time effective workouts

Concept: Training When You’re Pressed for Time

20 minute Workouts

You’ll never have more focused, productive workout than you will when you are pressed for time.

I’m serious.

Sure, 45-60min is probably the best case scenario for a complete workout, but hot damn if some of my best workouts have come when I look at the clock and realize I have no time to waste.

Yesterday I had 20 minutes to get a workout in.  I adapted my regularly schedule training session into a complex format.  I used two kettlebells, both 53lb (24kg) and I got to work.

Warming up with authority, especially when pressed for time, should provide some aerobic benefit as a by-product.  Yes, a warm up should be more than arm circles, head rolls and leg swings.  Prepare your body for 3-dimensional movement and the demands of the training session ahead.

When there is no time to waste, you’ll find that you will only execute the activities that matter.  There is nothing to contemplate, no over-thinking, no procrastination.

In my case yesterday, this is what I worked through in this exact order:

 

  • Foam Roll:  Glutes, back, lats.
  • Band assisted Mobility/Stretch:  Tall Kneeling Hip Flexor (I have tight hip flexors)
  • Activation:  Glute bridging, band walks and wall slides.
  • Movement Prep:  Elbow to instep, sumo squat, lunge matrix, eccentric focused bodyweight push ups, hand walks.
  • Movement Warm Up Circuit:  Bodyweight squats, pushups, jumping jacks, reverse lunges.
  • Workout:  Kettlebell Complex (5 rounds, 60sec rest, 6 reps per movement)

Shower and out the door.

 

If you were to stand on the sideline and watch a training session like the one I describe above, you would notice that there is no separation between each of the different components.  Everything flows.  It is non-stop movement from the beginning to the end.  There is no time to waste.

Is this ideal?  No, probably not.  I would have like to focus more time on correcting my problem areas and had the workout be less of a work capacity style event and more of a strength based session.

Is this better than sitting on my ass for 20 minutes?   Absolutely.  Movement matters in any way you can get it.

Don’t make the excuse of lack of time.  Things are rarely “ideal” in life, so find a way to get the work done.  Work through a fast paced session when you are pressed for time.  You’ll probably never have a better training session.  You’ll feel better that you did it, that is for sure…

 

Cheers,

 

-KG-

My Real Issue With Devoting Less Time to a Workout

Angry Rants, Quick Tips

The real issue that I have with cutting a workout short is this…

I see a direct correlation between the length of a workout and the intensity level needed to accelerate fat loss and lay down lean muscle tissue, positive hormone changes, etc.

What’s the problem?

Well, as a professional, my right mind has issues with telling a beginner to go blast themselves through a high work capacity style training session in 20 minutes.  You have to earn the right to train like that.  You have to prove to me that you are technically proficient in your exercise technique.  You have to prove to me that you can lift heavy things (db’s, kb’s, bb’s, etc) while under fatigue.

 

I have other criteria but I think you get the idea.

To be honest, this is my current beef with Cross-Fit.  It’s cookie cutter for everyone.  Very little assessing of movement quality before being thrown into a 15 minute high intensity work capacity training session (this is just my experience around these “extreme training” style trainers and gyms).  From beginner to advanced, you are going to perform the workout of the day despite your training age, abilities, technical proficiency in high risk lifts, etc…

Some of these people are not even close to being ready for the kind of intensity and work needed to create change in that short of a time span.  Sure, I could write-up a workout for anyone that could bury them in less than 5 minutes.  That’s no joke.  But anyone can do that.  That’s just making someone else tired.  That isn’t training them for the long-term or educating them on the process of what it takes to lose fat and keep it off.

I can’t advocate that.

It’s mindless and it isn’t safe.

So at some point I have to draw the line.  A person needs to be realistic with themselves, especially someone new to resistance training and some of the modalities that we coaches are finding the biggest return on. You have to be willing to find the time or adjust your schedule to make the time to train.  You have to be willing to learn and groove things like the squat, hip hinge, core stability, etc.

Are your weekends open?  Saturdays and Sundays?  Don’t forget the weekend doesn’t discriminate 🙂

I design short training sessions as a solution, not an easy out.

There are people out there who are legitimately pressed for time for themselves.

Example:  A lot of the surgeons who I work alongside are seriously hard pressed for time.  They get up crazy early, make rounds on patients, operate, go to clinic, then get out of the office around 6-7pm (commonly later) and have a family to come home and spend time with.  This is a common issue for a lot of people who are entrepreneurs, businessmen and women, etc.

They need solutions.

Time effective workouts are their effective solution.

Just remember, there is a trade off for a short workout.  

That’s all…

Have an AWESOME WEEKEND.

 

-KG