The 30-Minute Workout Routine

The 30–Minute Fitness Blitz

Think you don't have time to work out? You do. It's the intensity of your workout that's key. A short–burst, high–intensity workout boosts your metabolism and tones muscles. Get moving with this 30–minute "quickie" routine that includes cardio and resistance training.

If you're new to exercise, a man over 45 or woman over 55, or have a health problem, check with your doctor before starting a fitness program.

Beginner Squats: For Thighs

If you're new at this, get started with a beginner version of squats using an exercise ball. Stand against a wall with the ball at your lower back, feet hip–width apart and out in front. Keeping your body upright, slowly lower your body by bending at the hips and knees, dropping glutes toward the floor; slowly move back to the starting position. Your knees should remain over your heels. Perform 10 challenging repetitions.

Squats: For Thighs

Once you're ready, try squats without an exercise ball. For good form: Keep your feet shoulder-width apart and your back straight. Bend your knees and lower your rear as if you were sitting down, keeping your knees over your ankles. To target more muscle groups in less time, add an overhead press at the same time. With a dumbbell in each hand, rise from the squat position and push weights overhead, palms out. Perform 10 repetitions.

Forward Lunge: For Thighs

Standing with feet hip–width apart, take a big step forward with one leg, then lower your body toward the floor, front knee aligned with ankle, back knee pointing to the floor. Return to the starting position, and repeat by stepping forward with the other leg. For more challenge, hold a free weight in both hands and complete the lunge with a rotation in the torso, twisting the body toward the forward leg. Perform 10 repetitions on each side.

Romanian Deadlift: For Hamstrings

To perform a deadlift holding a bar or free weights, stand up straight with feet hip–width apart. Bend at your hips, moving the hips backward as you lower your upper body parallel to the floor. Keep the legs straight without locking the knees, and keep the back level and the spine in neutral. Lower the weight to just below your knees, then slowly return to the starting position. Perform 10 repetitions.

The Bridge: For Glutes

The bridge works the glutes (butt), hamstrings, and core. Lying on your back with knees bent and feet hip-width apart, peel your spine off the floor, starting at the tailbone, forming a diagonal line from knees down to shoulders. Slowly return to the starting position. For an extra challenge: Target your triceps by holding light weights, lifting your arms toward the ceiling as you raise your hips. Bend your elbows to lower the weights towards the floor. Perform 10 repetitions.

Push-Ups: For Chest and Core

Let's move to the upper body. Push-ups strengthen the chest, shoulders, triceps, and core muscles. Starting on all fours, place hands a bit wider than your shoulders. Place toes on the floor, creating a smooth line from shoulders to feet. Keeping core muscles engaged, lower and lift your body by bending and straightening your elbows. Too hard? Place knees on the floor instead of toes. To boost the workout, add an exercise ball under the hips, knees, or feet. Perform 10 repetitions.

Chest Press: For the Chest

Instead of push-ups you can try the chest press with weights. Lie face-up on a bench, with knees bent or feet on the floor, spine relaxed. Press a bar or dumbbells from your chest toward the ceiling. Extend your arms but don’t lock the elbows, and move slowly in both directions, keeping shoulder blades on the bench. For an extra challenge, do the chest press with your head and upper back on an exercise ball. Perform 10 repetitions.

Bent-Over Row: For Back and Biceps

The bent-over row works all the major muscles of the upper back as well as the biceps. Begin the exercise in a bent-over position with your back flat, one knee and one hand on the same side of the body braced on a bench. Hold a free weight in the other hand with arm extended. Lift the weight toward the hip until the upper arm is just beyond horizontal, see right. Then slowly lower weight to the starting position. Perform 10 repetitions.

Shoulder Press: For Shoulders

A shoulder press works the shoulder muscles and can be performed standing or seated. For extra back support, use a bench with a back rest. Begin with elbows bent and weights at shoulders. Slowly reach toward the ceiling, keeping the elbows under the hands and the shoulders away from the ears; slowly lower back to the starting position. Perform 10 repetitions.

Cable Pull Down: For Upper Back

For the last upper body exercise, do the cable pull down, which works the upper back. Using a cable machine, sitting straight with a neutral spine, grasp the bar with arms extended. Slowly pull the bar down past the face and toward the chest. Only go as far as you can without leaning back, and control the weight on the way back up. Perform 10 repetitions.

