Confidently Single

The more exercise you can fit in, the better. Unfortunately, there are 24 hours in a single day and oftentimes, with our hectic schedules, it is difficult to find any time to exercise at all. I think twenty minutes a day is not impossible. The key is to maximize each one of those minutes with a series of target exercises. The best part is, you can do them all at home!

Things You Will Need:

• A jump rope (not a skipping rope from the kids department!)
• A set of dumbbells (start at 5-8lbs each)
• An exercise/yoga mat (the rubber ones won’t  cause you to slide around)
• A medicine ball (5-10lbs)
• A stop watch to track the time or a heart rate monitor-which I think is the best exercise equipment you can buy to monitor your progress.

The Cycle:

• Start with a good warm up of jumping rope (3-5 minutes). Monitor your heart rate.
• Proceed to 10 pushups (1 minute)One set of 10 abdominal crunches (1 minute)
• One set of 10 abdominal twists using the medicine ball (great for those love handles)(1 minute)
• One set of 10 bicep curls using dumbbells (1 minute)
• One set of 10 triceps extensions, using dumbbells (1 minute)
• One set of 20 lunges, using dumbbells (2 minutes). This will bring up your heart rate again.
• One set of 20 squats, using dumbbells (2 minutes)
• One set of 10 shoulder press using dumbbells (1 minute)
• One set of chest press using dumbbells (1 minute)

If you have time, repeat the cycle. This series of movements will force you to stay in your target heart rate zone*, which allows you to use up more energy (fat). Since you are targeting on most of the major muscle groups, you will get an overall toned look.

Tags: 20 minute workout, cycle, exercise, heart rate

This entry was posted on Monday, January 12th, 2009 at 3:20 pm and is filed under Health and Fitness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.