Author Archives: Michael Greeves

How to Work Out Three Times a Week

Everyone knows that working out is important for good physical and mental health. And everyone knows this but struggles to find the time to do a good workout. Many people recommend working out every day, or at least every other day. The problem is that very few people are actually able to work out every single day. This can make them feel like they are unable to accomplish their workout goals and eventually they give up on working out altogether. There is a very simple solution to this and it is to simply work out just three times a week.

At first glance, it may seem that working out three times a week is not enough to meet your workout goals. Many popular workout programs recommend working out five or even six days a week. While this works for some people, it is designed more for people who not only have the time to do the program but who want results quickly. Working out just three times a week, whether it is for a half hour at a time or an hour and a half, will give you the same kinds of results. The difference is that you will achieve those results at a slower pace.

Working out three times a week will help you control your weight, improve your blood sugar levels, and control your cholesterol. The slower pace helps to ensure that your body will adapt to the new workout routines. This is especially helpful for those who have rarely worked out before. As your body adapts to working out, you will find that you have more energy and it will become less of a chore to actually work out.  Many workouts are designed to be done in 30 minutes and some are even designed to take less time. As your fitness level improves, you will be able to do more intense workouts and be able to enjoy a wide variety of workout programs so that you can avoid boredom.

Another advantage of working out three times a week is that you have more time to recover from each workout. When you work a muscle group such as your abdominals, it takes time for those muscles to recover. While you may still be sore from your workout, you will have time to recover and avoid injury. This can make it easier for you to stick with an exercise program because you will not be in pain every time you move.

Every time you workout you will feel a sense of accomplishment. No matter how busy your schedule is, you can fit exercise in three times a week. Some people break their workouts into three 10 minute sessions throughout the day while others get up a half hour earlier to workout before leaving for work. It does not matter how you fit in your workouts, just that you do it. You’ll feel better about yourself, feel more alert and productive, and not have to feel overwhelmed at the prospect of long workouts.

Depending on the type of exercise you’re currently doing, you may not be building strength. For example, If your focus is largely on cardio (which has many benefits and shouldn’t be discounted!), you’re most likely losing weight and burning fat, but you’re not building muscular strength. Strength building not only makes your body look better, but also makes it easier to do daily tasks, like picking up children, carrying groceries, or reaching for something in a far-reaching cabinet. It’s not always necessary to look at strength building as something only meant for those looking to be bodybuilders. Anyone can benefit from it and will benefit even more by following these important rules.

Whenever lifting weights (necessary for building strength!), it’s important to select a resistance that allows you to complete each rep with a full range of motion. As you gain strength after a few weeks you can push yourself to momentary muscular failure. It’s common practice to lift weights until you experience muscle failure. Muscle failure is that feeling you get when you simply cannot lift anymore. Maybe you reach it on rep six, seven, or eight.

Quality and Muscle Failure

If you select a weight that is too heavy you will not be able to reach momentary muscular failure in the correct repetition range. This seems contrary to the popular belief that you should lift maximum weight to become stronger. However, lifting too much weight will not allow you to reach quality muscle failure. Most likely you’ll be able to squeeze out only a few reps and that generally means you’re doing reps that aren’t quality reps. You might only be lifting halfway through an exercise or getting outside help, just to push yourself to that failure stage. Instead of doing this, focus on quality reps, which will build your strength while also, ensuring you don’t burn out befogging hitting the prescribed rep range, usually five to eight reps. Also, being sore in the muscles connective tissue and joints for several days after a workout is not going to help you build strength –  you’ll be too sore to do your next workout!

Selecting the Correct Training Load

Do not do more than five to eight reps per set of strength-building exercises you do. If you don’t know what your max rep is for a certain exercise, find the heaviest weight you can life just once, and then regularly lift around 80% of that weight. This is safer and allows your muscles to stabilize.

You might be thinking that lifting 80% of your max weight is lifting far too heavy, but it isn’t! In order to truly incorporate strength into your fitness routine, you need to get strong. Lifting heavy will have you LOOKING strong. In order to accomplish this, you’ll need a certain amount of tension (strength) and will need to recruit all of your muscles. If you look at strength as a skill, you can more easily understand that the more muscles you recruit, and the harder those muscles have to work, the stronger you’ll get.

