Lightning Fast Workouts – Are they Effective?

The answer really depends. Generally speaking I’d say an hour is ideal, but it depends quite a bit on who is asking the question. For an elite or professional level athlete this is not enough time, unless you count multiple one hour sessions throughout the day. For a bodybuilder this also wouldn’t be enough time because of the rest time required to gain muscle bulk.

To the average person the one-hour answer is a bit overwhelming. Trying to carve out one hour per day when just beginning a new exercise program is difficult and may reduce your motivation level. It just seems like a lot of time at first when you consider there may be travel time to and from the gym and there’s time to change clothes and clean up. If you workout four times per week, that’s going to take a minimum of five hours when you add in all the other time constraints. It’s probably closer to six hours all told.

This brings about a new question. Instead of searching for the ideal workout time, we might ask, “What is the minimum exercise time that can deliver the results I want?”

Obviously first we’d need to discuss what those results are. Let’s assume for now you want to lose weight (or more appropriately body fat), gain functional strength, improve cardiovascular function, reduce the risk factors for heart disease, and generally speaking look better, sleep better, and feel more energetic. That’s a tall list, but it’s all very manageable with a solid exercise program.

The answer to this may be surprising. First, it totally depends on the program. If you plan to do circuit training at a gym, for example, the answer is still at least 30-45 minutes plus travel time. And even then you are likely only to get some initial results that quickly fade. If you just want to run on a treadmill, you could do that for 30 minutes and get some results. If you set up a treadmill workout correctly you could keep getting results for some time to come, but again those results will begin to taper off over time.

All that is fine, but our question focuses on the minimum time, so let’s assume we have an optimal program tailored for just this time. The minimum time I’m going to recommend is fifteen minutes. But our goal is to reduce the total time. So to do that we need to be able to workout from home, or in a hotel room, or maybe even at the office. This means less equipment and less space.

So what if we could create a program that can be performed completely from home in precisely 15 minutes from start to finish. There are some caveats, of course. First, this would only work for someone who is generally healthy and approved by their doctor to engage in strenuous, intense exercise. Those who are very obese or have limiting medical conditions are going to need to perform their workout at a slower pace, and thus will need 30-60 minutes at a minimum to get good results.

But for those who can meet the challenge of an intense workout, let talk about a program that delivers results in exactly fifteen minutes. I’ve created and tested this program and I know it works. It’s created using a structured, scientific method, not just fitness anecdote and guesswork. It starts out using only bodyweight resistance exercise and later on the program employs some very inexpensive equipment such as stability ball, jump rope, and stretch bands.

What’s most important is how the exercise periods are structured. First, it’s set up for all ability levels. It’s not about performing hundreds of reps of push-ups. It’s instead all about the time you spend. The workout keeps you active the entire time, with breaks that are specifically engineered to keep your aerobic and anaerobic recovery rates in the proper zone for maximal results.

It’s also not based on plain old cardio or pumping iron. This means it’s fun and exciting, and it delivers the positive results and health benefits of resistance training with the cardiovascular benefits of aerobic exercise. The whole program is designed to get you excited about exercising so that eventually you can dedicate more than just fifteen minutes per session to a workout routine. Remember, fifteen minutes is the minimum to achieve results, it’s not the ideal number.

The program is called the FitDaily Fast Fifteen. I’m going to be unveiling it on January 15th, 2008. It’s a three month program that includes fifteen exciting, effective workouts all delivered online. There’s also going to be an audio coached version that will talk you through the whole thing.

For more information about my program go to www.fitdaily.com/fastfifteen.aspx