Unique Lean-Body Workouts for the Time-Crunched Individual
by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
Warning: this style of workout is WAY different than anything you've ever tried before and
may result in a dramatically leaner, stronger body so that your friends no longer recognize
you in a matter of weeks!
Alright, I exaggerated about your friends recognizing you, but this workout is still great for
busy people that always use the excuse that they don't have time to go to the gym, or even
for the normal gym rat to try out for a few weeks to break out of a plateau.
Please keep an open-mind and don't worry so much about what other people think,
because this is quite different and you may get some funny looks, but you'll get the last
laugh with your new rock hard body! To be honest, most people are too self conscious to
try something like this. If that's the case for you, then that's your loss.
Here's how it works:
Instead of doing your traditional workouts of going to the gym 3-4 times a week and doing
your normal weight training and cardio routines for an hour at a shot, with this program, you
will be working out for just a couple minutes at a time, several times throughout each day, 5
days/week.
The program will consist of only bodyweight exercises done for about 2-3 minutes, 6-8 times
per day, throughout each day. Now obviously if you work a normal office job, you are going
to have to not be shy about doing a few exercises in your office and having your
cube-mates watch you. Actually, I've found that some people that have tried this have
actually gotten their co-workers to join them!
If you have a private office, then you don't have to worry about anybody watching you. If
you work from home, or are a stay at home mom, there's no reason you can't fit these in
throughout the day while at home. If you end up having a busy day with meetings and so
forth, and can only fit a couple of these 2-minute workouts in, then so be it, but try to get as
many done each day as you can.
If you're on a normal 9-5 office schedule, I recommend doing your 2-minute workouts every
hour, on the hour, with the exception of lunch. For example, you could try 9 am, 10 am, 11
am, 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm, and 4 pm.
Some of the exercises that are the best to focus on are:
* bodyweight squats (and variations)
* pushups (and variations)
* forward, reverse, or walking lunges
* up & down a staircase if one is available
* floor planks (holding plank position from forearms and feet)
* floor abs exercises such as lying leg thrusts, ab bicycles, etc.
* one-legged bodyweight Romanian deadlifts
This list is not fully comprehensive, but I wanted to keep it relatively simple. If you know
other good bodyweight exercises, you can add those to your routine also. If you want to
keep it real simple and don't want to get down on the floor for anything, you can stick to
squats, lunges, and pushups and still get great results.
The good thing about these workouts is that you do enough in 2-3 minutes to get your
blood pumping, heart rate up a bit, a large portion of your body's muscles worked, and body
temperature raised. However, it's usually not enough to break a sweat in only 2 or 3
minutes, so you don't have to worry about sweating in the office or where ever you may be.
At most, you might just get a little moist on the skin.
Here's an example routine (adjust the reps up or down based on your capabilities):
Mon/Wed/Fri
9 am - 10 pushups/15 bodyweight squats, repeat 1X for 2 sets
10 am - plank holds (hold the planks as long as you can taking short rest breaks for a total
of 3 minutes)
11 am - 5 pushups/10 bodyweight squats, repeat for 4 sets
1 pm - plank holds (hold as long as possible in 3 minutes)
2 pm - 8 pushups/12 bodyweight squats, repeat for 3 sets
3 pm - plank holds (hold as long as possible in 3 minutes)
4 pm - max pushups/max bodyweight squats in one set (no repeat)
Tues/Thurs
9 am - 6 fwd lunges each leg/6 rev lunges, repeat 1X for 2 sets
10 am - one legged bw Romanian deadlifts (RDL) 6 each leg/floor abs for 20 sec, repeat 1X
for 2 sets
11 am - 3 fwd lunges each leg/3 rev lunges, repeat for 4 sets
1 pm - one legged bw RDL 3 each leg/floor abs for 20 sec, repeat for 4 sets
2 pm - 5 fwd lunges each leg/5 rev lunges, repeat for 3 sets
3 pm - one legged bw RDL 10 each leg/floor abs for 30 sec (no repeat)
4 pm - max fwd lunges each leg/max rev lunges in one set (no repeat)
In order to progress on these workouts, you could either add 1 or 2 reps to each set per
week, or you could progress to more difficult versions of each exercise each week (for
example, close grip pushups, one leg raised pushups, squats with arms raised straight over
head, etc.).
