Pressed for Time? Try this Short but Intense Cardio Weightlifting Workout!

Since I’ve been exercising for a good while, I’ve found some ways to shorten my workouts, but they are still extremely intense!  I still break it down into 3 phases:

• Phase #1:  Warm-up on the treadmill (I usually do about 5 minutes)
• Phase #2:  Dynamic Stretching
• Phase #3:  The workout!

I separate the Phase #3 workout portion into 4 or 5 stations.  I typically have 2 exercises per station, which are called supersets.

For the workout, you spend 5 minutes on each station.  10 reps for each exercise is called 1 set.  The goal is to do as many supersets at each station in 5 minutes, with 3 supersets being the minimum goal.

When the 5 minutes are up, you move to the next station.

This is a workout that is done typically in 45 minutes max!

Recent Workout

Here’s an example of a recent workout.  I did it the morning after celebrating my 20^th wedding anniversary.  We celebrated at PF Changs Chinese Bistro – I had the Almond/Cashew Chicken.  I ate too much (& still brought some home) – wow I don’t say that very often (LOL!) and I ate at 9:30 pm.  But I digress…

This is what I did after warm-up on the treadmill & dynamic stretching:

Station #1:  Jump rope.  Did not superset it, but did 5 sets of 50 jumps.  On even sets, I jumped on one leg, alternating legs on every 10 jumps.

Station #2:  Stomach:  20 Knee tucks, 20 Russian twists with a 10 pound dumbbell = 1 superset.  Did 5 supersets.

Station #3:  Burpees with push-up combination.  Did 3 supersets.

Station #4:  Dumbbell rows (10 with each hand) and 20 bench jumps.  A bench jump is when I jump on each side of a weightlifting bench while grasping it with my hands.   I did 5 supersets. 

Because of time, I only did 4 stations.  This entire workout (including treadmill & stretching) lasted 35 minutes!