Just about any personal trainer or fitness professional will tell you that the number one goal their clients have is sustainable weight loss while the number one obstacle that stands in their way of achieving that goal is their perceived lack of time - It’s an obstacle that will remain heavily entrenched as society moves further past the pandemic and our harried lifestyles resume. But even if we exclude any lingering effects of COVID, getting to the gym frequently enough during the workweek so we can put in the required reps to get the results we desire has always required a deliberate effort and a bit of advanced planning.
According to most fitness professionals, the rule of thumb is to get in approximately 2 hours of moderate exercise each week in order to be living a healthy lifestyle. Unfortunately, most of us are abandoning our fitness routines because of the constant struggle of having to carve out those chunks of time to get to the gym often enough each week.
But what if we didn’t have to carry the burden of dedicating blocks of time to get in our weekly exercise?
Society is Discovering Micro Workouts Work!
One of the top fitness trends of 2022 are short duration, micro workouts. They’re gaining popularity not only amongst personal trainers who are having success using these mini workouts as a workout strategy for clients who want to shed excess fat but can’t get to the gym as often as they’d like, but there is also science to prove that this fitness concept isn’t just another fad.
Micro workouts are short duration workouts that can be done throughout the course of our day in 10-to-15-minute increments and they’re proving to be equally as effective, if not more effective, than traditional exercise routines. Essentially, micro workouts are anything that elevates your heart rate and / or provides resistance to your muscles over short durations of time. For example, you can spend 10 minutes walking up and down your stairs, you can do planking exercise during TV commercials, or you can do a series of squats in your home or office in 10-minute intervals twice a day.
Even the busiest members of our society can obtain outstanding results by working with a personal trainer who can design a series of “mini workouts” that their clients can do practically any where they have ability to exercise. That means at home, outdoors, in the office, or anywhere else. In fact, one London-based fitness trainer told us that these micro workouts are gaining popularity because they’ve made exercising so much easier in the lives of their clients, so they’re sticking with their routines over time. That kind of sustainability is why micro workouts are so surprisingly effective in getting people the fitness results they want.
Micro Workouts for Fat Loss
To determine if micro workouts are truly an effective option for people who hope to achieve noticeable results in terms of weight loss, we reached out to a personal trainer with a fitness studio in Canary Wharf (London) to ask him how he’s adopted micro workouts as a fitness strategy to help his clients lose weight. He told us that we can boost our metabolism in as little as 5 minutes, and that makes these mini exercises an outstanding option for sustainable fat loss. Ultimately, personal trainers can set their clients up with a series of shorter workout routines that they’re able to do throughout the day. These mini routines can be just as effective as more traditional exercise routines that boost our metabolism, help us lose weight, and even contribute towards growing more muscle mass.
Micro Workouts and Strength Training
Sustainable fat loss is much more difficult without the appropriate muscle mass in our bodies. Our muscle mass is a fat-free kind of organic tissue, and it is highly metabolic. That means the more muscle mass we have, the more calories our bodies are burning throughout the day. Micro workouts can include exercises that put our muscles under a brief resistance load, and it doesn’t require additional fitness equipment. You can do planks or wall-pushups in your office for 30-second intervals a few times a day to tone your muscles and increase your body’s calorie burn rate.
Micro Workouts & Personal Training
The market and internet are awash with free fitness videos, apps, and guidance on how to transform our bodies in as little as 8 weeks. The point is that the sheer volume of these resources can be very overwhelming, and confusing. To overcome these challenges, people are turning to personal trainers who are qualified (and credentialed) to evaluate their lifestyles and can get them set up with a variety of micro workouts that are safe, effective, and, most important of all, convenient for their unique lifestyles.
Fitness professionals and personal trainers offer their services at surprisingly affordable rates, and they can be the difference between getting real results and spinning our wheels at the gym without seeming to make any measurable progress towards achieving our fitness goals.
If you’re struggling to find the time and motivation to get to the gym, micro workouts are proving to be an easily adaptable strategy for making greater progress towards getting the fitness results you’ve always wanted.