Three Exercises in 15 Minutes for a Workout

Being short on time is no excuse to skip your workout altogether. If you have 15 minutes, rely on three classic exercises to tone and strengthen all the major muscle groups in your body. The trick to making this short workout effective is choosing compound exercises that work multiple muscle groups at once.

  1. Strength Exercises

    • When you only have 15 minutes to exercise, choose one exercise that targets the lower body, one that targets the chest and one that targets the back. Ideally, you'll do compound moves that utilize more than one joint action, so you activate a broader array of muscles to get the most out of your short exercise time. Squats or lunges, for example, primarily target the quadriceps at the front of the thighs, but they also activate the glutes, hamstrings and calves. A compound chest exercise, such as the barbell press or the push-up, focuses on the pectoralis major -- the primary chest muscle -- and it also targets the front of the shoulders and the triceps at the back of the upper arm. Pull-ups primarily target the broad muscle of the back, the latissimus dorsi, but they also activate the upper and middle muscles of your back and your chest and arms. If you don't have access to a bar, dumbbell or barbell rows are other back exercises that stimulate multiple muscles in the upper body.

    Execution

    • When you've chosen your three exercises, plan to do three or four sets of each, with eight to 12 repetitions in each set. You could do these as a circuit, moving directly from one exercise to the next, or you could do all the sets of one exercise before moving onto the next exercise. If you do choose the latter, get more out of your session by performing a cardio drill, such as jumping jacks or jumping rope, during the 30 to 60 seconds of "rest" in between sets. When you continuously move during the 15 minutes, you can burn 30 percent more calories overall, reports "Fitness."

    Advanced

    • Once you've mastered the basic exercises, you can combine movements to challenge yourself even more during your 15-minute routine. For example, add bicep curls to squats or add shoulder presses to lunges. If you choose push-ups for your chest exercise, place your hands on dumbbells and do a row in between each repetition.

    Considerations

    • Avoid doing strength-training exercises for the same muscle groups on consecutive days. Your muscles need 48 to 72 hours to recover and repair so they can grow stronger. Aim to do the 15-minute workout three to four times per week. On the days in between, you can rest or do a longer bout of cardio. For example, try running for 20 to 30 minutes or walking briskly for 45 minutes.