How to Build a 30 Minute Workout
How to Build a 30 Minute Workout
Life gets busy sometimes – have a plan for those days.
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It took me weeks to settle on the name of this newsletter. It was a detail I could not land on — I had a list of ongoing ideas that I added to at night when I couldn’t sleep. After some (a lot of) workshopping, I found it: something is better than nothing. I wasn’t even trying to think of ideas (isn’t that how it always happens?) when it came out of my mouth during a training session with a client.
We were talking about how busy the next couple weeks was going to be and the resulting concern of “not doing enough” to maintain progress. My response:
“Our schedules are never going to be perfect. The conditions are never going to be perfect. There will always be something: a party, holidays, work gets busy, vacation, etc. We hunker down and do the workouts to the best of our ability when we have a consistent schedule.
And when life gets crazy — which it inevitably will — we don’t throw our hands up and quit. We do what we can.
Because something is better than nothing.”
How to Create a 30 Minute Workout
First and foremost, you need to know that this is not a cardio workout. This is a structure for a 30 minute strength workout. It is more fast paced than a more traditional lifting session because of the time constraint — but the goal is not to be a puddle on the floor when you’re done.
Don’t treat this workout like an AMRAP (as many reps as possible) or a HIIT class. Moving faster is not always better. Getting in more reps for the sake of more reps is not better if those reps aren’t done well.
I have put this structure together to make it as time efficient as possible because when you only have 30 minutes to lift, every minute counts.
Start the workout — execute your movements well — feel proud you did something even though the day is crazy — and move on.
Minute 0-5: THE WARM UP
Pick something aerobic and execute at 60-70% exertion. This can be a jog on the treadmill, assault bike, rower, ski erg, or stationary bike. The goal is not to make you tired; we are looking to elevate the heart rate and get some newly oxygenated blood to your muscles for lifting.
Minute 5-20: THE LIFT
This is for the big lifts — otherwise known as compound lifts. They involve movement from multiple joints of the body at the same time. You will get the biggest bang for your buck by incorporating multiple muscles at once. This is why it takes up the majority of the 30 minutes.
Pick one upper body and one lower body exercise and aim for 8-10 reps of each at 80-85% exertion. Alternate between the two for the entire portion of this workout.
UPPER BODY COMPOUND LIFTS:
Bench Press (Incline or Flat)
Dumbbell Row
Landmine Press
Pull-up
Seated Cable Row
Military Press
Pushup
Lat Pulldown
LOWER BODY COMPOUND LIFTS:
Bulgarian Split Squat
Reverse Lunge
Deadlift
Hip Thrust
Goblet Squat
Leg Press
Back Squat
Minute 20-30: THE PUMP
This section is higher tempo and more reps which will result in that “burning” sensation in your muscles and an awesome pump. The exercises you choose in this section should be more isolated, single muscle groups, ideally with dumbbells. It allows you to move from one exercise straight to the next without wasting much time.
Pick 3 exercises (1 being lower body) and execute the following for the entire portion of this workout. Each circuit ends up being 2 minutes, so you will do it 5 times in total.
30 seconds: Exercise A (Upper)
30 seconds: Exercise B (Lower)
30 seconds: Exercise C (Upper)
30 seconds: Rest
UPPER BODY:
Bicep Curl
Renegade Row
Tricep Extension
Lateral Raise
Bent Over Row
Shoulder Press
Tricep Kickback
Standing Bent Over Reverse Fly
LOWER BODY:
Walking Lunge
Reverse Lunge
Squat
Deadlift
Thruster
EXAMPLE WORKOUT:
Minute 0-5: Treadmill jog
Minute 5-20: Flat Dumbbell Bench Press & Barbell Deadlift
Minute 20-30: Bicep Curl, Walking Lunge, Shoulder Press
