Spend Hours at the Gym? Stop! Here's How to Workout at Home in Less Time & Still Get Results by Dawn Taylor

You don’t need to spend hours at the gym to see results. Getting your heart rate up and pushing yourself during a shorter workout will provide results if you do this just a few times a week. No fitness equipment is required, and you don’t even need a gym membership!

Here is a circuit workout that you can do with your own body weight. Make sure you are pushing as hard as you can during the circuit, as this is where you get your heart rate up and will get the calorie burn. You will be pushing hard when you have a hard time holding a conversation.

Do a five-minute dynamic warm-up with high knees, jumping jacks, butt kicks – anything that keeps your body moving during the warm-up. This warms up your muscles and prepares it for the workout.

Set a timer on your phone and do this eight-minute circuit four times. Rest for 45 seconds after each set. Go through each set as many times as you can within the eight-minute circuit.

• 20 jumping jacks
• 20 mountains climbers
• 20 planks hip dips
• 20 jump squats (touch the floor and jump high)
• 20 walking lunges
  

After completing the circuit four times, do some static stretching with each stretch being 30 to 60 seconds in duration. 

How to Do Each Exercise

Jumping Jacks: Make sure you extend the arms high above your head, and if you add a clap it requires force and adds to the exertion.

Mountain Climbers: Start in a traditional plank – shoulders over hands and weight on just your toes. With your core engaged, bring your right knee forward under your chest with the toes just off the ground. Return to your basic plank. Switch legs, bringing the left knee forward. Keep switching legs and begin to pick up the pace until it feels a little like running in place in a plank position. Continue "running" in your plank for one minute.

Plank Hip Dips: From an elbow plank, slowly rotate the spine to lower your left hip to just above the floor (about 1 to 2 inches from the ground). Come back to elbow plank. Now lower the right hip toward the floor. This counts as one rep.

Jump Squats: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Start by doing a regular squat, then engage your core and jump up explosively. When you land, lower your body back into the squat position to complete one rep. Land as quietly as possible, which requires control.

Walking Lunges: Stand upright, feet together, and take a controlled step forward with your right leg, lowering your hips toward the floor by bending both knees to 90-degree angles. The back knee should point toward, but not touch, the ground, and your front knee should be directly over the ankle. Press your right heel into the ground and push off with your left foot to bring your left leg forward, stepping with control into a lunge on the other side.

Be sure to check with your doctor before starting any new exercise program.

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