Time constraints for the ordinary person in today's fast living world often leaves little time for exercise.   A common perception is that in order to be fit and healthy you have to spend hours in the gym.   There is a way to make the most of what little time you have and profit in health, fitness and maximize the benefits of shaping the body all at the same time.             

This approach consists of just two exercises for each workout and involves exercises that will train the core and challenge the nervous system and elevate the metabolism as well as adding lean muscle mass when the resistance is sufficient enough.  

The method of the following workout requires a warm up of about 5 minutes followed by gentle stretches for the tightest muscles in the body.   These are commonly leg and chest stretches, a shoulder girdle warm-up with light dumbbells is done after that with two rounds of ten reps of side raises, bicep curls and shoulder presses on each exercise, this should be enough to get the body ready for the workout ahead.  

The aim of the workout is to do 10-12 reps on both exercises straight after each other followed by a rest of no more than 60 seconds.   The plan is to strive for as many rounds as possible in 15 minutes without breaking form and dropping below 8 reps, the same resistance is used on all the sets for the workout, a weight that allows you to perform 12 reps on the first exercise is needed, if you can only manage 2 or 3 rounds before dropping below 8 reps stop the workout and continue to progress the next time with a little less weight.   For intermediates and advanced trainers a 10-15-rep window maybe preferred.   This is a demanding workout on the whole body and a 15-rep ceiling should be enough for any given goal.   Work hard on it and get a sweat on, it will be more than worth it in the long run.                  

The following workout prioritises the Back           

Before you begin a warm up set for both exercises is recommended, this should be around 50% of the working weight.   Strong individuals using heavy weights should do a staggered warm up.

In this workout a cable exercise is included, cables allow a three dimensional movement making the exercise feel natural as you are moving in your own plane of movement, they also provide the same benefits of free weights forcing your stabilising muscles to switch on.   The more muscles that are involved in an exercise the more calorie expenditure there is.             

Cable Reach & Pull  

With a split stance and with one leg in front of the other face the cable column that has been adjusted to shoulder height.   Knees should be soft and unlocked with your bodyweight distributed to 70% on your front leg and 30% on your rear leg.   Grab the handle using the same side as your rear leg.   Keep the tummy pulled inwards to activate your core muscles.   Initiate the movement with your trunk, twisting the torso towards your rear leg while shifting 70% of your bodyweight onto your rear leg, pull the handle towards your shoulder as you do this.   Do not allow your elbow to drop below or rise above the line of the cable keeping the forearm in perfect alignment with the cable throughout the movement.   The other arm should mimic in reverse the movement of the working arm in the same plane.   Reverse this movement until you reach the starting position.

Dead Lift to Calf Raise & Shrug

Begin with the knees slightly bent looking straight ahead holding the bar with an overhand grip.   Initiate the dead lift movement until the bar reaches your knees, there should be no rounding of the upper back.   As you reverse that action and return to the starting position rhythmically calf raise and shrug as shown before initiating the next rep.    

A typical workout may look like this

The way forward      

The options to progress on this way of training would be to either lower the rest time in between rounds enabling you to achieve more rounds in the 15 minute window or to increase the resistance so the desired reps are challenging to reach on every round, that way the reps will probably end up descending on every round like the example shown above placing more stress on the muscular system and stimulating a toning response.    

Like with any training programme a rotation in principles is a wise choice to make, this should also include rotating your exercises too.  

A final word              

People in today's society want quick fixes and the need to see results instantly.   In my opinion most people have forgotten the old fashioned way of what it takes to change the way we want to look.   All the health aspects that once went hand in hand with exercise have been lost in the tide of the celebrity culture.   The attention from the media, of these so-called celebrities with their starved and cosmetic made bodies have brain washed many into thinking that it is the standard of what everyone should look like.   In many cases a closer inspection of these attractive bodies would show us that these individuals have health concerns and achieved their look with expensive surgery.   What would be better, looking great and being fit and healthy or looking great through cosmetic surgery and feeling crap, sluggish and having unhealthy insides?

What I have presented in these three articles is a view of how to best get on the fitness ladder to a better body in the shortest amount of time invested.   There are three different workouts to get you started that will functionally work the entire body, burn calories and shape the body in one.   There is no excuse with time constraints with this; all that is needed is 100% effort in every workout.   It's quality not quantity that matters in training programmes.   It's easy to ride a stationary bike for an hour while watching TV.   What isn't easy is training for a quarter of that time moving the body through a series of different functional movement pattern's the way it was designed for.   So in other words here is your quick fix to a better body (a cheaper alternative to what most of the celeb's use), the only thing stopping you is the will to work hard.   The consequence of working hard will be an attractive healthy and lean body.