Blast Calories and Build Muscle in 30 Minutes

30 Minutes to Blast Fat

Whether you only have 30 minutes to get in a workout today or you know you’re going to have a busy day tomorrow you want to get to the core of it all and get the most of your time.

The important thing to remember? With the right workout routine, you don’t have to sacrifice any of your goals – even if you’re short on time. This 30 minute workout will boost your metabolism, blast a ton of calories, and conditions your muscles. You couldn’t ask for more right?

So What’s the Trick?

If workout efficiency is your biggest concern, it may be easier than you think to maximize your time. Here are a few techniques for saving time:

• Circuit Training – One of the best ways you can burn calories while hitting all your target muscles is circuit training. Rather than doing a few sets at each station, circuit training gets you moving between single sets of different exercises without resting in between. This will keep your heart rate up and the calories burning.

• High Intensity Interval Training – Interval training is another strategy to keep you moving. Here the goal is to engage in a series of alternating high and low intensity exercises, often targeting many muscle groups at a time. Read my article on High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) here.

• Muscle Confusion – A number of muscle confusion techniques, like supersets or drop sets, are a great way to fit more reps into a block of time. They’re another way to keep you moving while minimizing the breaks you take.  Supersets involve doing two different exercises back to back without taking rest between the exercises.  Drop sets are the reverse of the traditional method, where you start out with a heavy weight and drop the weight with each set until you get to complete exhaustion and have to stop. Both are great at boosting your metabolism.

30 Minute Fat-Burning, Muscle-Building Workout

This workout incorporates some of the methods outlined above. You’re going to keep moving for these 30 minutes, maximizing your output and minimizing your rests.

Move from one exercise to the next, adjusting the weight and even reps as needed, depending on your goals. A lot of these moves involve total body exercises, so you’re targeting a lot of muscle groups here. This is a total body workout, so it’s great any day of the week.

Here’s what to do…

• Jump Rope (warm up), 2 minutes
• Walking Lunges with Shoulder Press, 3 minutes (view exercise)
• Bench Step-Ups with Dumbbells, 2 minutes (view exercise)
• Side Plank, 45 seconds each side (view exercise)
• Hip Lift, 15 reps (view exercise)
• Lower Ab Bicycle Crunches, 15 reps (view exercise)
• Woodchopper, 1 minute each side (view exercise)
• Bent-Over Barbell Row, 1 set (view exercise)
• Bent-Over Barbell Bicep Curl, 1 set (view exercise)
• Oblique Crunches, 15 reps per side (view exercise)
• Lateral Lunges, 10 reps per side (view exercise)
• Knee Tucks on Bench, 1 minute (view exercise)
• Russian Twist, 30 seconds (view exercise)
• Superman (hold for 15 seconds), 3 reps (view exercise)
• Jumping Jacks (cool down), 1 minute

There you have it! As you can see, you’ve got to real work for this one. You’ll get in a little rest between exercises as you set up each station, but otherwise you’re going to be working up a serious sweat.

Make sure you stay hydrated throughout this 30-minute workout, and fuel up beforehand. I also recommend finishing this one off with a muscle-fueling protein shake. Check out my Protein Shake Recipes here, or one of these 3 Fruit Smoothie Fast Recovery Recipes.

Have any questions or feedback about how to Blast Calories and Build Muscle in 30 Minutes? Please leave a comment below…