Be sure you’re lifting regularly. Daily lifting of the SAME muscle groups is not recommended. Your muscles need time to heal. But you can either target different muscle groups daily or do the same muscle group routine twice a week, with a max of three times per week.

Once you complete a set, take a rest, and make it longer than a few seconds. Just “powering through” a strength building routine is not recommended, even if it seems that would be ideal. Instead, allow your body to really recover and prepare for the next lift. This will make you feel far less sore the next day and give your muscles a better chance of healing and becoming stronger.

If you truly want to build strength, your focus should be on exercises, which enlist several muscle groups. Just focusing on one particular muscle will not make you, as a strong as doing compound movements will. Isolation movements will not make you as strong as bench presses, dead lifts, squats, and military presses will. Keep it simple, involve your total body as much as possible, and start building strength!

How to Use Body Weight Exercises Properly

A lot of people favor bodyweight exercises. The biggest reason for this is that they can perform these exercises in the comfort of their home without any equipment. However, if you do not use the bodyweight exercises properly, they will do you little good.

There are two main reasons people use bodyweight exercises. Either they want to build muscle or they want to burn fat. Some people want to do both. However, you have to use bodyweight exercises in a specific way to meet either of those goals, and you can’t do it the same way for both goals.

Using Bodyweight Exercises for Fat Loss

The thing to remember here is that the key to fat loss is to keep your heart rate up and do the exercises at the maximum intensity. The best way to use bodyweight exercises for fat loss is to do them in a circuit to keep yourself moving. The most common way to do a circuit is fifty seconds of intense exercise followed by ten seconds of rest.

Ten seconds may seem like a short rest, but this is why you use a circuit. You do one exercise that targets certain areas of the body, rest for ten seconds, then do an exercise that works another area of the body. This way different areas of your body are getting rest for four minutes, even though you keep moving at an almost constant rate.

An example circuit would be squats, pushups, reverse lunges, pull-ups or rows, and end with planks or bridge. Each exercise works a different area of the body. Therefore, each group of muscles has four minutes to recover while you work other groups of muscles. You can do as many sets as you wish. The key here is that there is no set number of reps for the exercises. Do as many as you can in fifty seconds.

Using Bodyweight Exercises for Muscle Building

Beginner workouts and bodyweight exercises like pushups and sit ups are not going to build muscle. It takes an entirely different type of bodyweight exercise to build muscle and increase strength. Advanced bodyweight exercises are required for this purpose. These advanced bodyweight exercises are not going to be performed as quickly as the ones used for fat burning. You will also likely not be able to do them for fifty seconds, but rather may only be able to do ten or fifteen reps before you have to rest that group of muscles. However, a circuit can still work with these advanced bodyweight exercises, you’re just doing it in a different way.

Some examples of advanced bodyweight exercises are: chin ups, twenty foot rope climb, inverted row, front lever, muscle up, handstand push up, pistol squats, single leg deadlifts, side planks, and many more. You can find complete lists of advanced bodyweight exercises easily online. The important thing to remember is that these are advanced exercises, and you may need to work your way up to some of them. Be careful that you do not take on too much too quickly or you might hurt yourself.

If you are looking to both burn fat and build muscle, you should do a combination of these exercises as a part of a comprehensive workout routine. Another option is to alternate daily between fat burning exercises and muscle building exercises.

Building monster muscle size is actually pretty easy. Body builders make it look tough by posting their workout routines online and in magazines. But in reality, you will just hurt yourself if you try to jump in doing what they do. They didn’t start out there. They started out just like you, learning how to lift weights and do bodyweight exercises, and starting with a brand new strength training regimen.

Your first step to building muscle size is to learn how to do strength training exercises correctly. You should practice free weight exercises with an empty bar until you have your form down. Focus on exercises that work multiple muscle groups at one time. As you get into shape, you will be able to increase the amount of time you spend working out. But in the beginning, you’ll have to work your way up in workout frequency, intensity and duration. The shorter your workout, the more important it is to work multiple muscle groups with compound exercises.

