Can shorter workouts really deliver?

How long do you need to exercise to make a real difference? An hour a day, five days a week? Maybe only 45 minutes a day, three days a week? How about … mmm, oh, I don’t know … how about five minutes a day?

Sound good? Sound ridiculous? Does it even sound possible? Could you really make a difference if you exercised for only five minutes? Actually, you could achieve a lot in just five minutes. And the beauty of it is that since you’re only committed to five minutes of exercise you have practically no excuse not to do it!

Here’s a few ways you can work out for just five minutes and make a difference:

Press ups

Do a set of press ups, nice and strict, for 10 reps. From the top position, slowly go down till you’re at the lowest possible point, then push up fairly quickly. Count to four going down, a nice slow count. Going up, take a count of just one. When you hit bottom, push up straight away. Soon as you hit top, start to descend again immediately, taking a long four-count.

That set of just ten press up will feel much harder than your ‘normal’ set, I can guarantee. You’ll feel it mostly in your triceps and in your pecs. And make sure you keep your body stiff, like a board, no sagging in the middle!

Okay, that’s a set of 10, and it’ll take less than a minute.

Rest for just 5-10 seconds, supporting yourself on your knees, then go again.

Try for another set of 10, but if it’s a killer, settle for 7 or 8.

5 – 10 seconds breather, then go again.

Another set … and keep repeating, for at least five sets.

That’s just five minutes exercise, but you’ll feel a terrific buzz from it. Your chest and arms will feel like you’ve been training hard for about 15 or 20 minutes! And your abs will be getting a good workout just from keeping your torso stiff and straight.

Finished? Take a good breather, and congratulate yourself. You’ve just done something extraordinary – just five minutes exercise, and yet you’ve made a real difference. And you haven’t risked burning yourself out with overtraining.

Squats

Next day, try something similar, but with a different exercise. Maybe squats, freehand. Warm up so your knees are nice and supple, then go for a set of, say, 25 squats. Smoothly down and up, no bouncing, no rushing. Go as deep as you can. Keep your back straight. Put one fist in front of you, level with your chin, elbows bent, and wrap the other hand round it to keep you upright. Or just reach forward with your hands at shoulder level, whatever feels comfortable. A set of 25 should only take you about a minute – again, s-l-o-w-l-y down for about 4, then up on a count of 1.

Rest for just 5-10 seconds, then go again, just like with the press ups.

Five sets of these will only take you about five minutes, but once again you’ll find that you’ve made a real difference. Try for 25 each time, but settle for 20s if necessary. Legs are naturally strong and resilient – you walk on them all day, they take your full bodyweight, so they’re well capable of lots of exercise. They’ll really feel it though, and your breathing will be put to the test. In fact, you’ll be puffing like you’ve just run up about ten flights of stairs!

Lateral raise

Day 3, try something else. Grab a couple of light dumbbells and do a set of laterals. Keep your body straight and your chest high. Raise the weights to just above shoulder level, directly our to your sides, keeping your elbows as high as your wrists. Go for a set of 12.

Short breather (5 – 10 seconds), then another set. This time, raise the weights all the way up, in a full arc, so they end up close to each other, above your head. Don’t swing them up fast, raise them on a count of 2. Lower them more slowly, on a count of 4 or 5. Again, go for 12, controlling the movement all the way, but settle for 8-10 if it’s killing you!

After your short breather, go for a third set, this time raising the weights to points midway between laterals and front raises, so the weights are going up and out at a 45 degree angle from your body. Quicker up, slower back down … and this time … maybe this time only go down halfway. That’s right, only lower the dumbbells halfway down, then immediately start on the up movement.

Go for five sets, changing the style more or less at random, and as you might have guessed, you’re gonna feel them like never before!

Micro workouts

These are just a few examples of micro workouts that will put you to the test, but quickly. You’ll get a lot of benefit from short workouts like this, but you won’t burn yourself out. And, sadly (if you’re an easy-going bum), you’ll struggle to find a reason not to do this, or something similar, virtually every day!

Remember, change the exercises from day to day, and try to be inventive; think of ways to make the exercise slightly different, slightly harder.

This isn’t meant to be your entire training regime, but if you haven’t got a training routine in progress at the moment it’s a great way to keep the wheels oiled. And it’s so much better to keep doing something, even if it’s just five minutes a day, than doing nothing and then having to start all over again, from scratch.

So do yourself a favour – if you’re not in the middle of a regular training routine right now, or if you’d like a little something additional that’s not going to exhaust your energy supplies … or, if you haven’t trained for a while and you want to get back into it … this is one good way to go about it. If it’s that last one though (you haven’t trained for a while), take it easy for the first few sessions so you can ease yourself safely into it. Go for 3 sets of 7 maybe, instead of 5 sets of 10. It’ll still feel like proper exercise, and it will definitely be putting you under a degree of strain, but it’s not going to exhaust you or cause any injuries.

So … I ask the question again … how much exercise do you need to do to make a difference?

I think you know the answer now! All you need is five minutes …
and anyone can do that, right?