoon or early evening).
I hope you find this useful and it helps you make solid progress towards your goals. Although it’s not perfect, it’s better than doing nothing or, even worse, doing nothing and complaining that you don’t have time to do anything.
Give it a try and leave me a comment to let me know what you think, or if you need any help or suggestions choosing exercises.
Olly