5 quick and effective exercises for busy people

Juggling a full time job, family, and alone time can be challenging, so we've picked the top five exercises that you can fit into your busy schedule to guarantee you get your daily steps in! Photo: Digital Onion

With age comes responsibility, and free time to commit to your own healthy workouts may show up few and far between. Work, school runs, social activities with loved ones, and the all-important me-time can all contribute to cutting down any time available for a strenuous daily exercise session.

It’s a good thing, then, that with innovations and technological advancements, humans are also continuously discovering quicker fitness regimes with explosive results. Below, we’ve compiled a list of five such exercise packages for full-time mums, workaholics, and anyone else who has a tightly packed daily schedule.

1. Interval training (HIIT):

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Otherwise known as high-intensity interval training (HIIT), it requires rotating between sub-sectioned exercises that are carried out at medium-level effort, with an interval of maximum velocity in between: creating a complete workout.

An example of this would be to jog for three minutes, before sprinting for 30 seconds, and repeating the procedure for a set duration. You’re constantly pushing the boundaries of what your body is telling you it possibly can do during the intervals, which is why HIIT training is revered as the ultimate quick exercise.

2. Calisthenics:

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Calisthenics is the name given to a form of exercise that is often billed as the most organic means of strength conditioning training: using your own bodyweight to workout. There is no set routine for how to conduct calisthenics, but this ability to mix and match is what makes it perfect for short surges throughout the day.

The easiest way to perform calisthenics is to find a large, open space and just start doing some push-ups, sit-ups, and flutter kicks. As you build more strength, or if you already feel ready to do so, add some squats, jumping jacks, high knees, mountain climbers, and burpees to your list. Furnish your calisthenic work-out with some pull-ups, dips, leg-raises, L-sit holds, and bodyweight curls when you feel like you’re hitting optimal form.

3. Dumbbell exercises:

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Not too long ago, a proper set of dumbbells and an exercise bench would cost you an arm and a leg – but thankfully, this is no longer the case. Purchasing the pair of these will allow you to do a multitude of dumbbell-related exercises that, like the rest of the things on this list, can be done at varying intensities for varying amounts of time, at any point during the day.

Some exercises include bench presses, shoulder presses, bicep curls, triceps extensions, lifted squats, and calf raises, to name a few. As stated earlier, calisthenics is the most natural means of increasing your strength, but dumbbell workouts are the most traditional way of strength training: why else do you think bodybuilders mould their day around the times that they can hit the iron?

4. Resistance bands:

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Resistance bands are increasing in popularity at a rapid rate: especially amidst the Coronavirus pandemic. They are also loosely related to HIIT training and calisthenics, in that you’re using these popular, rubberised bands to train at high velocity levels whilst countering the weight of your own limbs to grow in strength.

It’s also an excellent tool to help increase your flexibility. Resistance bands are available in both a single-loop and tube variation designs. You also get them in several stretch types, which increase in pulling difficulty. You can perform the same exercises you do with dumbbells: but the parting difference between the two is how easily transportable resistance bands are.

5. Kickboxing:

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Much like the aforementioned dumbbell and bench duo, punching bags have also become more affordable to people, with a huge variety of weight and designs now available to interested parties. Kickboxing is perhaps the most enjoyable pick from this bunch and guarantees to work up a sweat within minutes: an ode to the calorie-shredding X that comes with the popular self-defence sport.

You don’t need to be educated on how to kickbox or tutored every step of the way: which is another reason as to why it is a brilliant self-taught mechanism to know. You should pay close attention to your footwork and practice two-three minutes of shadow-boxing before, between, and after hitting the bag. YouTube offers plenty of tutorials for those who want to learn new techniques and tricks, so you’ll never run out of new things to practice.