The above routines are just a couple examples of how you can use this very unique style of
training. Use your creativity and come up with your own. Think about what you've
accomplished with these "mini" workouts completed throughout each day... You've
increased your heart rate and pumped up your muscles 6-8 different times throughout each
day, burning a lot of extra calories and stimulating your metabolism.
Even though each "mini" workout was a very short duration, you've accumulated lots of
repetitions for almost every muscle throughout your entire body, and you didn't even have
to break a sweat during any of the "mini" workouts. And there's hardly any excuse for not
being able to take a 2-minute break once per hour and do a couple of exercises.
Another benefit of this style of training is that now you don't have to devote any time before
or after work to going to the gym because you already got your workouts little by little
throughout the day. You've now got some extra free time on your hands!
Try this type of routine out for 3-4 weeks and then go back to your normal gym routines. I
think you'll find that it was a great way to break out of a plateau and stimulate new results in
your body. You can try mixing in a cycle of these "mini" workouts every couple of months to
keep things fresh.
Keep in mind that this is only one method of training and doesn't mean that you should only
stick to this method for eternity. You will hit a plateau on any given training method, so I'd
recommend just rotating it into your arsenal of various training methods. And by all means,
don't worry so much about what other people think...have the courage to try something a
little different. In the end, you'll be the one laughing back at all of the "blubber-bellies" that
are giving you funny looks while they eat their donuts!
If you liked these training ideas, my internationally best-selling ebook The Truth about Six
Pack Abs contains hundreds of more innovative training ideas to lose stubborn body fat
and carve out a rock hard set of abs.
Feel free to email this link on to any friends or coworkers that you think would like to try
these types of unique daily workouts. Heck, try to get your coworkers to do these with you if
you can!
by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
Warning: this style of workout is WAY different than anything you've ever tried before and
may result in a dramatically leaner, stronger body so that your friends no longer recognize
you in a matter of weeks!
Alright, I exaggerated about your friends recognizing you, but this workout is still great for
busy people that always use the excuse that they don't have time to go to the gym, or even
for the normal gym rat to try out for a few weeks to break out of a plateau.
Please keep an open-mind and don't worry so much about what other people think,
because this is quite different and you may get some funny looks, but you'll get the last
laugh with your new rock hard body! To be honest, most people are too self conscious to
try something like this. If that's the case for you, then that's your loss.
Here's how it works:
Instead of doing your traditional workouts of going to the gym 3-4 times a week and doing
your normal weight training and cardio routines for an hour at a shot, with this program, you
will be working out for just a couple minutes at a time, several times throughout each day, 5
days/week.
The program will consist of only bodyweight exercises done for about 2-3 minutes, 6-8 times
per day, throughout each day. Now obviously if you work a normal office job, you are going
to have to not be shy about doing a few exercises in your office and having your
cube-mates watch you. Actually, I've found that some people that have tried this have
actually gotten their co-workers to join them!
If you have a private office, then you don't have to worry about anybody watching you. If
you work from home, or are a stay at home mom, there's no reason you can't fit these in
throughout the day while at home. If you end up having a busy day with meetings and so
forth, and can only fit a couple of these 2-minute workouts in, then so be it, but try to get as
many done each day as you can.
If you're on a normal 9-5 office schedule, I recommend doing your 2-minute workouts every
hour, on the hour, with the exception of lunch. For example, you could try 9 am, 10 am, 11
am, 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm, and 4 pm.
Some of the exercises that are the best to focus on are:
* bodyweight squats (and variations)
* pushups (and variations)
* forward, reverse, or walking lunges
* up & down a staircase if one is available
* floor planks (holding plank position from forearms and feet)
* floor abs exercises such as lying leg thrusts, ab bicycles, etc.