Bicycle Crunch: For Core & Abdominals

Lying on your back on the floor, fold knees toward the chest and curl the upper body off the floor. With hands behind head, slowly rotate upper body to the right while drawing the right knee in and reaching the left leg out. Then rotate left and pull the left knee in and extend right leg out. Focus on bringing the shoulder toward the hip (rather than the elbow to the knee), and keep the opposite shoulder off the floor. 

Side Plank: For Core or Abdominals

For another abdominal alternative, lie on your side with a bent elbow directly under your shoulder, and use your torso muscles to lift the body up into a side plank. Then lift the hips higher, then back to the plank, then lower. Do as many as you can with proper form, then repeat on the other side.

Have You Completed 20 Minutes?

Before moving on to the cardio portion of the workout, be sure you've completed 20 minutes of resistance training. If you have, now's a good time for a water break to keep your body well-hydrated. If you haven't, go back and start the circuit over again until you reach the 20 minute goal.

Cardiovascular Training

Vary the intensity during your cardio workout. Use intense intervals, taking about a minute to get from moderate speed to intense. Whether you're on the stair-stepper, the elliptical trainer, or the treadmill, do:

• 30 seconds of the highest speed you can tolerate, then 30 seconds of normal speed.
• Then 30 seconds of the stiffest resistance you can handle, then 30 seconds of normal.

Keep moving back and forth between speed and resistance until you've completed 10 minutes.

Frequency of Workout

Perform this 30-minute workout routine every other day, or do it two days in a row if that better suits your schedule. These are not hardcore bodybuilding-style routines where the high degree of muscular overload requires full rest to recover. For a healthy body, work out regularly and eat a healthy diet.

7 Most Effective Exercises

No. 1: Walking

Why it's a winner: You can walk anywhere, anytime. Use a treadmill or hit the streets. All you need is a good pair of shoes.

How to: If you're just starting to walk for fitness, begin with five to 10 minutes at a time. Add a few minutes to each walk until you get to at least 30 minutes per walk. Then, quicken your pace or add hills. 

No. 2: Interval Training

Why it's a winner: Interval training boosts your fitness levels and burns more calories to help you lose weight. The basic idea is to vary the intensity within your workout, instead of going at a steady pace.

How to: Whether you walk, run, dance, or do another cardio exercise, push up the pace for a minute or two. Then back off for 2 to 4 minutes. Exactly how long your interval should last depends on the length of your workout and how much recovery time you need. A trainer can fine-tune the pacing.. Repeat the intervals throughout your workout.

No. 3: Squats

Why it's a winner: Squats work several muscle groups -- your quadriceps ("quads"), hamstrings, and gluteals ("glutes") -- at the same time.

How to: Keep your feet shoulder-width apart and your back straight. Bend your knees and lower your rear as if you were sitting down in a chair. Keep your knees right over your ankles.  Add dumbbells once you can do at least 12 reps with good form.

Squats Done Right

Practice with a real chair to master this move. First, sit all the way down in the chair and stand back up. Next, barely touch the chair's seat before standing back up. Work up to doing the squats without a chair, keeping the same form.

No. 4: Lunges

Why it's a winner: Like squats, lunges work all the major muscles of your lower body. They can also improve your balance.

How to: Take a big step forward, keeping your back straight. Bend your front knee to about 90 degrees. Keep weight on your back toes and drop the back knee toward the floor. Don't let the back knee touch the floor. 

Lunges: Extra Challenge

Try stepping not just forward, but also back and out to each side, with each lunge. Add dumbbells to lunges once your form is down pat.

No. 5: Push-Ups

Why it's a winner: Push-ups strengthen your chest, shoulders, triceps, and core muscles.

How to: Facing down, place your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Place your toes on the floor. If that's too hard, start with your knees on the floor. Your body should make a straight line from shoulders to knees or feet. Keep your rear-end muscles and abs engaged. Bend your elbows to lower down until you almost touch the floor. Lift back up by pushing through your elbows, Keep your torso in a straight line throughout the move.

Push-Ups: Too Hard? Too Easy?

