How to Get Fit in Ten Minutes a Day

Go over your daily schedule to see if you have only 10 minutes or if you can fit more than one 10-minute workout into your day. This will allow you to plan your routine and make the most of whatever time you do have available.

Exercise at maximum intensity without breaks. A circuit mixing cardio and resistance is more effective for short workouts. A simple example includes one minute walking on the treadmill as a warm-up, followed by one minute of jumping jacks or rope, a set of abdominal exercises and a set of biceps or triceps reps. The next day you exercise, follow the same routine but replace the arm exercises with either back or shoulder reps.

Break up a full workout routine into small 10-minute chunks. If you can find more than one 10-minute block during a single day, use the morning one for cardio, the mid-day one for abdominal work and the last for resistance training. This way you'll get a complete workout by the end of the day.

Switch workouts from one day to the next. To prevent boredom and burnout, do cardio on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and resistance training on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Let your body rest on Sunday.

Combine exercises that use more than one muscle if you're doing resistance training only two times a week. For example, pull-ups work both the upper back and the arms, while push-ups are good for shoulders, arms and chest. For best results, do a set of 10 to 15 repetitions with a dumbbell heavier than you would normally use and then move to another type of exercise that works a complementing muscle group. For example, a set of arm exercises, followed by chest, back and shoulders repetitions. If you have any time remaining, repeat the whole process from the beginning.