You should also make sure that you learn exercises to train your legs, not just your arms. Squats are the best full body workout you can get when you’re starting out in strength training. You’ll build muscle size in your arms and legs, as well as your abdomen, back, shoulders, and glutes. But learn how to do them correctly before adding weight to the mix or you could seriously injure yourself.

Stay away from exercise machines. They do not allow for natural movement, cannot be used at home, and actually make weight training more difficult without producing better results. Take the time to learn how to do bodyweight exercises correctly as well. You may be surprised at what you don’t know.

Once you know what you’re doing you can start working out in earnest. Add weight a little bit at a time to your free weight exercises. Gradually build up weight until you feel the burn without feeling like your arms are going to fall off. Listen to your body to know when enough is enough, then stay at that weight until it becomes too easy. Don’t try to add too much weight too quickly, or you’ll risk injury.

One thing you absolutely must keep in mind is that muscle size actually increases during periods of recovery. Exercise breaks down the muscle, and recovery time builds it back up again bigger and stronger than it was before the exercise. A lot of people are unaware of this, and try to lift weights every day without recovery time. Recovery is even more important when you are just starting out. You should only work out about three days a week as a beginner, with recovery days in between workout days.

Keep in mind also that recovery and building muscle size requires more than just resting on your rest day. It also requires that you provide your body with what it needs to build up that muscle. This means staying hydrated and drinking lots of water as well as eating a lot of protein. Getting enough calories per day is important for muscle recovery, and the amino acids in the proteins are necessary for creating muscle mass.

If you follow this type of regimen, you will see definite results in about two months. Continue the regimen by gradually adding more weight, and you will have the defined muscles that you are looking for before you know it.

Changing Your Routine with CrossFit

Exercise can be one of the most boring things you have to do. Lots of people see exercising as a chore that must be done whether they like it or not, just like cleaning the bathroom. Eventually, they give up on exercise and working out altogether. After a while, they find that they want to get back into the routine of exercising regularly, but they are not able to because they no longer have the motivation to do what they are sure is going to be boring after a while.

Does this sound like you? There are several ways that you can spice your workout routine up so that you can avoid being bored. Sometimes adding music or just changing your play list if you already listen to music while you workout is enough to help you find some new motivation. You can add a new routine or even some new equipment to make your workout more interesting. Another great way to add some variety is with Crossfit.

Crossfit is a high intensity workout program. It is designed to build strength and for all over conditioning. The program is so effective that it is used by the military and law enforcement for their personnel. It is easily modified so anyone of any fitness level can do the program. There is a workout of the day that is listed on the internet so you can easily see what is going on that day. Crossfit allows you to workout up to six days a week using a variety of exercises that will challenge your body, mind, and keep you having fun.

The Crossfit program requires some equipment that very few people have in their home so you will have to use a gym. The more often you go to the gym to do a Crossfit work with your trainer, the faster you will see results. Each class takes about an hour and you will work with your personal trainer or the Crossfit instructor to modify the program for you. Your trainer will help you stay motivated and even if you already feel like you are fit, Crossfit will challenge you so that working out is a brand new experience.

One way that Crossfit brings new life to your workout routine is by adding gymnastics. You will learn everything from the bare basics to more advanced moves that will make sure you never get bored. Crossfit also uses Olympic weightlifting that will help you develop both your strength and your explosive power. Basic moves such as squats, pull-ups, and the push press will help you develop your muscles in no time. Sports of all kinds are encouraged to help keep you motivated and keep your body in top shape.

Many runners make a very serious mistake when training. They focus on eating right and cardiovascular exercise and avoid weight training. While a healthy diet will certainly help, cardio exercise alone is not enough to make a runner excel, no matter how much it improves a runner’s breathing and stamina. Weight training offers benefits, such as improved race times, that runners will not get anywhere else.