If you're new to push-ups you can start doing them by leaning into a kitchen counter. As you get stronger, go lower, using a desk or chair. Then you can move onto the floor, starting with your knees bent. For a challenge, put your feet on a stair, bench, or couch while keeping good form.

Crunches -- Method A

Start by lying on your back with your feet flat on the floor and your head resting in your palms. Press your lower back down. Contract your abdominal muscles (abs) and in one smooth move, raise your head, then your neck, shoulders, and upper back off the floor. Tuck in your chin slightly. Lower back down and repeat.

Crunches -- Method B

You can also do crunches with your feet off the floor and knees bent. This technique may keep you from arching your back. It also uses your hip flexors (muscles on your upper thighs below your hip bones).

Mastering Crunches

Keep your neck in line with your spine. Tuck in your chin so it doesn't stick out. Breathe normally. To keep chest and shoulders open, keep your elbows out of your line of vision.

No. 7: Bent-Over Row

Why it's a winner: You work all the major muscles of your upper back, as well as your biceps.

How to: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, bend your knees, and bend forward at the hips. Engage your abs without hunching your back. Hold weights beneath your shoulders, keeping your hands shoulder-width apart. Bend your elbows and lift both hands toward the sides of your body. Pause, then slowly lower your hands to the starting position. Can perform with a bar or dumbbells

Mastering Bent-Over Rows

First, do this move without weights so you learn the right motions. If you have trouble doing bent-over rows while standing up, support your weight by sitting on an incline bench, facing backward

5 Calorie-Burning Treadmill Workouts

Bored with the treadmill? Not seeing the results you want? It's time to supercharge your treadmill time.

Treadmill workouts can be some of the most efficient, challenging, calorie-burning routines around.

The key is intervals. With intervals, instead of trudging along at a steady pace, you'll mix up your speed and add floor exercises into your routine. 

Here are five treadmill workouts designed by Cindy Wasilewski, fitness manager at The Lodge at Woodloch, a Pennsylvania spa, and Jeff Baird, owner of Chaos Conditioning in Atlanta. You'll get a great workout in 20, 30, or 60 minutes.

Keep an eye on your heart rate to make sure you're getting the most out of your workout but not pushing too hard. First, calculate your maximum heart rate, which is 220 minus your age. If you're a beginner, shoot for 50% to 65% of your maximum heart rate; 60% to 75% if intermediate level; and 70% to 85% for experienced exercisers. Adjust the following workouts as necessary to keep your heart rate in these ranges.

Besides a treadmill, you'll need hand weights and a stability ball for the floor exercises. As always, check with your doctor before you start a new exercise program.

60-Minute Treadmill Workouts

If you've got an hour, here are two treadmill workouts to try. Wasilewski, who designed both workouts, calls the first one the "No Excuses" routine because it delivers maximum results for the time investment. The second workout is an interval trek, designed to boost cardiovascular endurance.

The “perceived exertion rate” in these workouts is a scale of 0-10 used to measure the intensity of exercise. For example, 0 (nothing at all) is how you feel when at rest, while 10 (very, very heavy) is how you feel after extremely strenuous exercise.

No-Excuses Routine

Start on the treadmill:

Time	Speed/ Intensity	Incline	Perceived Exertion
5 min.	3.5 mph - warm-up	1%	Level 2-3
1 min.	4.5 - speed walk/run	6%	Level 6
2 min.	3.5 - walk/slow jog	4%	Level 4
1 min.	4.5 - speed walk/run	6%	Level 6-7
2 min.	3.5 - walk/slow jog	4%	Level 4
1 min.	4.5 - speed walk/run	6%	Level 7
2 min.	3.5 - walk/slow jog	4%	Level 4
1 min.	Slowly take it down to stop.	1%	Level 2-3

Move to the floor:

• Do one set of 30 overhead shoulder presses with dumbbells while alternating squats.
• Do one set of 30 bicep curls with dumbbells while alternating lunges.

