Since the birth of my first child 5 years ago I have had to change many things in my life. One of the biggest changes was the way that I worked out. For me, missing a workout is not an option, nor is spending quality time with my children. I also have a business and house to run. My workouts are my time for ME! I had to think of a creative way for my workouts to still be challenging without taking an hour or two. This is when I developed the 12 minute workout. I had already been practicing interval training but with a little less intensity. I thought to myself, why not work a little harder for less time and see if I can achieve the same results???? I cut my interval workout time in half and pushed it harder. I couldn’t and still can’t believe that 12 minutes can feel so long! After a month of training this way I realised that I was getting better results than when I was training for twice the time! I was amazed and intrigued. This led me to do a little more research as to why and how this could be as well as deciding upon 3 reasons everyone should be training harder for a shorter period of time.
Reason#1 This one goes without saying.........anyone can find 12 minutes in the day whether it be morning noon or night. I was discussing this option for a busy mom of 3 and she said, “I can do that at work, during my lunch!” Another new mom said to me, “I can do this when my baby is sleeping!” The idea of only having to work out for 12 minutes is much easier to commit to 5 times a week. In my experience with all of my clients, this method really works!
Reason#2 Less chance of injury. Because you are only working out for 12 minutes the body has more time to repair. 12 Minutes of intense interval training is much less stress on the body than going out for a 10 km run or spending 2 hours at the gym lifting heavy weights. You also have more time to stretch when you are finished.
Reason #3 If you are looking for weight loss this method will benefit you most due to the simple reason that the body burns most of its calories after your workout. You can make the judgement call; however, it makes more sense to me to give it my all for those 12 minutes in instead of wasting my time for 1 to 2 hours at the gym. I was able to get my workout in today while my kids were having some quiet time!
Life get’s busy, but you don’t have to sacrifice getting a great workout in if you keep it short, and make it count!