This is your 10-minute quick-I-need-a-workout workout. Some days 10-minutes is just all that you have. But hey, that’s ok. 10 minutes is better than no minutes.
On Saturday my parents and younger brother were heading out early in the morning to drive to Sioux Falls for my sister’s birthday. I knew I wasn’t going to get a workout in, so I put this together as something we could all do quick in the morning before sitting in a car for 3.5 hours. My dad opted out, because he had to go “drive around and check things out” around the farm.
This workout consists of 10 exercises that you perform back-to-back for 1 minute each. It works your upper body, lower body, core and even includes a few cardio bursts. You can do this workout anywhere and the only equipment you need is some sort of timer – a stopwatch, a phone, an app, a microwave timer, whatever is convenient!
This is what you’ll do:
You may think, “10 minutes? What is even the point?” And if you do, I can totally see where you’re coming from, but I promise that his workout will still challenge you (Pushups for a minute? Not fun.) as long as you push yourself to work and make those 10 minutes worth it.
Plus, if 10 minutes is all that you have, then 10 minutes is what you should take.
So on Saturday morning at about 7:15am my mom, brother, and I started this workout. The first minute was spent doing jumping jacks while trying to stop laughing over the fact that we were doing jumping jacks… in a our dining room… while Taylor Swift played in the background. We were quite the sight. Another giggle-attack started during the lunges and then another during the pushups. The laughter just helped us burn a few extra calories! Regardless of the all the giggles, we did it and all felt better for it.
Besides being short and effective another bonus of this workout is that you don’t need to get re-ready afterwards. You’ll get your heart pumping, but you won’t be drenched in sweat. So if you need to squeeze in something during your lunch break, between work and happy hour, or even just on a super busy day, you won’t need to spend a lot of time to refresh yourself afterwards as you probably would after this workout or this workout.
This is perfect for all you business travelers out there! You can easily do this in your hotel room before heading out for the day or after work before going to dinner.
And what if you have more than 10 minutes? Do it twice. Or three times. Or add in a minute of burpees. Or a round of intervals on the treadmill. So many great options here!
The next time you don’t think your schedule will allow you to fit in a full on workout, try to at least carve out 10 minutes of time for this one! You won’t regret it.
As always, if you have any questions about the exercises feel free to ask them in the comments.