You’ve developed a daily exercise regimen that includes a 60-minute workout. Well done, champ!
You can generally stick to that schedule.
Yet, what happens if you don’t have an hour to exercise?
Perhaps you have additional work that is due. Maybe you’re on the road. Perhaps your day is getting longer than normal because of your children’s activities.
Despite the cause, you’ll probably run into circumstances where you don’t have enough time to complete your usual 60- or 45-minute workout regimen and just have 30, 20, or 15 minutes to work out.
What should you do? Here is an article explaining how to plan a 15-minute workout:
Utilise the opportunity provided by your limitations
Instead of being annoyed that you only have 15 minutes to workout, use the time to get better at improvising. Enjoy the inspiration that comes to you when you’re up against a wall. Think about what you can do rather than what you can’t. As the proverb goes, something is better than nothing! Use the time efficiently and move the body.
Pushups, pull-ups, and cardio workout
15 minutes is not enough time to focus on a specific body part exercise. Even if you try, it will hardly reap any benefits. So, it’s better if you focus on core training. A 15-minute workout should start with three sets of push-ups and pull-ups, then move into high-intensity cardio. High-intensity cardio at the end of the workout helps make leg muscles strong and streamlines blood flow.
Concentrate on Exercise Density
There are several methods to make your 15-minute (or 10- or 20-minute) workout dense.
Do one AMRAP set. Consider a scenario in which you have three sets of five each for the squat, bench press, and deadlift. So, you won’t have time for all those reps if you only have 15 minutes.
Do one set for as many reps as you can on each exercise rather than three sets of five (AMRAP). Thus, you would perform a set of squats for the maximum number of repetitions, a set of bench presses for the maximum number of repetitions, and a set of deadlifts for the maximum number of repetitions.
It’s okay if you have to slightly lower the weight. The objective is to complete as much work as you can in the limited time available. Don’t allow the good to be the enemy of the perfect with this advice or any of the others.
Set up supersets workout
Supersets are a further approach to increasing the density of your workout.
Supersets involve performing two distinct exercises immediately after one another. You should blend exercises that target various muscle groups when performing supersets. As a result, one muscle group can rest while the other is being worked.
Bicep curls and tricep dips are two exercises that can be combined in a superset. Yet, since our goal is to maximise our return on investment, choose exercises that incorporate compound movements that engage many muscle groups. A lower-body exercise like the squat, for instance, could be combined with an upper-body exercise like the shoulder press. A pushing exercise like the push-up can be combined with a pulling activity like the pull-up.
Try HIIT workout
HIIT alternates very short, intense training bursts with rest intervals. You can’t perform HIIT any other way since it’s impossible to maintain the all-out effort needed over a longer amount of time. It’s ideal for short periods of time.
HIIT can be performed on a bike, elliptical machine, treadmill, or with bodyweight exercises like a kettlebell—anything that makes your heart rate increase. Pick the modality you like most.
Bottomline
Plan your way ahead before every workout. Results are rather slow, and preparing your workout routine meticulously helps you gain results. A 15-minute workout is too little time, as that is the time the body takes to get acquainted with exercises and start burning some calories. The above-mentioned ways will help you have an effective workout in 15 minutes.