Running is a sport that is very intensive. Many runners do not see it as an intensive sport, but it shows every weakness that your body has. For example, those who have a weakness in their knees because the knee, tendons, ligaments, or the muscles in the leg are weak are inevitably going to end up with pain in at least one knee. Some runners insist that weight training is completely unnecessary for a runner. These runners are often the ones who find themselves unable to run and instead swimming or biking in an effort to recover from injuries that they received while running.

Weight training strengthens the muscles, ligaments, and tendons. When the muscles are stronger, runners can look forward to fewer injuries. If a runner does get injured, those who have been doing weight training will have a shorter recovery time and their injuries will be less severe. Runners who have pain in the lower back or hips while running often see a reduction in pain in as little as six weeks after beginning a weight training program.

The type of weight training that runners should do is not the same as those that are looking to bulk up, or who simply are trying to look their best. Runners should do weight training two to three times a week while paying attention to the intensity of their workouts and doing the exercises correctly. Proper form is vital to a successful weight training program. If a runner starts weight training without paying attention to form, or while trying to work out too hard, then an injury is bound to occur. This can set a runner back weeks or even months in some cases, so it is better to learn how to do the exercises correctly than risk an injury, especially if a runner is training for a marathon.

Runners can talk to a personal trainer to have help developing an effective weight training program or can find information online that can be helpful. Once exercises begin to become too easy, runners can add to their program or simply vary the routine to continue making progress. Many exercises will work multiple muscle groups, so an effective workout can be done in less time than expected. Runners should focus on exercises that improve balance, coordination, and leg strength while making sure to work the entire body so that the body is in balance.

Everyday millions of America’s start a health kick and decide they want to lose weight, but most of them do not have any clue on how to get started.  Many people will fall for the lose weight quick schemes that may work for take the weight off for the short term.  Then after a little while, most people end up gaining most or all of the weight back.   Below are some tips to help lose weight and to also keep it off.

Set a Realistic Goal

One of the biggest mistakes many people make when embarking on a weight loss journey is to set a completely unrealistic goal.  It is very important to set an achievable goal.  Setting a realistic goal will allow the person to see all their gains as positive rather than a negative.

Create a Plan That Fits

Another huge mistake people often make when trying to lose weight is to create a plan that is impossible to follow.   People need to choose a plan that works with their everyday life.  It is unrealistic for a person with a full-time job and a family to spend four hours a day in the gym.  That person needs to create a program they can stick to and still keep up with their daily grind.

Stick to the Plan

Once the plan has been created it is important that the plan gets followed to the letter.  People often get frustrated when they don’t see instant results and they abandon their plan.  Most successful weight loss programs will help people shed weight slow and steady not fast and furious.  Sticking to the plan is the best way to see consistent results.

Change the Habits

Once the weight loss goal has been achieved it is important for the person to change their habits in order to keep the weight from coming back.  It is important for the person to look at how they acted and ate before they lost weight.  They will then need to make sure they don’t make the same mistakes.  A good weight lose program will not only help a person lose weight it will also teach them how to live in order to keep that weight off.

Learn How to Eat

The most important thing when trying to keep weight off is learning how to eat.   People who lose weight often gain it back because they have never learned how to eat.  Good programs will teach a person how to control the size of their meals and also to understand how many calories and grams of fat they need to consume everyday to stay at a healthy weight.

If the above suggestions are followed it should be a relatively easy chore to lose weight and also keep it off.  It does require a bit of a lifestyle change, but most people who have tasted to enjoyment of a healthy life rarely go back to their un-healthy lifestyles.  Healthy living make a person feel better about themselves on the inside as well as the outside.

Many people feel that working out at home will not provide you with the same results as a gym; but they are mistaken.  There are plenty of exercises that can be done at home without any special equipment or memberships.  Exercise is an important part of living a healthy life, and because there are so many different things you can do at home, there isn’t an excuse anymore.  We are going to offer you some examples of exercises that can be done at home and still provide you with the same intensity workout that you would receive elsewhere.

