Common Question: Is it really possible to reach my goals if I only have time for short workouts?

Yes, but you have to be strategic. Health and medical experts recommend getting at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity (like a brisk walk or steady-state cardio), or 75 minutes of vigorous activity every week for basic health. That sounds like a lot but it’s not. It’s just 30 minutes of something that gets your heart rate up, 5 days a week, or 15 minutes of high-intensity work 5 days a week.

Now for your short-on-time strategy. Since it’s not a good idea to jump straight into a high-intensity workout without warming up first, what if you:

• Warm-up for 5 minutes, and then
• Crank out a 10-min high-intensity workout? It could be an interval workout … a circuit … or anything that gets your heart rate up and keeps it there.

If you did that two times a day when you can find a spare 15 minutes, you’d get 20 minutes of vigorous activity in a single day. Or if you did it once a day, you could add on a quickie 5-minute core routine later. Also, if you want to rev up your results (plus mix up your workouts), simply do longer workouts on days you have more time.