* one-legged bodyweight Romanian deadlifts
This list is not fully comprehensive, but I wanted to keep it relatively simple. If you know
other good bodyweight exercises, you can add those to your routine also. If you want to
keep it real simple and don't want to get down on the floor for anything, you can stick to
squats, lunges, and pushups and still get great results.
The good thing about these workouts is that you do enough in 2-3 minutes to get your
blood pumping, heart rate up a bit, a large portion of your body's muscles worked, and body
temperature raised. However, it's usually not enough to break a sweat in only 2 or 3
minutes, so you don't have to worry about sweating in the office or where ever you may be.
At most, you might just get a little moist on the skin.
Here's an example routine (adjust the reps up or down based on your capabilities):
Mon/Wed/Fri
9 am - 10 pushups/15 bodyweight squats, repeat 1X for 2 sets
10 am - plank holds (hold the planks as long as you can taking short rest breaks for a total
of 3 minutes)
11 am - 5 pushups/10 bodyweight squats, repeat for 4 sets
1 pm - plank holds (hold as long as possible in 3 minutes)
2 pm - 8 pushups/12 bodyweight squats, repeat for 3 sets
3 pm - plank holds (hold as long as possible in 3 minutes)
4 pm - max pushups/max bodyweight squats in one set (no repeat)
Tues/Thurs
9 am - 6 fwd lunges each leg/6 rev lunges, repeat 1X for 2 sets
10 am - one legged bw Romanian deadlifts (RDL) 6 each leg/floor abs for 20 sec, repeat 1X
for 2 sets
11 am - 3 fwd lunges each leg/3 rev lunges, repeat for 4 sets
1 pm - one legged bw RDL 3 each leg/floor abs for 20 sec, repeat for 4 sets
2 pm - 5 fwd lunges each leg/5 rev lunges, repeat for 3 sets
3 pm - one legged bw RDL 10 each leg/floor abs for 30 sec (no repeat)
4 pm - max fwd lunges each leg/max rev lunges in one set (no repeat)
In order to progress on these workouts, you could either add 1 or 2 reps to each set per
week, or you could progress to more difficult versions of each exercise each week (for
example, close grip pushups, one leg raised pushups, squats with arms raised straight over
head, etc.).
The above routines are just a couple examples of how you can use this very unique style of
training. Use your creativity and come up with your own. Think about what you've
accomplished with these "mini" workouts completed throughout each day... You've
increased your heart rate and pumped up your muscles 6-8 different times throughout each
day, burning a lot of extra calories and stimulating your metabolism.
Even though each "mini" workout was a very short duration, you've accumulated lots of
repetitions for almost every muscle throughout your entire body, and you didn't even have
to break a sweat during any of the "mini" workouts. And there's hardly any excuse for not
being able to take a 2-minute break once per hour and do a couple of exercises.
Another benefit of this style of training is that now you don't have to devote any time before
or after work to going to the gym because you already got your workouts little by little
throughout the day. You've now got some extra free time on your hands!
Try this type of routine out for 3-4 weeks and then go back to your normal gym routines. I
think you'll find that it was a great way to break out of a plateau and stimulate new results in
your body. You can try mixing in a cycle of these "mini" workouts every couple of months to
keep things fresh.
Keep in mind that this is only one method of training and doesn't mean that you should only
stick to this method for eternity. You will hit a plateau on any given training method, so I'd
recommend just rotating it into your arsenal of various training methods. And by all means,
don't worry so much about what other people think...have the courage to try something a
little different. In the end, you'll be the one laughing back at all of the "blubber-bellies" that
are giving you funny looks while they eat their donuts!
If you liked these training ideas, my internationally best-selling ebook The Truth about Six
Pack Abs contains hundreds of more innovative training ideas to lose stubborn body fat
and carve out a rock hard set of abs.
Feel free to email this link on to any friends or coworkers that you think would like to try
these types of unique daily workouts. Heck, try to get your coworkers to do these with you if
you can!
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