One of the easiest exercises that anyone can do is walk.  If you live in an area where the weather is nice, why not go outside and enjoy it.  There are plenty of parks and trails located in every city that accommodate walkers of every level.  However, if the weather isn’t so nice, you can always perform your walking workout indoors.  If your home or apartment has a flight of stairs you can work out by going up and down them a few times.  You can also incorporate weights or laundry baskets to intensify the work out.  Climbing stairs is an excellent way to tone your legs while also getting a low impact aerobic workout.

The next exercise that can easily be performed in your home is jumping jacks.  Jumping jacks provide you with an excellent cardio workout.  Pushups are also a great at home exercise.  Depending on your level of comfort you can perform pushups on your knees, or with your legs straight.  You can also perform pushups standing against the wall and pushing yourself away from the wall.  Pushups are a great way to increase arm strength and workout the muscles in your chest.  After you have done your pushups you may want to perform some simple leg lifts.  Leg lifts are an excellent exercise to increase your strength and muscles in your legs.  If you have difficulty performing leg lifts with your legs straight, you can always bend them slightly and still benefit from the exercise.

If you want to work out your abdominal muscles you can perform crunches.  These are the best type of exercise for increasing muscle while strengthening your abdominal muscles.  If you are a beginner, do not worry if you are unable to get your head completely up off of the floor.  As long as you are stretching the abdominal muscles you will benefit from this exercise.  Jogging in place is also a great way to workout at home.  Jogging is a great exercise for your heart.  You can do this exercise while you are watching TV or listening to music.  The only equipment you need is a good pair of shoes to reduce the amount of stress on your legs.

Even you do not have the time or money to workout at a gym; you can still find plenty of ways to workout at home.  Never feel that working out is beyond your means or skill level, there are plenty of easy and affordable exercises that can be performed in the comfort of your own home.

Jumping Jacks Can Be Done (at Home) in a Flash

Just like the Rolling Stones song suggests, jumping jacks can be done in a flash. But why even do jumping jacks? And is there a right or wrong way to do them? There are plenty of good reasons to start your workout with jumping jacks, and there is most certainly a right way of doing them!

Jumping jacks are primarily used for warming up before you move on to your fitness for the day. Don’t discount the value of jumping jacks, though. If you can keep up a quick pace for 15 minutes or more, you will get a great cardio workout. What’s great about jumping jacks is the lack of equipment needed to do them and the ease in which they can be done. You just need a little coordination!

If your goal is to use jumping jacks for a real workout (get in some cardio), then you shouldn’t treat them as your warm up. That means you should stretch out prior to doing them. Avoiding injury means you should stretch your lower back, legs, and arms. Wear pants that are conducive to jumping and a shirt that won’t get in your way. What’s great about jumping jacks is that you can do them at home. Doing an extended session might get boring, so I’d recommend having a TV handy, or some music. Several times I’ve bailed on a cardio activity early because I didn’t have a good distraction.

There is most definitely a right way to perform jumping jacks. Be sure to stand up straight. Keep your feet shoulder width apart and have your arms hanging comfortably at your sides. Your body should be loose. Now jump just a bit off the ground, spreading your legs, while quickly raising your arms up high over your head until they’re nearly touching. I often think of a pair of scissors when thinking of jumping jacks. Your hands should remain open with your palms facing away from you at first. When you complete the exercise, bring your feet back to shoulder width while quickly lowering your arms back down to your sides. This completes your jumping jack! Continue on until fatigue. Any pain experienced during the exercise indicates you should either slow it down or lower your arms a bit.

If you’ve been doing jumping jacks for a while and want to make it more of a workout, you can definitely increase the intensity. Adding weight to the equation will make it more challenging, so try strapping on some ankle or wrist weights. You will definitely feel a difference, so be sure to slow it down just a bit when you start out. You can always increase your speed or duration. Give yourself breaks if you need them. Understandably, this exercise can get tired if done over a long period of time. Always be sure you can maintain your proper form if you look to make things more challenging!

Strength training is an essential part of any exercise program. Whether you are an accomplished athlete or just someone who is trying to lose a few pounds and get fit, strength training is required to help you advance towards your fitness goals. You can choose from dozens of different strength training programs and freely adjust them to suit your needs, goals, and interests. Free weights or resistance training, using elastic bands or machines, are both forms of strength training. Both forms will help you reach your strength training goals but there are some important differences.

