Effective Weight Loss in 30 Minutes a Day

We all know that staying healthy is important for our health, but how do you find the time in our already extremely busy lifestyles? It takes at least ten minutes to get to the gym, by the time we are done with our workout another thirty or more minutes is gone and we still have to shower and change and before you know it, it has been almost two hours. That's not a realistic amount of time for many people so we have figured out a way to keep that down to just thirty minutes a day and it's not even going to cost you a gym membership.

The first part is easy to remember. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we jog. Before you even get in the shower, throw on some shorts and t-shirt and start your timer. No need to drive anywhere; just jog right in your neighborhood. Jogging is a form of exercise that is classified as cardiovascular. Cardiovascular exercises primarily target your heart but more than that, they start working and exercising almost every muscle in our body. You know if you are out of shape if within the first few minutes you already feel out of breath. Don't give up. I promise it will get easier. Thirty minutes is actually the perfect amount of time to jog because you really don't start working that heart until about twenty into the jog. Those ten minutes of your heart pumping at the elevated pace do wonders to bring your heart back into shape. Another benefit of jogging is you may notice that your self-confidence is also increased and as a result your effectiveness in the workplace and even at home is going to be noticeably higher.

Tuesday and Thursday is your muscle building. To start we will do an exercise that we all know how to do, the pushup. What is most important here is that you do them right, it's better that you only do three pushups correctly than to do ten incorrectly, you are only kidding yourself. Don't worry you will be able to do ten eventually, but it is important to start out correctly. That means get off your knees, even if you are a girl. The ones on the knees work your muscles so little that they are effectively a waste of time. The other thing is to keep your back straight. A simple way to test this is to raise and lower your butt to the toughest position to do your pushup in. At this point your muscles are worked so intensely that before you know it you'll have the strongest biceps of all of those around you. Intermingled into this exercise set are sit-ups. And crunches do not count. Crunches can be very effective for working specific muscles, but we are dealing with time restraints and want to work as many muscles as possible. To work that even more, on the way down, stop yourself right before hitting the floor, now go back up. Set up a timer for ten minutes and start with pushups then immediately switch to sit-ups, then back to crunches. Then back to sit-ups. Keep doing this for the full ten minutes. This may mean that toward the end you are just doing one pushup and only a few sit-ups. That is fine. Eventually you'll work up to doing five straight minutes of pushups and five minutes of sit-ups. At this point you should definitely have a nice six-pack for your abs and very sexy biceps.

For the next ten minutes we want to work your legs, butt, and some of your back. It is one very simple exercise that will turn your flabby butt into a sculptured piece of art, maybe you'll insure it for a million dollars one day. It is a four step process. While standing up, step one is raise your arms straight into the air. Step two is to lean over and without bending your knees try to touch your toes. Step three is to sit down in the "I'm taking a crap in the bushes" position, stretch out your arms straight out in front of you as well. Step four is to stand back up, arms to the side. Each step should take you one second to do. When you are done you should be breathing hard, because you just did about one hundred and fifty of those.

Let's take a one minute break and do some stretching. Sit down and without bending your knees, try to touch your toes, hold that stretch for ten seconds, now repeat that two more times for a total of thirty seconds. Next sit Indian style with each of the soles of your feet touching each other and bend your body strongly to the floor holding for ten seconds, do that two more times, for a total of thirty seconds.

The last nine minutes lets work your pectorals, pecs, or just simply your chest muscle. It is an important muscle to have fit because it is involved in almost all areas where we need to use our muscles. Plus it's a good one to have in shape as your shirt is usually the first thing that goes whenever you are involved in a physical activity. This exercise can be done with dumb bells if you have any, but when you do it with books it will also work your forearm muscles. So grab a couple good sized books, Webster's dictionary type. It is best if the books are very similar in size and weight. Now set your timer for three minutes and lay flat on the floor. While holding your books stretch your arms out to the side (Jesus on the cross position) and while keeping your arms straight lift the books together; now back down, keeping your arms straight the whole time. Keep doing this taking about one second each way, for a total of two seconds. If you find that your arms are exhausted before the three minutes are up, find some smaller/lighter books for the next time you do these. Now same exercise but you start with your hands straight out above your head. Lift the books straight up while keeping your arms straight, then back above the top of your head. Do these for three minutes. Finally finish out with the same exercise but this time your arms at your sides and again for three minutes. At this point your arms should feel like jelly. This is exactly what you want. Don't be surprised if they are a bit sore tomorrow. That's why you jog tomorrow, to give your arms and the rest of your muscles a day to rest.

You now have a very good workout in thirty minutes and it didn't even cost you a penny. Keep following this workout and you should see some very pleasant results in only a few months. I know how valuable time can be but now you have no excuse about why you're so out of shape.