When life gets insanely busy (y'know, as life does), even an hour-long workout can seem like a luxury that you just don't have the time for. But even if you can’t take your sweet time with 45-minute cycling class or 90-minute yoga session, that doesn’t mean you can't receive all of the wonderful, glorious, energizing benefits of breaking a sweat.
A 30-minute workout can be all you need to improve flexibility, build muscle, burn calories, and release stress (which, when your schedule is extra-packed, can be a major benefit of working out). "Maximize your time," says NYC-based trainer Rebecca Kennedy. "Go in with a plan, and make sure the intensity is bumped up a notch. Have a playlist ready to go, leave the excuses at home, and turn your phone on 'do not disturb' mode—this is focus time! Some days you don't have a ton of time, but there's nothing wrong with a short workout—they can be just as intense (or more) as a longer one."
If you're like me, though, having some guidance is key. (I’m really good at wandering aimlessly around the gym.) Try this workout that Kennedy created for us next time you only have 30 minutes—it combines a warm-up, a quick strength session, and finishes with cardio. Hustle up–you have a minute between each section! Here's your game plan:
A proper warm-up helps "prepare your body for work, maintain proper alignment and good posture [to prevent injury], and increases mobility to perform movement at full range of motion," says Kennedy. (A larger range of motion helps mean you'll get the most of out each exercise because you'll be able to get nice and low in squats, for example.) This dynamic warm-up will prep your body for the remaining 25 minutes of work. (Psst—you have an extra 30 seconds built in to move between the warm-up exercises.)
1. 90 Seconds: Spider Lunge To T-Spine Rotation
Start standing, then fold forward. Walk your hands out to a plank position, then bring your right foot and set it on the floor on the outside of your right hand. Reach your right arm to the ceiling and twist to the right. Return your arm back to the ground and step your right foot back to plank position. Repeat on the left side. Walk your hands back to your feet and roll up to stand. Continue for 90 seconds.
Benefits: Hip opener, hamstring release, and shoulder stability
2. 30 Seconds: Traveling Squat
Start with your feet hip-distance apart and lower into a squat. Staying in a squat, step your right foot out to the right without leaning away, then step your left foot in toward your right so your feet are hip-distance apart again. Your feet never touch, and your knees should stay bent with your hips back. Repeat, starting with your left foot and moving to the left. Continue for 30 seconds.
Benefits: Glute activation and core stability
3. 30 Seconds: Hip Bridge
Lie on your back with your hands on the ground in low V, knees bent, and feet flat on the floor. Drive through your heels to lift the hips and lower back off the floor and hold for two counts. Lower and repeat for 30 seconds (you should be able to do about eight). Make sure to squeeze your glutes at the top!
Benefits: Hamstring and glute activation
4. 30 Seconds: Plank
Come into a high plank position with your wrists directly under your shoulders. Press the backs of your knees up to the ceiling, engage your legs, engage your glutes, draw your abs in, push hands actively into the floor, and keep your head long. Hold this position for 30 seconds.
Benefits: Stability and core activation
5. 30 Seconds: A-Skip
Start standing and lift your right knee with a flexed foot to your chest, then alternate by driving the right foot back to the floor while popping the left leg up. Continue alternating for 30 seconds. Keep your chest up and keep your arms strong with a 90 degree bend in your elbow.
Benefits: Agility, heart-rate spike, and hip and glute warm-up
6. 30 Seconds: Front Lunge Overhead Y-Reach
Step forward into a lunge with your right leg, bending your left leg and lifting arms up overhead into wide V, pushing your chest out and up. Keep your front knee over your ankle and back knee under your hip. Step back and alternate for 30 seconds.
Benefits: Chest opener and glute, quad, back, and core activator
7. 30 Seconds: Jumping Jacks
Staying light on your feet, perform jumping jacks with your arms going up overhead and out to the sides.
Benefits: Heart-rate spike, frontal-plane activation
Strength training should be a part of any workout, says Kennedy. "Strength training [helps increase] your stamina and power, and it has a high caloric output during and after workouts." This is because the more lean muscle you have, the more calories you burn at rest. You'll need a set of dumbbells for a few of the moves below. Kennedy recommends choosing a set that is light enough to use in all of the exercises (try 8, 10, or 12 pounds and go heavier when you can).
1. Reverse Lunge Curl
Start standing with your feet together. Step back with your right leg into reverse lunge. Keep your right knee under right hip and your left knee over left ankle. At the bottom of the lunge, perform a hammer curl with your thumbs facing up and palms facing your body. Step back together and repeat on the opposite side. (One on both sides counts as one rep.)
Benefits: "This compound movement will challenge stability because you’re in a split-stance. Adding in movement with the upper body challenges the biceps and core even more."
2. Push-Up To Hop
In a high plank position with your hands shoulder distance apart, bend your elbows and lower your chest to elbow height or below. Make sure you are actively pushing your hands into the floor and then push back up to a high plank position. Now jump both feet in between your hands to tuck position, keeping the weight in your upper body to make sure the abs are working. Jump back out to start. That's one rep.
Benefits: "Our own body weight is a tool we can all use. It’s a great measure of strength and this move can be done anywhere, anytime."
3. Squat Push Press
Stand with your weights in your hands resting just above your shoulders, Keep your palms in and feet parallel and hip-distance apart. Lower into squat, then stand back up and drive the weights straight over your head. Squeeze your glutes pull up from the quads. Lower weights back down. (You might have heard this move called a dumbbell thruster.) That's one rep.
Benefits: "This uses the entire body to perform [and helps] build strength and power."
4. Weighted Hollow-Body Hold
Holding one weight by the ends with palms facing in, lie down on the floor or on a bench with your knees in tabletop position, making sure to keep your lower back in contact with the floor. Extend your legs straight out, toes pointed. Your head, neck, and shoulders are lifted up into a crunch. The body should resemble a “hollow” position (like the shape of a banana). Actively press the weight up to the ceiling, not forward, with arms straight up. Hold for 30 seconds. (Here's what this move looks like.)
Benefits: "This move teaches the body to maintain proper posture, staying long while in a rounded position, which we can all use. [It requires] core activation, shoulder stability, lower back stability, and pelvic floor activation."
5. Deadlift Row
Stand with your feet hip-distance apart with a weight in each hand. Rest your arms in front of your body with your palms facing in. Hinge hips back and lower your upper body down. Keep your back flat and stop when the weights reach your shins. At the bottom of the deadlift, keep your palms facing your body and bend your elbows out wide to a 90 degree angle (like a goalpost position with your forearms hanging down). Lower your arms back down to your shins, squeeze the glutes, and drive hips forward to return to upright position. That's one rep.
Benefits: "Deadlifts are one of the best exercises you can do for hamstrings and glutes, plus the entire back, triceps, and grip strength get worked, too!"
Last but not least, it's cardio time. "Increasing your endurance and an endorphin rush are always prime targets in a workout of mine," says Kennedy. "We want to see the muscle we develop from strength training, and we can do that through the tool of cardio."
You may also like: You can do this 30-minute workout from The Barre Code without even leaving your house.