Free weights are the classic workout tool that everyone is used to seeing – dumbbells and barbells. These are usually adjustable, and you can add and remove weight plates as needed for your workout. These provide an excellent workout but you are limited in what you can do. For example, in order to have the workout you need, you must lift the weight against gravity. You lose some of the resistance that strengthens the muscles and many people end up using the momentum of the weights to help them workout.

With resistance bands, you can work out in any direction without losing any of the workout’s power. In some ways, bands are the most effective strength training tool. If you play baseball for example, you can workout with a band and practice the moves you use in baseball. This not only strengthens the body, but helps to reduce the likelihood of injuries. There are several levels of resistance bands and you can easily increase the difficulty of your workouts simply by switching bands.

Using machines to do resistance training is effective for beginners but can be inconvenient. It helps beginners avoid moving in such a way that they will be injured or from dropping the weights. However, there are fewer options with machines and you are required to go to a gym or buy an expensive machine in order to workout. Eventually, you will have to switch your routine to bands or free weights in order to continue to see the progress that you want. Some people are skipping the machines altogether and starting their strength training using bands or free weights from the start.

Another big difference between using bands or free weights for training is the price and ability to travel. Bands are relatively inexpensive and you can often save money by buying a set of varying resistances. Free weights are often priced by the pound, making them quite expensive if you need a larger set. They are also very heavy and it is impossible to travel – whether for business or just to see family – when you are carrying metal plates with you. Bands are lightweight, can fit just about anywhere, and you can easily keep up with your workouts no matter where you are.

Muscle endurance is important for nearly any sport and many daily activities. Athletes must build muscle endurance if they wish to be successful. Muscular endurance is the ability to exert the maximum amount of force for the maximum amount of time.

In order to build muscle endurance, you have to push your body to new limits. There are several steps to doing this. It is important that while you are pushing yourself, that you do not push yourself too hard. You do not want to injure yourself. Listen to your body while you are going through your training to make sure you stop when you should.

The first thing you will want to do is increase the number of workouts you do each week. If you currently do three strength training workouts a week, increase it to four. When your body gets used to that, increase it to five. This will help your body get used to recovering more quickly from muscle fatigue.

The next thing you want to do is start building endurance by increasing the number of sets and repetitions you do in your workouts. Do not make a large jump in these numbers at one time. Build yourself up gradually or you will risk injury.

Once you can do many reps and sets in one workout, and you find yourself working out longer than before, it is time to take your training to the next level. You can begin working your muscles to the point of exhaustion. This is what really increases muscle endurance the most. The best way to do this is to start with a weight you are comfortable with, and lift until you reach a point of exhaustion. This does not mean that you continue reps until your arms cramp up and you risk dropping the weight on yourself. Lifting to the point of exhaustion means that you continue reps until you feel you can no longer safely continue. This is where listening to your body really comes into play.

After you hit the point of exhaustion, drop the amount of weight you are lifting by around twenty five to fifty pounds (depending on how much weight you’re up to) and immediately do another set to exhaustion. You can opt to drop the weight again for a third set to exhaustion before taking a rest. The reason this works is that when you are playing your sport you will exert maximum force for as long as you can. But as the clock ticks, you will be able to exert less and less force. If you train your body to continue at a lower amount of force for a longer period of time, you will find that you can continue in your sport for much longer. Thus, muscular endurance is achieved.

It is important to remember that you do not want to jump into working out to the point of exhaustion. You should work up to that point slowly and gradually. In fact, you should not hit this point in your training until you have been working toward muscle endurance for at least a month. This will ensure that you do not cause yourself injury by trying to do too much too quickly. Particularly, if your body is not used to recovering quickly, working to the point of exhaustion could deteriorate the muscle and cause you to lose strength.

Cross training workouts are typically performed by elite athletes such as swimmers and runners.  If you are looking for a new way to train or to improve your overall level of fitness, cross training may be perfect for you.  Below we are going to offer you some information on the different ways that cross training can benefit you current workout regimen.

