30 minute exercise ideas & general advice

AlexandraWilliams19

Hi All,

I usually give myself a 30 minute slot to exercise after I get home from work everyday & was wondering if anyone has any tips to maximise results and also for variety!!

At home I have an exercise bike & a 8kg kettle bell (+ a floor mat).

I am trying to lose at least 2 stone before my wedding dress fitting in early March 2015 - is this achievable? I am currently on 1200 calories a day and I have an office desk job.

Thanks

dopeysmelly

I don't know whether your weight loss target is achievable. Where the fat goes is very individual (for dress-fitting purposes), and it depends on how much of a deficit you're giving yourself. 1200 isn't enough for most people TBH. I started at 1200 calories and increased gradually over time, but I didn't do any exercise at all, started out at 200 lbs nearly, am short (5'2" and 42 years old). I would make sure you're eating enough so you can stick to your plan. If you deprive yourself too much, you might be tempted to quit, and remember, the wedding is just one day..

The stationary bike is what I always start with at the gym and I love it! I do 30 mins, but every 5 mins I whack the resistance up for 1 or 1.5 mins and go at it hard, then go back down to a more comfortable level.

Don't know about the kettlebell, but maybe try googling some workouts?

SingRunTing

30 Day Shred is a great sub-30 minute workout.

Branstin

Your weight loss will be determined by the amount of calories you consume. If you are using MFP, set your weekly weight loss goal to something reasonable like 1.5 lbs. per week eat back about 50% of your exercise calories to support your workouts. You should also add some weight or resistance training to your routine. Be happy with whatever size you will be on your fitting day even if you don’t drop the entire 2 stones/28 lbs.

AlexandraWilliams19

Thanks for all your help guys. I am only trying to lose a bit of weight as I have bought my wedding dress off the peg & it was a bit tight in places so I just need to lose a bit and tone up slightly also. I have been trying to lose weight for quite a few years now & have stopped & started - I just think my wedding will be a good goal to try and achieve this as well as providing a good motivator for me.

I have been cycling for 30 minutes each night after work with varying resistance as suggested above and I have been using my kettle bell to squat and also some arm toning.

All help, tips & encouragement is greatly received!!

stephdmash

bodbot.com is a great site that will make customized workout plans based on your goals, equipment, how hard you'd like to workout etc. Give it a shot! Lots of variety! And there's an app which makes it convenient and reminds you of your scheduled workouts!

brightsideofpink

To answer the first part of your question- Youtube is great! You can search for videos and type in length. I think fitnessblender also allows you to search by length. It is a good place to get free videos with a decent variety. I mix that up with zumba on my wii.

The second part- weight loss will primarily be about diet. Of course exercise will make that more flexible- freeing up some calories for you to enjoy certain foods which I personally find to make it more sustainable.

0somuchbetter0

SingRunTing wrote: »

30 Day Shred is a great sub-30 minute workout.

I second this

lolly715

0somuchbetter0 wrote: »

SingRunTing wrote: »

30 Day Shred is a great sub-30 minute workout.

I second this

Thirded. Along with almost all of Jillian's workouts, almost all of them are 20-30 minutes.

AlexandraWilliams19

Cheers, guys!

merisaOct3

Yoga Meltdown (another Jillian Michaels program) and LIFT! You can get a great strength workout done in 30 minutes with a few sets of dumbbells/kettlebells. You will be happier with the physique change than by just doing cardio.

kingmikedabeast

Interval and Circuit training are the most time efficient workouts I've tried.

Bike:

1)5 minute warm up (don't tear a muscle, but enough effort to work up a sweat)
2)10 minutes of intervals
-30 seconds high intensity (raise resistance or pedal much faster)
-60 seconds moderate (slow enough to catch your breath, but still making an effort)

Kettle bell and mat:

3) 10 minutes of circuit training
-choose 3-4 exercises, each that will target upper, middle, lower body, complete 10 repetitions of each, and rest for 30 seconds to 60 seconds before going another round.
EXAMPLE:
-Goblet squats/legs
-twists (directly after squats in same stance)/middle
-shoulder press (10 each side)/ upper
-jumping jacks/ cardio to keep heart rate up and burn more calories
-rest

Bike:

4)5 minutes cool down (moderate pace)

Lazz5k

30 day shred is great! I'm doing BBG By Kayla Itines

Maquillage_

Fitnessblender.com have a free five day workout challenge for busy people, which is 5 different videos (one for each day) that are 30 minutes long including a warm up and cool down. If you like these then you can purchase their 4 week or 8 week plan for busy people online, both are really afforable, only 6 dollars and 10 dollars. The plans have the same set up as the challenge, the workouts are 30 minutes or less including a warm up and cool down.

I hope you dont mind me giving some advice on your intake. Im short at only 5'1 (barely!) and live a completely sedentary lifestyle apart from when I have errands to run or intentionally exercise. 1200 calories isnt enough to sustain me! So I really don't think it is enough to sustain a busy bride to be. I suggest rethinking your calorie goal before adding in exercise, and if you don't want to change your calorie goal, I strongly suggest eating back all of your exercise calories and chose to follow a low intensity workout plan.

TavistockToad

P90X3

Spocky

Hi Alex! I do 30 minutes long workouts every day too and I go to the gym once a week to work with heavier weights there. Well, my 30 mins is about strength training with one-handed barbells. My cal intake is about 1200-1300 kcal too which is very low. I would advise decreasing your cal intake by 100 every week and when you start losing weight, keep at that cal intake level.
50 high knee leg raises, push ups, triceps, biceps, shoulder, push ups and high knee raises again... something like this. I watch tv while doing this routine.

AmmB23

I recommend a Jillian Michaels type cardio workout (and definitely find a few you like to rotate through so you don't get bored!) and then, if you can, use your exercise bike while watching TV or reading. I find that works for me so I can maximize my workout time and not feel too bad about watching TV!

marimeg

Look up Leslie Sansone on Youtube. There are a lot of walk-at-home videos that are of varying intensities. I find her a really supportive work out person to watch and her videos are fun!