Fitness Fitness Basics

Getting Fit When You're Crunched for Time

Summary & Participants

You can get a full body workout, even if you only have a half hour to do it!

Medically Reviewed On: August 12, 2008

Webcast Transcript

ANNOUNCER: Crunched for time when it comes to exercise? Don’t sweat it! You can still squeeze in a full-body workout.

MICHAEL HURLEY, FITNESS EXPERT: You can get a good workout in fifteen, twenty, thirty minutes. Can you do it once a week? No, you're going to have to be more consistent and do it two or three times a week for you to see the benefits of it

ANNOUNCER: Fitness expert Michael Hurley says to get the most bang, focus on the big muscle groups first.

MICHAEL HURLEY, FITNESS EXPERT: You want to engage as many muscles as possible, because the more muscle activity that you engage, the more it's going to raise your metabolism. Your metabolism levels raise, you're going to burn body fat a lot quicker. And you go from a lower body exercise into an upper body exercise. . So, for example, lunge forward, lunge reverse and that’s a lower body activity and then come in with an upper body activity.

ANNOUNCER: Choosing exercises that involve compound movements also saves time.

MICHAEL HURLEY, FITNESS EXPERT: Next exercise, squat, twist and press. We’re going to engage his entire body with this routine. We want to try to engage in everything, legs, glutes, back, biceps, triceps, everything. Torso.

ANNOUNCER: Hurley says exercises that build strength also boost metabolism.

MICHAEL HURLEY, FITNESS EXPERT: And what's the best benefit about strength training is, after you finish doing strength training, your metabolism's going to stay elevated three, four, five, maybe even six hours later, depending on how intense your workout was.

ANNOUNCER: Once you get a great 30-minute routine, should you stick with it for good? Not according to Michael Hurley!

MICHAEL HURLEY, FITNESS EXPERT: Even the best workout that's written, it's only going to be as good for maybe two or three weeks. You always have to change the sets that you do, the weight loads that you do, the rest intervals. Something always has to change.

ANNOUNCER: A personal trainer can help keep you on track,

MICHAEL HURLEY, FITNESS EXPERT: A trainer makes all the difference. I mean, it has to be a well-programmed design, something that's a progression. Within six to eight weeks, you should see, notice and feel a difference between your program, if you have a proper program and you're consistent with it.

ANNOUNCER: Thanks for joining us on today’s Once Daily.