The Quickie Workout: Is It Worth Your Time?

By Team Beachbody

It seems that no matter how much resolve and motivation we start a program with, at some point there comes a day where working out just isn't on the top rung of priorities. It keeps being pushed aside and pretty soon it's 10 pm and the dishes aren't even done. No time for the 1-hour workout that was scheduled, but maybe time to squeeze in 10 minutes of something. But is there a point to even trying?

Let's start with a definitive answer as whether or not to embark on your 10-minute journey: as Nike would say, "just do it."

Even if your workout is unplanned and unorganized, you will absolutely benefit by elevating your heart rate - even if it's just for 10 minutes. While this may not have much overall fitness benefit, 10 minutes is plenty long for your body to elevate its metabolism instead of staying in couch potato mode.

As far as interfering with your planned workout, treat a quickie workout day as a "skipped" day and get back to your total body workout schedule the next day. And if you're focusing on getting results in a specific area, like the abs or thighs, focusing ten minutes on that area is a far better alternative to doing nothing at all. What you can't get credit for, however, is substantial calorie expenditure - so watch what you eat on those "quickie" days.

Here are a few tips for quickies:
1. Since going to the gym should be out of the question with time constraints, you will want to do something that doesn't require any travel, set-up, or even make you sweat too much. Here's where Great Abs Guaranteed! and The Ab Ripper tapes come in handy; Warm up by marching in place as the video gets started. Do the tape, then stretch as it rewinds. Abdominal muscles have a higher percentage of red (or slow twitch) muscle fibers than the rest of the body and can be worked more often, so they are a good choice for filler workouts.
2. Here's a quickie program for Power 90^® people: 1 minute of march-in-place to warm up, followed by 2 minutes of lunges, 2 minutes of squats, 2 minutes of push-ups, 1 minute of dips, and 2 minutes of stretching. This will provide a quick little pump.
3. If you know that you're going to have a busy day, try to plan ahead. You want to elevate your heart rate, but not sweat too much. Try walking briskly to each destination that day; up the stairs to work, out to lunch, to the next meeting, etc. This will require enough planning to make sure you've got proper footwear for the day. If you have some other down time, use it to stretch. Brisk walking on pavement can make your muscles tight, but a few minutes of sporadic stretching can do wonders.
4. STRETCH. Even doing nothing but light stretching can greatly improve a missed day. If you're so frazzled that you just want to plop in front of the tube, get down on the floor and stretch. Slow and easy stretching can turn a wasted night watching "Survivor" into a great recovery day.
5. Do something, anything, and see how it goes. Beachbody.com co-founder Jon Congdon summed this up best when he said, "There are so many days when I just don't want to workout. So I make a deal with myself to do just 10 minutes because I can always find that much time. Once I'm 10 minutes in, I usually feel so much better that I just keep going."