I’ve had some bad habits over the years, but perhaps the worst was always telling everyone how busy I was.
“How are you?” people would ask.
“Good, but I’m SO busy,” I’d respond, my words grasping desperately for sympathy.
I’m embarrassed by the way that sounds. And now that I’ve dropped that phrase from my vocabulary, I’m embarrassed for others who constantly revert to the busy trap, like it’s some badge of honor to be spread too thin and terrible at prioritizing.
Worst of all, every report ever done that asks people why they don’t exercise gets the same top response: “I don’t have enough time.”
Well, lack of time is no longer an excuse. I’ve coached hundreds of people who train 3 days per week for less than an hour per session and they still see amazing results. If they can kick ass in minimal time, so can you.
Here are 5 exercise strategies to help you get maximum results, even if you’re crunched for time.
1. LIMIT YOUR FOAM ROLLING
It’s staggering how much time some people spend foam rolling. Yes, it’s important. Yes, it works. But it absolutely positively should NOT take 30 minutes of your warm-up.
I’ve assessed dozens of people who have mobility issues and pain who claim to spend a half hour or more every day foam rolling their achy body parts. This tells me a few things:
- Their problems probably aren’t soft-tissue related, so they’re wasting their time on the foam roller.
- They have some obsessive-compulsive training tendencies and need to learn to do more with less.
- They need to move the bulk of their foam rolling to OUTSIDE of their workouts.
I find myself recommending that last point to more and more people. Before your workout, foam roll the body parts that really need. Then, do all the other stuff later. Doesn’t matter when, just get it done.
When in doubt, stick to the following areas for pre-workout foam rolling:
Upper body day: Rhomboids, lats, pecs (with lacrosse ball or baseball)
Lower body day: Upper back, glutes, adductors, TFL
2. PICK THE RIGHT WARM-UP EXERCISES
It’s also really easy to get carried away with a long warm-up routine. It’s tempting to mobilize, smash and floss every joint from head to toe, but if you feel you NEED to do that just to squat or bench press, you’ve got bigger problems.
I’m entirely confident that anyone can perform an effective warm-up with only 5 exercises. Here are the essentials:
- Positional breathing
- Hip/lower-body mobility
- Shoulder/upper-body mobility/stability
- Patterning for main strength exercise
- Full-body locomotive exercise (i.e. get your ass moving)
For example, if you were warming up for a squat session, you could do the following:
- All Fours Belly Lift x 5 breaths
- Kneeling Glute Mobilization x 8/side
- Bear Crawls x 8/side
- Squat to Stand x 8
- Walking Spiderman x 5/side
Is that perfect? Probably not. Will that work for 95 percent of all people, especially those with limited time? Absolutely.
Be disciplined with your warm-ups and don’t go overboard. You need less than you think.
3. GET IT DONE WITH 3 LIFTING EXERCISES
This might take the most discipline of all: do your entire strength training workout with only 3 exercises.
Impossible, you say? So is building big arms with those triceps kickbacks you insist on doing, but that hasn’t stopped you. Trust me when I say that most people can still make tremendous gains by doing only 3 big compound movements per workout. Drop the fluffy stuff and stick to what works.
With a minimalist approach like this, I like to group exercises in one of three ways:
- Lower (squat or deadlift variation)
- Upper push (i.e. bench press)
- Upper pull (i.e. row)
Or…
- Lower push (i.e. squat)
- Lower pull (i.e. deadlift)
- Upper (push or pull)
Or…
- Upper
- Lower
- Core (i.e. planks, farmer’s walks, etc.)
Whatever grouping you choose, make sure to alternate movements each day. So if you pick the first option (Lower/Upper Push/Upper Pull), make sure you change the exercises each day. So a 3-day plan might look like this:
Day 1
Squat 4×4
Bench Press 3×5
Barbell Rows 3×8
Day 2
Deadlift 4×4
Overhead Press 3×5
Chin-Ups 3×8
Day 3
Front Squat 4×4
Floor Press 3×5
DB Rows 3×10/side
These options are fairly similar to the Starting Strength program which has work for thousands of lifters. As long as you push hard enough, three exercises is plenty.
4. USE CLUSTER SETS
I’ve written about my love of cluster sets before and it bears repeating: clusters are absolutely phenomenal for getting tons of work done in minimal time. They’re especially useful if you want to get strong but don’t have the time to do tons of heavy, low-rep sets with lots of rest in between.
It’s pretty simple. Choose an exercise. Do that exercise for however many reps you like. Rest for a short period of time (10-30 seconds). Do another set. Repeat this until you’ve performed more reps with that weight than you could in one traditional set. Rest longer, then repeat the whole thing.
For example, I can do about 20 squats with 315 pounds. But if I were to do clusters where each cluster was 4 sets of 5 reps (20 reps total) with 10 seconds in between, I’d be able to do more than one set, which means way more total volume at 315 pounds.
5. MAKE YOUR CONDITIONING SHORT AND BRUTAL
Do I have to say it again? High-intensity conditioning is far more effective for fat loss than traditional cardio, and it takes only a fraction of the time. If fat loss is the goal and you’re strapped for time, you’d better make your conditioning short and intense.
Pick your poison: sprints, bike intervals, kettlebell swings, medicine ball slams, whatever metabolic conditioning method you like. Keep the work intervals short (10-30 seconds) and go balls-out. Keep the rest intervals longer (30-50 seconds) and go slow and steady. Repeat for 8-10 minutes and you’re set.
TIME IS MONEY
No more excuses. I’ve seen so many people have tons of fitness success with minimal time investment that the “I’m too busy” excuse is null and void. If you’ve got 45 minutes 3 times per week, you’ve got enough time to make life-changing progress. If you don’t have that time, reconsider your priorities and use these 5 tips to make the most of the time you DO have.
