No Time to Work Out? This 30-Minute Routine Should Do the Trick

Between nurturing a busy career and a thriving home life, and perhaps cultivating a fulfilling relationship, who has time to exercise? We all know the benefits of working out, and yet, prepping, going to the gym, and putting in the hours can sometimes feel like a chore.

The secret to getting started, and going at it regularly, is to make exercise as easy to sneak into our daily lives as possible. That’s the only way we can keep going, and the only way we get the most benefit from working out.

All you need is at least 30 minutes a day most days of the week. The key is to mix routines at the highest intensity and speed you can tolerate with workouts at your usual speed to get your heart pumping.

To tone your muscles and torch calories, it’s crucial to engage in resistance training: You will be able to compensate for the 10% loss of lean muscle by the time you are 40, and makeup for the 100 fewer calories that your body burns at each decade after 30. Because of these benefits in improving muscle tone, resistance training is an integral part of Optimagenics Age Management Program, an anti-aging program that aims to help patients get and stay healthy well into their old age.

If you haven’t had any resistance training before, or you are starting off with poundage to lose, start slow and work with an age management clinic so you can build up intensity over time.

Here are some routines to get you started. Aim for 20 minutes with all the sets combined. Afterward, take a water break to rehydrate, then continue with a cardio routine.

• Work out your thighs with these sets.

Beginner Squats

Using an exercise ball placed on your lower back, stand against a wall with your feet out front and hip-width apart. Maintain an upright torso while bending at the knees and hips to lower your body. Drop your glutes toward the floor, and gradually move back up to the starting position. Keep your knees over your heels. Perform 10 times.

Squats

Beginner squats are to prepare you for a more intense version: Stand straight with your feet shoulder-width apart, slowly bend your knees, lower your glutes as though sitting down, and keep your knees over your ankles and not too far forward. If you want to work out more muscles in the same amount of time, use a dumbbell in each hand: Push the weights overhead while rising from the squat position. Perform 10 times.

Forward lunge

Stand straight with your feet hip-width apart. Take one big step with your left leg, making sure that your front knee aligns with your ankle and your back knee points to the floor. Slowly lower your body toward the floor, and rise with a straight back to go back to the starting position. Repeat with the right leg. Perform 10 times on each leg.

• To workout the hamstrings, perform the deadlift.

Using free weights or a bar, stand straight with your feet hip-width apart. Then bend your body at the hips, pushing the hips backward as you drop your upper body parallel to the floor. Do not lock your knees as you keep your legs straight. Make sure your spine is in neutral and your back is level. Then lower the weight to below your knees, and gradually return to starting position. Perform 10 times.

• Work out your core, glutes and hamstrings with “bridge.”

The core is one of the more challenging areas to trim as this is where some of the most resistant bulges in the body can be found. You can start deflating the ‘spare tire’ around your midsection with this move. Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet hip-width apart. Then push your spine off the floor with your tailbone so that your body forms a diagonal line (bridge) from the shoulders to your knees. Return to starting position.

For stubborn fat along the flanks, slim down the area with a non-invasive fat freezing procedure called CoolSculpting. It’s an FDA-cleared, non-invasive treatment performed in a Singapore aesthetic clinic, which employs an applicator to cool an area of unwanted fat such as those found in the flanks, the upper and lower abdomen, the outer and inner thighs, and even the back fat and armpit fat that bulges around the bra edges. Fat cells respond to low temperatures differently than surrounding tissues, and they are subsequently eliminated by the body using natural pathways. The surrounding tissues are unharmed so you can resume your activities after this fat reduction treatment.

If you want to target your triceps, hold light weights with your arms lifted toward the ceiling as you raise your hips. Lower the weights to the floor by bending your elbows and putting the weights just above on either side of your head. Perform 10 times.

• Do push-ups for the chest and core.

Drop to the floor on all fours, with your hands placed wider than your shoulders. Point toes on the floor so your shoulder to feet form makes a smooth line. Pull your body down toward the floor by bending your elbows, and pull up by straightening your elbows. If this is too challenging, workout with your knees on the floor instead of toes. Perform 10 times. This is to tone your triceps, core muscles, chest and shoulders.

For flabby triceps and sagging skin in the arms that can’t be muscled into compliance, CoolSculpting in Singapore can also be used to treat ‘bat wings.’ A laser clinic in Scotts Road, Singapore uses CoolMini by Zeltiq to treat these small pockets of resistant bulges.

• Strengthen your back and biceps with bent-over row. This should work all the major muscles of your upper back while working out your biceps.

Put one knee and one hand on the same side of your body on a bench. Bend over with your back flat, lift a weight toward your hips until the upper arm is a little above horizontal. Gradually lower weight to starting position. Perform 10 times.

• Work out your shoulder muscles with a shoulder press performed either sitting or standing. Choose a bench with a back rest to support your back.

Bend your elbows with weights on your shoulders. Then gradually reach toward the ceiling, making sure that the elbows are under the hands and the shoulders are away from the ears. Then slowly pull down to the starting position. Perform 10 times.

• To work out the upper back, do the cable pull down.

On the cable machine, sit with a neutral spine, and hold the bar with arms extended. Then slowly pull the bar down, without leaning back, past the face and toward the chest. As the cable goes back up, control the weight. Perform 10 times.

• Do the bicycle crunch to tone your core and abdominals.

Lie down with your back on the floor. Pull right knee toward the chest, and curl the upper body toward the knees. Support your head with your hands as you gradually rotate upper body to the right as you draw the right knee and reach the left leg out. Then work out the other side, this time pulling the left knee toward the chest and rotating to the left while extending the right leg out. Perform 10 times.

After your water break, do a cardiovascular training for at least 10 minutes. You can do this on a treadmill, stair-stepper or elliptical trainer. The goal is to vary the intensity of your cardio workout by doing intervals: Do 30 seconds of the highest speed or stiffest resistance you can tolerate, and mix with a 30-second workout routine of the same using normal speed. Keep moving back and forth with these intervals until you have performed for 10 minutes.