Time Crunched Fitness Routines

It can be tough to find time to get your daily activity in. Between commuting, work and families 45 minutes to an hour can be hard to come by. Here are some tips for those of you who are time crunched when it comes to your fitness:

Use Compound Movements - Compound movements are exercises that require movement at more than one joint and incorporate several muscle groups. Don't fart around with isolated movements and machines, they are less efficient at recruiting more muscles and burn less calories. Utilize dynamic movements requiring large muscle groups like: lunges, deadlifts, step ups, dumbbell bench press, push ups, pull ups, lat pull downs, rows, push presses, standing shoulder presses, kettle bell swing, kettle bell snatch and cleans.

Perform Total Body Workouts Using Super Sets - If using a functional program template, the body can be broken up into movements rather than muscle groups:

Knee Dominant, Hip Dominant, Horizontal Push, Horizontal Pull, Vertical Push, Vertical Pull, Core Stabilization and Core Rotational. This hefty menu may seem like a bunch to attack in a single session and may take an hour to an hour and a quarter if you go through each movement one by one. If you super set the opposing muscle groups, you will cut your time spent in the gym in half, increase the intensity and increase the amount of calories burned in your session. Try this total body super set routine performing 3-4 sets of 12 reps using 30 second rest periods after both exercises are completed:

(Knee Dominant)Alternating Lunge + (Hip Dominant) Romanian Deadlift
(Horizontal Push) Dumbbell Chest Press + (Horizontal Pull) Single Arm Cable Row
(Vertical Push) Single Arm Shoulder Press + (Vertical Pull) Chin Ups or Lat Pulls
(Core Stabilization) Side Planks + (Core Rotational) Cable Woodchops

You should be able to blast through that in less that 45 minutes, 30 minutes if you're really cooking!

Use Timed Sets - One of my favorite techniques I've adopted from Strength Coach Robert dos Remedios is the use of timed sets. Use, for example a 30:30 work interval split which is 30 seconds of work followed by 30 seconds of rest. When implementing this type of interval training in conjunction with strength work, agility and plyometric exercises, you can put yourself through a demanding, effective and fun workout worth 20 sets of work in just 20 minutes. Try this 30:30 circuit and start at just 10 minutes, then build yourself up to 20 minutes. If you come away from this routine feeling short-changed I'll be surprised...

Burpees
Prisoner Squats
Push Ups
Db Rows
Ice Skaters

Have fun with those! Let me know what you think!