For nine-to-fivers who live in busy Vancouver, the most commonly asked question is how to save the most time but still be able to lose weight, and get the most efficient results that you want. We all might have heard, consistency is the key to get to the ideal body type that you are looking for. Being consistent with exercising plays a huge role in reducing stress, which in turn helps us maintain a good physical and mental health.
Here are three recommendations to get the most out of your workout in the shortest time possible.
First, we focus on the structure of a workout program. There are different ways of programming your exercises, and one that includes superset usually saves you the most time. Superset is a set of 2 exercises being performed back-to-back with minimal rest in They can also be done in different styles, such as lower body/upper body splits or front/back body split.
Type of exercise
Second, the type of exercise you pick for your limited one hour is also essential. In weight training, there are isolating exercises and compound exercises. I recommend compound exercises as it does not only work on your functional movements in daily life, but it would also save you time as multiple muscle groups can be worked all at the same time. Examples of compound exercises are squatting, deadlifting and pull-ups. Traditional isolation exercise, such as bicep curl and knee extension, in contrast, will typically only work one muscle group at a time.
To elaborate, we can take squatting as an example. Squats require the engagement on your core (abs and back), glutes (butt muscle), quadriceps and hamstrings (front and back thighs) during the concentric (ascending) phase and the eccentric (descending) phase respectively. By doing compound exercises, you can easily target multiple muscle groups in order to reach your goal more easily.
HIIT
Third, high intensity interval training (HIIT) has been one of the top fitness trends for 2020 in a survey by American College of Sports Medicine (American College of Sports Medicine, 2020). The most well-established benefit of HIIT is the improvement in heart health, which more specifically, the improvement of their VO2max, the maximum rate of oxygen consumption during incremental exercise (American College of Sports Medicine, 2020). In other words, with better VO2max, the better your heart can pump blood to other parts of your body. What it means is that you can exercise without running out of breath for longer. It has been statistically proven that short intervals of high intensity workouts get you the most benefit than the long bouts of traditional cardio time/intensity. Adding a HIIT routine at the end of your workout to get your heart rate up to 80% of your maximum heart rate for 30 seconds, and repeat 5-10 times. HIIT can be done with running/on a treadmill or even by swinging the battle ropes.
At She’s FIT, we have a variation of equipment to help you achieve your fitness and health goals. In order to gain the most efficient result, accountability is important. Ask a friend to workout with you consistently, or get a personal trainer to keep you motivated along with our knowledge and experiences to prevent injuries that could possibly hinder your progress.
