Quick 20 Minute Workout for the Gym
A 20 minute workout can be more than enough for your body each day if performed properly. This is a quick and effective way to get the physical training part of your day over with so you can proceed on to other affairs. The best method to follow in accomplishing this is by training your entire body as a whole, which means you only need 3 days of training a week. You can choose 4-day training weeks, but you won’t ever have two consecutive rest days in a row. So we recommend 3.
A good 20 Minute Workout Revolves around HIIT
This type of exercise routine is the highest intensity you should go for training that is quick and can be used to focus on both strength gains and cardio training as well. Strength is increased through resistance training, which is when you use an external force that causes your muscles to contract against gravity to move that force. This is how muscles receive training, and resistance can derive from both bodyweight exercises and weight lifting exercises.
Cardiovascular training is also known as aerobic training, which is when you train at a high enough intensity to elevate your heart rate. This boosts your metabolism to encourage fat loss; then causes you to breathe harder to condition your lungs to become stronger. Your heart also benefits from all this because it is being exercised as well, and this is a good thing because it’s a muscle that needs to be strengthened just like your arms or legs.
HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training. This is when you perform different exercises back to back changing the levels of intensity from light, moderate, and high. There is no specific order so long as you switch the intervals to keep your body constantly moving and heart rate elevated. People often assume this is just for exercises such as running and sprinting, but gym workouts can be used as well.
Create Stations to Perform HIIT at the Gym
HIIT is similar to CrossFit in the sense that you need stations when it comes to training with weights at the gym. You would need to have 6-8 stations that target different types muscle regions. For example, you can have the squat rack, bench press, box jumper, and yoga mat. The squat rack is for leg training, bench for upper body, and yoga mat for bodyweight stretches and exercises. The box jumper can be utilized for an assortment of exercises as well. The point is changing your intervals correctly.
The kettlebell is also another type of equipment to consider using since you can use it for a lot of the exercises you have to choose from. The kettlebell swing is a good example because it recruits both upper body and lower body strength while also elevating your heart significantly. You don’t even need a HIIT routine with kettlebell training because you have your entire body working together simultaneously.
Your 20 Minute Gym Workout
Follow this workout three days a week, for up to 2-3 months. Once you reach this time frame you should consider switching out exercises and changing things up in the training. The reason why is because your body will get adapted to the training, which basically means it does not benefit much from it anymore unless you are just trying to maintain the same physique instead up bettering it further.
Below is a simple, yet effective 20 minute gym workout. Try to go when the gym is not busy so you have all the equipment available for you when needed. Each exercise that requires weight should be performed with light resistance since you are performing a higher amount of repetitions. Only take a rest break where it is noted in the workout unless you really need it to prevent exhaustion.
- Warm Up on Treadmill or Elliptical – 5 minutes
- Squats - x30 repetitions
- Bench Press - x30 repetitions
- Hanging Leg Lifts – x25 repetitions
- Box Jumps – x25 repetitions
- Rest 30 seconds
- Alternating Dumbbell Lunges - x20 each side
- Standing Dumbbell Overhead Press - x20 repetitions
- Elbows to Knees Crunches - x20 repetitions
- Planks – Hold for 30 seconds
- Rest 30 seconds
- Repeat all one more time (except warm up)
This gym workout is truly going to target your entire body that encourages both fat loss and lean muscle gains, which means your strength and endurance are increased after each workout. You want to take the proper time for rest to ensure you do not cause harm to your body.
Rest and Recovery
Rest and recovery are very important for everybody that trains at higher intensities than what they normally would do during daily life movements. The reason for this is because training causes your muscles to become damaged regardless if you run or lift weights. Have you ever felt very sore after doing something you normally do not do? This soreness is your muscle fibers microscopically torn and in need of nutrients to repair.
Protein is the nutrient that primarily takes care of this. When your muscles are damaged, your body sends protein with other nutrients to help repair what has been damaged. The protein enters the cells and replaces the damaged proteins with new ones that are stronger and denser. This is the short description for what is called protein synthesis.
The point of knowing this is because protein synthesis takes up to 24-48 hours for completion, so you need at least 24 hours of rest for your body before you can train again with the gym routine given . During rest days you can go about and do normal daily tasks, but you should not perform any type of training that uses muscles that are recovering.
Proper sleep is important for your training as well. You need to be sleeping for 6-8 hours to get the best recovery after training. While you are sleeping your body is sending nutrients where they need to go . This is putting your body in maximum swing to help get you prepared for the next day. You will feel sore the next day no matter what, but proper rest and recovery can significantly decrease how sore you are.