Return to the treadmill:

Time	Speed/Intensity	Incline	Perceived Exertion
1 min.	3.5 mph - walk/slow jog	4%	Level 4
1 min.	4.5 - speed walk/run	6%	Level 6-7
1 min.	3.5 - walk/slow jog	4%	Level 4
1 min.	4.5 - speed walk/run	6%	Level 7
1 min.	3.5 - walk/slow jog	4%	Level 4

Your Core-Carving Workout of the Week

Overhead Arms Mobilization

Hold for 50 seconds, followed by 10 seconds of rest. Then move on to the next exercise.

Deep Squat Mobilization

Hold for 50 seconds, followed by 10 seconds of rest. Then move on to the next exercise.

Hollow-Body Hold

Hold for 50 seconds, followed by 10 seconds of rest. Then move on to the next exercise.

Side Pushup

Do as many reps as you can in 50 seconds, followed by 10 seconds of rest. Then move on to the next exercise.

Shoulders-Elevated Single-Leg Hip Thrust

Do as many reps as you can in 50 seconds, followed by 10 seconds of rest. Then move on to the next exercise.

Sprinter Steps

Do as many reps as you can in 50 seconds, followed by 10 seconds of rest. Then move on to the next exercise.

Get High-Definition Abs

If you want abs that look like they've been digitally enhanced by CGI, try the Abzilla workout. All you need is a pair of dumbbells—the heavier, the better—and some willpower to complete these core-crushing combinations of plank variations and farmer's carries. The planks will sculpt abs that pop, while the carries will blast away the fat covering them. 

Here's how it works: Perform the following five pairs of planks and carries back-to-back with no rest. Each pair takes one minute to complete, so do the plank for 30 seconds before immediately moving on to the carry for 30 seconds. When you complete all five pairings, you've done one circuit. Repeat the circuit two more times for an ab-crushing 15-minute workout. 

Front Plank

Assume a pushup position, but bend your elbows and rest your forearms on the floor. Your body should form a straight line. Now tighten your core muscles and hold that position.

Perform this exercise for 30 seconds before moving on to the next movement without resting.

Rack Carry

Grab two dumbbells and let them hang next to your sides. Without moving your upper arms, bend your elbows and curl the dumbbells as close to your shoulders as you can. Hold them there the entire time. Keeping your back straight and core braced, walk forward.

Perform this exercise for 30 seconds before moving on to the next movement without resting.

Side Plank, Left

Lie on your left side with your legs straight, and prop up your upper body on your left forearm. Raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from ankles to shoulders, and hold. For an extra challenge, lift your right arm so it's perpendicular to your body.

Perform this exercise for 30 seconds before moving on to the next movement without resting.

Single-Arm Carry, Left

Grab a dumbbell in your left hand and let it hang at arm's length by your side. Walk forward, maintaining an upright torso and braced core.

Perform this exercise for 30 seconds before moving on to the next movement without resting.

Side Plank, Right

Lie on your right side with your legs straight, and prop up your upper body on your right forearm. Raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from ankles to shoulders, and hold. For an extra challenge, lift your left arm so it's perpendicular to your body.

Perform this exercise for 30 seconds before moving on to the next movement without resting.

Single-Arm Carry, Right

Grab a dumbbell in your right hand and let it hang at arm's length by your side. Walk forward, maintaining an upright torso and braced core.

Perform this exercise for 30 seconds before moving on to the next movement without resting.

Hollow-Body Hold

Lie face-up with your legs straight and your arms extended above your head. Brace your core, and keep your arms and legs together as you lift them about 12 inches off the floor. Your shoulder blades shouldn't touch the floor. Hold this position.

Perform this exercise for 30 seconds before moving on to the next movement without resting.

Overhead Carry

Grab a pair of dumbbells and press them over your head, palms facing each other. Walk forward, maintaining an upright torso and braced core.

Perform this exercise for 30 seconds before moving on to the next movement without resting.

Hollow-Body Bridge Hold

Lie face-up with your legs straight and your arms at a 45-degree angle from your sides. Raise your hips off the floor by pressing your heels and palms into the floor and squeezing your glutes. Hold this position.

Perform this exercise for 30 seconds before moving on to the next movement without resting.

Farmer's Carry

Grab a pair of dumbbells and hold them at arm's length by your sides. The weights shouldn't touch your thighs. Walk forward.

Perform this exercise for 30 seconds before moving on to the next movement without resting.