Hit It and Quit It

It’s one of those days again: You’ve got a busier than normal work schedule ahead of you, a holiday party after that and then, well, the day’s over. Normally, you’d be able to find 45 minutes to an hour to spend in the gym, but not today. So what do you do?

Have a quickie. We’re not talking about that kind of quickie (though the cardio benefits should not be overlooked). We’re suggesting you get in and out of the gym quicker than ever — and still get a great pump — with one of the following 20-minutes-or-less workouts. They may not be the best muscle-building workouts you’ve ever had, but they’ll tide your muscles over until you’ve got more time for a full workout.

Tough But Timely Upper-Body Workout
Being short on time doesn’t have to mean going light. But if you want to throw around some real weight, you’ll have to limit the number of exercises you do. This upper-body blast sticks to basic movements that will hit maximal muscle fibers in a short amount of time. And if you have a few more minutes before it’s time to leave, include a few supersets for arms.

How to do it: Perform all exercises as straight sets. Rest one minute between all sets.

Muscle Group	Exercise	Sets	Reps
Chest	Incline Barbell Press	4	6-10
Back	Barbell Bent-Over Row	4	6-10
Shoulders If there's still time to spare...	Arnold Press	4	6-10
Biceps/Triceps	EZ-Bar Curl superset with Lying EZ-Bar Extension	3 3	8-12 8-12

 

Upper-Body Dumbbell-Only Circuit

One of the best ways to maximize training efficiency is to minimize the amount of time you spend walking from one exercise to the next. In this workout, you won’t move from the dumbbell rack. Plus, it’s a circuit, which means you’ll be lifting more than you’re resting.

How to do it: Perform the three exercises back-to-back-to-back with minimal rest. After completing all three exercises (one circuit), rest one minute. Complete as many circuits as possible in 20 minutes.

Muscle Group	Exercise	Reps
Chest	Flat-Bench Dumbbell Press	10
Back	Dumbbell Bent-Over Row	10
Shoulders	Dumbbell Overhead Press	10

 

Tough But Timely Lower-Body Workout

Who says you can’t train legs in 20 minutes? Sure, it won’t be your most hypertrophy-producing workout ever, but if you can find a power rack, a barbell and some plates, these tried-and-true moves will have your legs screaming in no time.

How to do it: Perform all exercises with straight sets, resting no more than one minute between sets. On squats and lunges, you’ll probably need to go lighter than normal.

Muscle Group	Exercise	Sets	Reps
Quads/Glutes/Hams	Barbell Squat Barbell Lunge	3 3	12 10 pre leg
Hams/Calves	romanian Deadlift superset with Standing Calf Raise	3 3	12 15

 

Full-Body Timed Workout

To make sure you don’t run late, you’ll do each exercise in this workout for a specified amount of time, not sets and reps. Machine exercises were chosen to avoid time spent racking free weights. Machines also use fewer stabilizing muscles, which helps overload the target muscles that much more.

How to do it: For each exercise, choose a weight that causes you to fail at 10 to 12 reps and do as many reps as possible in four minutes, resting when necessary. Rest one minute between each exercise.

Muscle Group	Exercise	Time	Reps	Rest
Chest	Chest Press Machine	4 min.	max	1 min.
Legs	Leg Press	4 min.	max	1 min.
Back	Machine Row	4 min.	max	1 min.
Shoulders	Machine Overhead Press	4 min.	max	1 min

 

Quick and Dirty Back Workout

Sure, you’ve probably squeezed in a 20-minute back workout before, but how many times did that back workout include five different exercises and 15 total sets? Pull-ups followed by two pairings of pre-exhaust supersets keep the training pace quick and the muscle fibers of your back exhausted.

How to do it: Rest one minute between sets of pull-ups as well as between each superset. To save time on the first superset, keep the dumbbells you’re using for pullbacks right next to the barbell you’re rowing with.

