Fitness on the fly
While a well-structured daily exercise regime should include plenty of cardio, stretching, body-weight exercises and resistance training, and does require at least 30 minutes, life usually does not offer ideal conditions or situations. So here’s a programme that takes care of multiple problems. You need 10-15 minutes, almost no equipment and little space to complete the entire set of exercises.
This programme is for you if you are a beginner, or are returning to an exercise regime after a long break but can’t get yourself to mentally commit a lot of time to it, and need to build up your physical and mental strength slowly. It’s for you if you exercise regularly or go to a gym, but find yourself in circumstances that do not let you visit the gym. And it’s for you if you are a fitness freak and want that extra boost in full body and cardio conditioning.
In part 2 of our 10-minute fitness blast workouts, we step up the tempo. As usual, these programmes involve no weights—just your own body weight used in creative ways. You will be surprised at how difficult that can get, and how far you can push your strength and conditioning without equipment. Gravity can be very mean.
The first routine here has got a bit of everything—strength, mobility, core recruitment, endurance— and lights the fat-burning torch as well.
The second routine involves plyometrics, basically moves that are explosive in nature, contracting and releasing muscles in the shortest possible time.
A practical definition of plyometric exercise is a quick, powerful movement using a pre-stretch, or a counter-movement. For these exercises, all you need is a bench or a box, or any raised platform. A pile of books can be used for the push-up drill. In the photograph, we have piled together a bunch of rubber tiles to create a 6- to 9-inch step.
As with most body-weight routines, it is safe for beginners to do these, and those with more advanced fitness can scale it up by doing more sets and reducing the rest times between sets for a fast and furious workout.