Don’t let work commitments cut short your ability to progress your training. These three workouts will ensure you make the most of every session, no matter how full your diary.
The best tip for training when you are balancing work, life and working out is to set yourself a training session where the time is fixed. This ensures you squeeze as much effort into your limited window as possible. It also means there is a clear start and finish to your workout, so if you are planning the rest of your day, you know exactly how long you will be on the gym floor.
The king of fixed time workouts is the AMRAP. It stands for: As Many Rounds As Possible. You simply choose the amount of time you are going to work for, pick a small circuit of exercises and work your way around until the time runs out.
10, 20 or 30 minute efforts are a good place to start, and they can be joined together if a meeting suddenly cancels and you find yourself with more time to train. It doesn’t have to be a round number, either. If you know you have 18 minutes to work out, then set yourself an 18-minute AMRAP.
With the time fixed, now it’s your mission to squeeze as much work into this time as possible by completing as many rounds in the given time as possible. That means completing each exercise quickly, but also transitioning between exercises with minimum or no rest.
A good rule of thumb for selecting exercise combinations in an AMRAPs is to select one compound movement, one cardio movement and one weighted carry. You can use the below as inspiration, but if you’re building a workout yourself, then remember the 3C’s: compound, cardio, carry.
30 minute AMRAP
4 reps Barbell Push Press (20/40kg)
4 kcals Air Bike
Farmers Carry 20m
After each round of push press and air bike, increase the reps and calorie burn by 4. So 4 and 4, becomes 8 and 8, becomes 12 and 12, and so on.
20 minute AMRAP
40 steps Overhead Kettlebell Carry
20 kcals Air Bike
10 Wall Balls
10 Minute AMRAP
24 metres D-Ball Carry
12 kcals Rowing
8 Dumbbell Thrusters