While I enjoy working out, I don’t have a lot of patience for long workouts. This is why I am always looking for ways to cut my exercise time short without compromising the quality of my workouts. I’m sure you feel the same. We all have a busy lifestyle. We simply don’t have any time to waste.
In this article I want to show you a few ways in which you can cut your workout time short. You will still be doing an awesome workout. Making it shorter may even make it more effective. The greatest benefits are the you will save time and that you will eliminate one of the biggest workout excuses: the lack of time.
Here are the 5 tips:
Do Combination exercises
How can you squeeze more exercises into the same workout time? One way to do so is to do more full body exercises that employ multiple muscle groups, in particular upper and lower body exercises.
When you start doing squats with shoulder presses or lunges with biceps curls, or other exercises that combine lower and upper body strength, you are basically doing two exercises in one. You’re saving a lot of time and you’re doing an intense workout.
Plan Ahead
If you want to do a short workout you have to know, in advance, exactly what you’re going to be doing. Know which exercises you want to perform and know where the equipment you need is located. A lot of people go to the gym with a written workout plan and you’d be wise to use one as well.
You can take into account the structure of the gym you’re working out in when you plan your workout so you won’t have to run from end of the gym to the other when you switch exercises.
Cut down on Socializing
One of the common gym mistakes that people make is using the gym as a place to socialize, meet people, or explore opportunities with members of the opposite sex. All this talking requires a lot of time and it often ruins your workout as your resting time between sets becomes much too long.
The gym is not for socializing. It’s for working out. If you can’t avoid talking to people I recommend working out with a music player. When people see you with earphones they naturally assume you’re not open to conversation.
Set a Deadline
If I know I have to finish something by a certain date or time, I naturally work faster. This is how we humans respond to pressure. We actually need it to get things done.
This is why I recommend that you set a deadline for each of your workouts. Just set a time by which you have to finish the workout. This deadline will “force” you to hurry up and get through all of the exercises without taking too long rests and without socializing. Naturally, your deadline needs to be realistic to be effective. To learn what is realistic, try to do your workouts faster each time you visit the gym. When you can’t do it faster anymore, you’ve reached your deadline.
Keep Your Rests Short and Do Circuits
One of the ways to burn more fat in your workouts is to not take a rest between each set but to do strength circuits. A circuit is done when you do a series of exercises (4 or more), focusing on different muscles, with no rest in between. You rest only between the circuits themselves.
If you do take a rest between sets, keep them short, no more than 90 seconds and, I advise, less than 60. Otherwise, your body will get cold in a hurry and your workout will suffer for it.
In Conclusion
Take these 5 tips and start implementing them during your coming workouts. See how you feel with them. I believe that you’ll enjoy spending less time at the gym and you may even get faster results because your workouts will improve.