Why 30 minute workouts can be so effective
People often ask me - ‘You can’t do a workout within 30 minutes – surely you need more…?’
But what’s wrong with a 30 minute workout – especially on an average day when most of us spend at least an hour or two swiping our phone screens regularly? I’m as guilty of this as anyone.
The common perception about getting a ‘decent’ workout may be that you always have to leave the house for an hour’s run or more; go for a 2-3 hour cycle; spend 60-90 minutes lifting weights in the gym. For many busy people, this can seem like a mammoth task, particularly when you add in extra time to get ready, get changed, travel to a club/gym, wash/shower and travel back again. This culture of thinking often leads to an all or nothing approach for many people.
For all of you regularly training towards certain sporting or aesthetic goals – fine, it’s true that we all need to prepare effectively and specifically for our appropriate discipline. For example, if you’re entering a marathon, you’re going to have to spend time gradually building up the length of your runs and long distance endurance. If you’re chiselling your body and want to look like Drogo from Game of thrones, yes you will need appropriate rest time between sets of strength exercises – but there are ways to be even more effective and get your backside out of first gear; or when you’re thinking of putting off sessions for another week. Here are some different examples:
The competitive athlete – who likes a challenge
Okay, you’re a regular runner, swimmer, triathlete, cyclist, rower etc. You probably already know about periodisation for your discipline. For some of you, you just need to clock up miles and minutes for steady state aerobic endurance – but what about an occasional workout, where you work at a ‘tempo’ or speed pace? What about the part of your programme that may help you go that little bit faster?
Five minute warm-up
20 minutes of pyramid / intervals / hill sprints etc – to help you develop power and speed; or
20 minutes taking a step out of your normal comfort zone
Finish with five minutes spent on your suppleness
BAM – Yes, that’s all it takes. Job done!
“It is quality rather than quantity that matters”
Progressive beginners
So you’re not a sports enthusiast – no problem. We don’t always have to join the athletic herd. But equally you don’t want to try climbing Box Hill and collapse after only 20 steps in utter exhaustion either. How can you use 30 minutes effectively?
Pick a point from A – to B (Speed walk) – yes you heard me, walk fast round the park - as if you were going to miss your train from platform 2. Simple! You could even do intervals – walk easily for 1 minute, walk fast the next minute (15 sets).
BOOM - 30 minutes finished, job done! Your focus has been specifically cardiovascular improvement, and it’s not going to get undermined by mixing in other types of workout too soon.
Perhaps you’re ready to jog? So, go ahead and do something similar – interval training. Practice building your minutes:
1 min jog / 1 min speedwalk;
2 minutes jog / 2 minutes speedwalk;
3 minutes / 3 minutes speedwalk etc.
You can take the same approach whether you’re swimming, cycling or indoor rowing for the first few attempts.
Repeat the round three times and before you know it, your heart and lungs and running muscles have started learning to adapt and 30 minutes has flown by. Give it a go!
Mrs Smith – the overwhelmed and overworked Mum
Mrs Smith doesn’t want to be an athlete. She’s a mum of two with a busy career. Her life is pretty hectic and the idea of athletic pursuits is a no go. She has absolutely no plans to run a marathon, much less a 5k – yet. She’s not interested in looking like Madonna or Gwyneth Paltrow, though she did find out Adele* had lost some weight recently… She just wants to be ‘toned’ and feel good about herself.
(*Adele had apparently been doing 35 minute workouts too)
She gets in touch with her favourite personal trainer (she’s been feeling a bit guilty recently – one too many Wispa bars during the week). After a chat, she decides there’s space to do three separate workout sessions a week, but only up to 30 minutes at a time. One of her weekly plans goes something like this:
Session 1 – Monday: a 30 minute strength and bodyweight workout, focused on 4-5 key exercises. (She can only fit a home workout, with no equipment).
Sofa push-ups, split lunges, supermans’, single leg glute bridges, reverse crunches – 45 seconds on, 15 off - 4 rounds in total. That last round was a bit tough – but she got through it…just. The next day, her muscles are feeling a little bit achey, but wow – she’s feeling alive again.
Session 2 – Thursday: today is her cardiovascular focus day – she pops out into the garden. Her PT promises an aerobic focus session: Star jumps, mountain climbers, burpees, jogs on the spot, bicycles – 4 sets x 5 minutes continuous per round – that’s one way of breaking up her least favourite activity, and it wasn’t that bad! But she’s feeling worked, less tight in the back and shoulders, re-energised and de-stressed too. It’s not rocket science…
Session 3 – Saturday: 30 minutes of PURE CORE - stronger hips, spine, and abdominals. This gives Mrs Smith a focused workout – working specifically on spinal strength, hips, abdominal and deep core. 5 minute warm-up, 20 minutes of work – a light dynamic stretch at the end. BOSH! Another one bites the dust.
Mrs Smith is a happy lady… After two to three weeks, she’s already feeling trimmer.
“I push myself harder when I’m doing a 30 minute workout as I know the time is limited. Sessions are easy to fit into a busy day. Once a week I focus on 30 minutes of stretching, which is great for relieving tension.”
Bob the bodybuilder
Bob wants to look like Superman – but he’s hardly got any time free. He’s apprehensive, as this week is a busy one, so he’s not going to be able to make it to the gym at all. Bobs’ thinking of skipping a week. Usually he does a strength workout – lifting heavy weights, but often sits around, waiting 5 minutes in between sets. Overall he can spend over 2 hours going to the gym – often flicking through Instagram posts on his phone between recovery sets.
What can he do better?
Switch his focus from strength to a 30 minute lean muscle building maintenance session perhaps?
More reps, less rest, but a quality workout. It’s better than missing out a week of training.
He has a TRX, a bench and one or two heavy dumbbells at home. He calls his personal trainer for some extra advice:
‘What about making better use of the rest/recovery between sets?’ is the suggestion. Bob would need about two minutes rest after a 10 rep set of very fatiguing TRX ‘low Australian rows.’ He could still work on a different zone of his body, or focus on suppleness while waiting for his second set.
Instead of leaving all his core exercises to the end, Bob brings in 2 sets of 45 second reverse crunches. The format looks something like this:
Five minute warm-up – foam roll, dynamic stretch etc
10-12 reps Australian rows (< 60 seconds)
2 sets of 45 second reverse crunches with 15 seconds rest
Repeat for 3 sets total, while switching the reverse crunch for an alternative abdominal exercise.
That’s 14 minutes in total. He takes the same approach for a different pair of exercises – this time, he super-sets with a round of 20 bodyweight lunges. He’s been working out continuously, fat burning effectively – building a big sweat, while making the best use of time.
BOOM - It’s that simple! Exercise programmes don’t always have to be long-winded lists of stations. If time is limiting – less is MORE!
The time is there - you just have to be savvy - TRAIN SMARTER!
*If you’re reading all this, and would like to find out what a 30 minute workout can feel like, just get in touch!