Cross training can provide you an improved level leanness by burning more calories per week than a typical workout.  Cross training involves changing your cardiovascular and anaerobic exercise routines on a regular basis.  This is done to help prevent your body from becoming used to only one type of exercise.  The primary purpose of cross training tends to vary depending on your fitness goals.  Some people simply use the technique to avoid becoming bored with their existing routine while others use cross training to avoid overtraining certain muscle groups.  Whatever motivates you, cross training has benefits for everyone.

Everyone who works out regularly know how important having a regular workout routine is.  But at some point your body becomes used to the routine and you do not see the same benefits as you did when you first started working out.  To keep this from happening your trainer may suggest incorporating cross training into your existing workout.  By simply adding one different type of exercise into your current routine, your body will once again become challenged by working out.  This will also help you from becoming bored performing the same exercises day after day.  It never hurts to keep your workout routine interesting and stimulating.

There are several different types of cardiovascular cross training workouts.  You can change up your existing cardio workout by simply changing one type of cardiovascular exercise for another.  For instance, instead of biking you may choose to run.  You may also want to challenge yourself by using a faster speed on the treadmill or changing the incline.  These may seem like simple steps to take, but once they are done you will begin to notice a change.

The primary reason that people engage in strength training exercises is to push their muscles past the point where they are currently strong enough to endure.  If you regularly use the same amount of weight and the same type of equipment to work one specific muscle group, the muscles aren’t being pushed as hard they once were.  Performing the same exercises over and over will allow your muscles to become stagnate and less prone to growth.  To incorporate cross training into your current strength training program you may want to change from using dumbbells to weight machines which tend to work the muscles in a completely different way.

Cross training is also a great way to keep yourself motivated and not become bored with your time at the gym.  Sometimes when faced with yet another day on the treadmill, you may begin to look for excuses not to go to the gym at all.  By incorporating new and different training methods into your workout you will not only continue to stimulate your muscles, but your mind will also appreciate the change.

If your time is limited, you may be interested in workouts that can be done in a short period of time.  There is no excuse not to get your daily workouts in anymore, with these exercises you will be able to work out anywhere and get it done in thirty minutes or less.  These exercises can be performed in your home, office, gym or during your lunch hour.

Supersets are a great way to workout in a short amount of time.  Each cycle in a superset lasts two minutes.  If you perform ten cycles you will have completed 300 pushups and 400 crunches in only 20 minutes.  Instead of setting aside a specific rest period in between sets, you will use the time spent on crunches as your rest period.  Here are two examples of what you can include in a superset:

Pushup/Crunch Superset:

• 10 regular pushups
• 10 crunches
• 10 wide pushups
• 10 crunches
• 10 tricep pushups
• 10 crunches on both sides

Leg/Abs Superset:

• 20 squats
• 20 crunches
• 10 lunges each leg
• 10 crunches
• 20 calf raises
• 20 crunches

In addition to performing supersets you can also run or walk.  Running or walking can be performed anywhere there is open space.  Simply walking for 20 to 30 minutes will equal walking two to three miles in a short period of time.  If you choose to run, you can run approximately three to six miles in the same amount of time.  The only specialized equipment you need for this type of workout are shoes designed to cushion and protect your feet and legs.

If you have access to a pool you can easily workout for 20 to 30 minutes each day.  Depending on your swimming level you may be able to swim up to a mile in that short period of time.  Here is an example of a swimming workout:

• Swim 100 yards
• Perform 10 – 20 pushups
• Perform 20 – 30 crunches

Repeat this process five to ten times for optimal results.

As these examples show, you can complete a relatively thorough workout in only 30 minutes.  It is important that you never allow a lack of time to discourage you from working out.  These are simple workouts that can be performed by anyone at any time during the day or night.  By utilizing any free time that you have during the day, you can easily incorporate these workouts into your daily routine.  As your skill level progresses, you will begin to notice that you are able to complete more reps during the same amount of time.  If you become bored with any of these workout plans, mix it up.  You can swim one day and walk the next.  There are no rules associated with these types of exercises.  The main thing is that you are using your free time in a productive and healthy manner.