Making workouts more efficient

The busier we get, the more we need to exercise. But how do we fit in our workouts into our busy lives? After countless hours of training and experimentation, I think I’ve found a system that might suit the goals of the busy person. Enter 15-minute block training. Easily said, it’s just putting in your training goals and allotting each segment to 15 minutes tops. With this system, it’s actually now possible to do a workout within 15 minutes. How does it work, you say? In a workout, you have different goals and segments: warm-up, power, strength, size, assistance work (which could be another term for focusing on weaknesses), conditioning and regeneration.

If you have an hour to train, you can work on four training goals, each with a 15-minute time limit. So for example:

1. Warm-up – Do dynamic stretches for 15 minutes. 2. Power – Squat jumps paired with medicine ball throws. 3. Strength – Deadlift paired with chin-ups. 4. Conditioning – Six sets of 30 seconds on the bike, with two minute recovery.

And you’re done for the day. You can also swap conditioning for size (hypertrophy) training etc. If you have 45 minutes to work out, and this is because you’re preparing for the ironman, you can choose three training segments: 1.Warm- up – Mobility work and dynamic stretching. 2. Strength – Deadlift and inverted rows perhaps.

3. Recovery and regeneration – Foam roll and deep breathing.

There is no excuse not to train. The key is to train efficiently, effectively. Do give this a try and see if your workouts become more efficient.