This style of exercising is different from anything else being talked about, and you will probably find that your friends will not even recognize the leaner, toned, strong and healthy body that you will soon be enjoying. Okay, I am exaggerating when I say your friends will not recognize you; but what you will learn about now is a workout that even busy people can use and benefit from, and that even a regular die-hard exerciser will find helpful and effective.
This is an entirely new concept and people may think you are a little off so it is important that you focus on the new, slim and healthy body you’re going to have and not on any criticisms or jokes you may hear from other people. Many people are reluctant to try this workout regimen just because they are too self-conscious to even consider it. That is their loss, because this program does work.
It works because you will do exercises that can be done anywhere, even in your office at work or the comfort of your living room.
Traditional workouts involved hitting the gym three and four times a week for an intense forty-five minutes to an hour of weight training or cardio. This program breaks the exercises into smaller portions that are done throughout the day, five days a week.
Bodyweight exercises are used, allowing this program to be done almost anywhere you are. You will do the exercises six to eight times a day, for only two to three minutes. Obviously, if you work in a cube farm or have a highly visible office, then you will have to get over being self-conscious about your co-workers being able to see you. However, in my experience people are more likely to join you than they are to make fun of you!
People fortunate enough to have a private office do not have this concern. And if you are home during the day, then you can absolutely do these exercises for effective and stunning results. You may have days there you simply do not have time to get in more than a few two minute sessions, but even those will be better than nothing.
The easiest routine to follow if you have a standard 9 to 5 workday is one where you workout every hour on the hour, taking a break for lunch. Every time the hour turns you will do your two minutes bodyweight exercises, starting at 9 am, skipping the one at noon, and then ending at 4 pm.
Bodyweight exercises
These are some of the bodyweight exercises that can be used easily and in most offices.
- Bodyweight squats and any variations of them.
- Pushups and all of their variations.
- Lunges in your choice of forward, reverse or walking
- If you have a staircase available, just go up and down it. (This one creates the fewest funny looks)
- Floor planks, which are done by holding the body in the plank position on forearms and feet only.
- Many floor ab exercises can be used including lying leg thrust and ab bicycles. * one-legged bodyweight Romanian deadlifts are a great choice.
This is by not means a complete list, but the exercises listed are relatively easy to do and well-known. However, any bodyweight exercise can be used, the choice is up to you. Obviously, if you are wearing nice clothes and are concerned about getting them dirty then you might want to stick with the squats, lunges and pushups.
The goal of exercising is to get your blood moving, increase heart rate, move the muscles and raise body temperature; you will be amazed at how effectively that short two to three minutes can do all of those things. Yet it’s not enough to work up a good sweat so you do not have to worry about smelling bad or becoming sweaty and grimy from the workout. You may get a pleasant glow to the skin, but nothing embarrassing.
Here’s a workout routine that you can use at home or work, simply move the reps up or down to suite your capabilities and time.
Workout three days a week
For example, Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
- 9 am – do two sets of a combination of 10 pushups and 15 bodyweight squats.
- 10 am – switch to plank holds, holding them as long as you can with only short rest breaks for a full three minutes.
- 11 am – 4 sets of 5 pushups and 10 bodyweight squats.
- 1 pm – repeat the plank holds.
- 2 pm – Do 3 sets of 8 pushups and 12 bodyweight squats.
- 3 pm – repeat the plank holds
- 4 pm – Do as many pushups and then bodyweight squats as you can in one set.
- 2 days a week, on Monday and Thursday
- 9 am – 2 sets of 6 forwards lunges and 6 reverse lunges for each leg.
- 10 am – 2 sets of one legged bw Romanian deadlifts (RDL) with 6 lifts for each leg/ floor abs holding for 20 seconds each time.
- 11 am – 4 sets of 3 forward lunges and 3 reverse lunges for each leg.
- 1 pm – Repeat the RDL, doing 4 sets of 3 lifts, still holding for 20 seconds.
- 2 pm – 3 sets of 5 forward lunges and 5 reverse lunges for each leg.
- 3 pm – one legged bw RDL doing 10 for each leg/ floor abs with 30 second holds.
- 4 pm – do as many forward and reverse lunges as you can in one set.
The exercises can easily be altered by adding reps, or you can move into exercises that are more difficult; such as close grip pushups, squats with your arms raised over your head, one leg raised pushups, and one armed pushups.
These routines shown here are just one example of how this flexible style of training can be used. However, you can be creative and make up your own routine based on what you like, and certain body areas that may want to focus on. You will be amazed at what these frequent, small workouts will help you to accomplish. Your heart rate will be up, your muscles will have been used and you will find that you have burned a surprising amount of calories.
While the duration of each workout is short, you are doing them so many times a day that your body will never fall into a rut and you will never break a sweat. There are very few good reasons for not finding the time to give yourself a two minute break once per hour to improve your health and your increase your fitness level.
The best part of this workout is that you will not have to lose anytime of your evenings or weekend to the gym because you found a way to squeeze in your workout two minutes at a time. You will find yourself with free time!
For just three to four weeks, try this new workout and then return to your traditional gym routines that you have always done. If you had hit a plateau, you will probably find that the plateau is crested and your body is looking fantastic. These “mini” workouts can be cycled through every few months or weeks to keep them interesting and new.
This is one method of training, but by no means is it the only one and there is nothing saying that you have to stay with this one forever. Plateaus will be hit with any training method when it’s used too long, so this should be rotated through with some of your other training methods. The idea of this training is that you are still performing many exercises throughout the day but never working yourself so hard that you sweat heavily. This allows you to go about the rest of your business as usual.
Do not be self-conscious and do not concern yourself about what your peers and co-workers might be saying or thinking. You will be left with a slim and healthy body while those who laughed at you are still sitting there with beer guts, and then you will be the last one laughing.