Too busy to find time for a 30- or 60-minute workout? Surely you can find 5-minute chunks of time for a series of 5-minute workouts. Splitting up your workouts allows you to do intense 5-minute sessions any time and any place throughout your busy day.
Can you get a good workout in 5 minutes? Yes, you can. Perform several of these 5-minute workouts throughout the day and you’ll enjoy the benefits of a regular 20-30 minute training session. There are several approaches to designing your 5-minute workouts, the most efficient would include choosing exercises that target several muscle groups at once.
Your first 5 minutes should involve stretching and warm up type movements. This 5-minute block should not involve all-out, perform as many reps as possible, training, but more slow and deliberate stretching and active stretching.
The following 5-minute workouts can include any and all movements that increase your activity level, heart rate and breathing. Here are suggestions for several 5-minute sessions:
- A mini-bootcamp of alternating pushups, situps or crunches.
- Alternating side-straddle hops (jumping jacks) and burpees or planks.
- Bodyweight squats alternating with forward lunges.
- 5-minute ab workout alternating planks, bridges and leg lifts.
- 5-minute core workout alternating planks, pushups, up & down planks.
- Have a jump rope? Work up to 5 minutes non-stop.
- 5-minute boxing camp – alternate shadow boxing, medicine ball or rope jumps.
- Have a kettlebell? Alternate KB swings and KB goblet squats.
- Walk for 5 minutes, or alternate 1 minute of walking, jogging and running.
- Stair climbing, run up and jog down or take the stairs up two and three at a time.
- If you have dumbbells available, alternate chest presses and shoulder presses.
- Do 5 minutes of arm work, alternating curls and tricep extensions.
- 5-minute plyometric workout alternating plyo box jumps and standing squat jumps.
Your goal for these short but intense sessions should be to perform as many repetitions of the included exercises in your 5 minutes. Try to include a healthy mix of resistance training, cardio training and stretching in your mini workouts spread through the day.
Even if your life is crazy busy, getting in 3-5+ of these 5-minute workouts each day will improve your fitness over the long run. Don’t believe that you must have 30, 60, 90 minutes for a workout every day. Working harder and longer isn’t necessarily better than working smarter. The same applies to fitness, it’s the cumulative effect that counts.