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Wide-Grip Pull-Up	3	to failure
Streight-Arm Dumbbell Pullback sperset with Barbell Bent-Over Row	3 3	10 8
Straight-Arm Pulldown superset with Lat Pulldown	3 3	10 12

 

 Quick and Dirty Chest Workout

 

Two pressing moves, some dumbbell flyes and cable crossovers — with a set of push-ups to failure after each exercise — will have your pecs feeling like you spent a lot longer than 20 minutes training them. Your chest will be hit from all angles — and with high and low reps — for pure exhaustion.

How to do it: Rest one minute between sets of incline presses and Hammer Strength presses, and increase weight each set. Rest only 30 seconds between sets of flyes and crossovers. Rest one minute after sets of push-ups.

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Incline Dumbbell Press	3	12, 10, 6	1 min.
Push-Up	1	to failure	1 min.
Hammer Strength Chest Press	3	12, 10, 6	1 min.
Push-Up	1	to failure	1 min.
Flat-Bench Dumbbell Flye	2	10	30 sec.
Push-Up	1	to failure	30 sec.
Cable Crossover	2	12	30 sec.
Push-Up	1	to failure	30 sec.

20-Minute Arm Blast

It doesn’t take long to get a great arm pump, one that will lead to bigger guns in the near future. In this workout, you’ll hit two big moves with straight sets before graduating to supersets to finish things off.

How to do it: Rest one minute between straight sets of close-grip bench presses and barbell curls as well as between supersets. On dumbbell curls and extensions, perform reps with both arms simultaneously to speed things along.

Muscle Group	Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Triceps	Close-Grip Bench Press	3	6-8	1 min.
Biceps	Barbell Curl	3	6-8	1 min.
Biceps/Triceps	Dumbbell Curl superset with Lying Dumbbell Extension	3 3	8-10 8-10	- 1 min.
Triceps/Biceps	Cable Pressdown superset with Cable Curl	2 2	10-12 10-12	- 1 min.

 

Fast and Furious Fat-Burning Intervals

Twenty minutes is certainly enough time to get your cardio in, but low-intensity, steady-state cardio won’t induce nearly the fat-burning effect that high-intensity interval training will. This short but intense workout allows you to combine weight training and cardio to get leaner in no time.

Exercise

Choose one of the following: a lifting exercise like power cleans, dumbbell snatches, step-ups or jump squats (using light weight); a calisthenic exercise like jumping jacks, burpees or jumping rope; or a plyometric move like box jumps.

Workout

Warm-Up: two to three low-rep sets

Alternate between 30 seconds worth of reps and 30 seconds of rest for 15 minutes

Cool-down (low intensity): two to three minutes of walking or jogging

 

10-Minute Abs

So maybe you have even less than 20 minutes to spare but still want to get some kind of workout — anything — accomplished. Try this 10-minute midsection meltdown, which can be done either at the gym or at home.

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Double Crunch tri-set with Reverse Crunch tri-set with Standard Crunch	2 2 2	12 15 20	- - 30 sec.
Weighted Sit-Up*	2	20	30 sec.
Plank	2	30 sec.	30 sec.

 

Rest 30 seconds between each tri-set as well as between sets of sit-ups and planks.

*If you’re at home and don’t have a weight plate or dumbbell, add about 25 pounds of weight via a small bag filled with magazines or books.

 

Timesaving Strategies

 • Be flexible, resourceful Don’t waste precious time waiting for the bench press to open up. Drag an adjustable bench over to a power rack and set up there or do Smith-machine presses. If the lat pulldown you were hoping to use is taken, go find a pulldown Cybex machine or switch gears and do barbell or dumbbell rows.

• Go big When time is of the essence, don’t focus too much on isolation (single joint) exercises. Stick mostly to compound (multi-joint moves), which hit more muscle mass and give you more “bang for your buck.”

• Rest little Standing around resting between sets isn’t the best way to maximize your time when you’re in a time crunch. Employ circuits, supersets, tri-sets, drop sets and the like as much as possible. These techniques help increase training volume while decreasing rest.

• Train at off hours If you’re hoping to get a fast, efficient workout with few interruptions, going to the gym between 5 and 7 p.m. (lifting rush hour) probably isn’t the best idea. If you can swing it, go very early in the morning, late at night or in the middle of the afternoon when the place is dead and you can bang out your sets unimpeded.