From Muscle and Fitness form Women…But I read the men’s health and such over the women’s usually. They have better tips, and you get to find out what men think about lol!

Let’s face it, we’re all human. You’ve probably got an incredibly busy schedule, and staying consistent with your workouts - even scaled-down light versions - is a struggle at best. Add the stresses of holiday shopping, impromptu gatherings, out-of-town visitors, all that tempting food and shorter days, and not much time is left to devote to keeping that hot bod you’ve worked so hard for the rest of the year.

So, we’re coming to your rescue with our holiday survival workout poster. In it, you’ll find a pair of complete and challenging workouts - conveniently divided into upper- and lower-body sessions - that’ll get you in and out of the gym faster than you can say, “Can I have this gift-wrapped, please?”

A DESIGNER GIFT
This program is specially designed to do primarily three things:

Work every major muscle group effectively and intensely;
Get you in and out of the gym in 30 minutes; and
Allow you plenty of time to get all those other things done without feeling guilty about missing any part of your workout.

You’ll find no tricks or gimmicks here, just a plan that has you working hard for that half-hour you’re in the gym. The idea is to maintain a fairly high intensity level by incorporating some helpful techniques into your lifting routine. During every workout, you’ll perform supersets, limit rest between sets and execute primarily compound, or multijoint, movements for more efficient workouts.

Supersets. Training two different muscle groups (most commonly, antagonistic bodyparts) with little or no rest between sets is called supersetting. You train one bodypart - say, biceps - and as soon as you’re done with a set, you jump right into an exercise for triceps. You alternate back and forth, resting one bodypart while blasting the other. This technique both fatigues the muscles faster and moves you through your workout at a pretty good clip.

Minimal rest. This also decreases time to muscular fatigue and steps up intensity. Since the goal is to reduce your overall time in the gym, both need to happen more quickly, so we’re pretty much stripping away the luxury of rest between sets. Down time shouldn’t exceed 30 seconds, or the time it takes to set up your next exercise.

Compound/multijoint movements. These exercises require motion in two joints and recruit more than one muscle group at a time, although one group is considered the primary focus. Two examples include the bench press (both the shoulder and elbow joints move) and the squat (hips and knees flex and extend). By doing primarily compound exercises, you work more than one muscle group at a time which, again, brings your muscles to fatigue faster and reduces time spent in the gym.

RECOMMENDED READING
You now know the nuts and bolts of this holiday workout, but a few details must be explained before you run to the gym with your stopwatch. First, compound exercises will serve as the foundation for the exercise plan, but we’ve also included single-joint movements to round things out.

Second, the number of sets given is based as much on maximizing the workouts’ effectiveness as on minimizing the time required to complete them. A recent study published by the American College of Sports Medicine (Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 32 [1]:235, 2000) determined that beginners as well as more experienced trainees can get almost the same results from doing one set as with three. Yet the study mentions that doing multiple sets is better for increasing muscular endurance and lean mass and decreasing bodyfat, although researchers don’t consider it significantly better. Since your reasons for working out probably go beyond general health and fitness, the extra sets will serve your purposes well. With these considerations, we suggest two sets per exercise, taking the first to near-failure and the second to momentary failure.

Third, the rep ranges suggested reflect the optimal range for maintaining muscular strength, shape and tone. Of course, you must choose the proper weight for each exercise to reach near-failure on the last few reps of each set. If you do biceps curls with 12-pound dumbbells and reach 20 before you feel your muscles starting to give, grab a heavier weight, say 15 s, to work at the required intensity level.

Lastly, exercise selections were made with time and effectiveness foremost in mind. Most of these basic movements should be familiar to you, which will help speed your workout along. This isn't the time to test out new or unusual exercises - you want to be able to go to the gym, know what you’re going to do and how to do it.

CARDIO COUNTS
A 30-minute workout requires a fast and efficient pace, but remember that you won't be able to duplicate what you might normally do during a longer workout. And just because you’re keeping your heart rate elevated to some degree doesn’t give you license to blow off your cardio workouts - you still need the benefits of aerobic training, such as increased cardiovascular conditioning, muscular endurance and fat-burning. Yet this part of your training can also be abbreviated a bit while still offering much of what your body needs most.

Minimum recommendations from the ACSM are 20-30 minutes of aerobic activity 3-5 days a week. Sure, this may seem a little wimpy, but if you’re on a time budget, this will allow you to get the most benefits in the least amount of time for now. Here’s what you can do: A couple of times a week, get out and do some intervals for a half-hour. Run stairs, hop on the treadmill to jog inclines and flats, or saddle up on a stationary bike. Whatever activity you choose, train with a ratio of two minutes of high intensity to one minute of low intensity. After a five-minute warm-up, that means two minutes at 80%-85% of your target heart rate and one minute at 60%-65%. Simple as that.

For an extra boost on days you don’t do intervals, break up your cardio into 2-3 sessions. For example, during your two breaks at work, find some stairs and climb them for 10 minutes each. At lunch time, take a brisk walk around the neighborhood for another 10. Add it all up and you have 30 minutes for the day. Or when you’re doing all that holiday shopping at the mall, take 10-15 minutes and power walk to your car, drop off your packages and power walk back for more shopping. As long as they add up to 30 a day, those minutes used even during regular activity count toward your cardio effort!