Follow these gym tricks to help you cut down on the minutes without compromising on results

Are you struggling to find time to accommodate a good workout in your busy schedule? Here are six effective time-saver techniques that will help you burn more calories in a short span, and show you the same results as it would in an hour-long regime.

Cardio on the way
If you live close enough, walk or jog to the gym to get in the cardio mode on the way, or park your car a few kilometres from the gym. Increase the distance every couple of weeks. This will increase the difficulty as your conditioning improves. The time shouldn't increase much, but the speed at which you run, should.

Pan your drill
Be it for work or workout, planning ahead always saves you time. If you exercise in the morning, the key is to plan your workout the previous night. But try and vary your scehdule. For instance, you could start with warm-up exercises, followed by a 15-minute walk on the treadmill or elliptical trainer, and then move on to practising weights. You could also mix cardio with weights. Experts recommend that you start with a few minutes of warm-up on a stationary bike or treadmill. Stop and perform sets of lunges or squats and ab curls. Hop back on the treadmill for a two-minute cardio interval (or an intense oneminute interval) and continue alternating cardio and weights until you've completed a full-body weight workout.

Jump your way up
Research shows, plyometric exercises, such as jumping rope or jumping jacks, are a good way to burn more calories in a short span. This form of exercise also involves working type 2 muscle fibres, which tend to grow and also help you tone faster. Use foot contacts to determine quantity — so every time your foot (feet) lands on the ground. Start with 25 foot contacts and gradually work your way up.

Raise the path
So also, upping the incline on the treadmill, even just a little bit, helps cut the flab quickly. When you brisk walk (four miles per hour) for 30 minutes at no incline, you burn 145 calories. If you raise the incline from zero to five per cent, you'll burn 244 calories within the same time; raise it to 10 per cent and burn even more than 343. But don't incline that high, or else you'll hang off the machine, and strain your back.

Juggle stuff around
You could also put your daily multitasking skills to use. Fitness experts don't see the need to come to a stop in-between workouts. They feel, it is better to use that time to work a different muscle group instead. For instance, if you're performing a set of chest presses on a fitness ball, put the dumbbells down, stay put on the ball and immediately follow up with a set of crunches to keep your heart rate up. This increases your metabolism and keeps the intensity high so you don't have to do as many sets, as you had set out to do.

10 out of 30
If you can't devote half-an-hour a day for your workout regime, aim for 10 minutes. A recent research suggests, three, 10-minute sessions of treadmill exercise throughout the day was more effective at reducing blood pressure in adults than a single, 30-minute session. So if you're strapped for time, take off for a 10-minute walk to and from work. Then all you need to do is spare another 10 minutes at lunch, and then in the evening.


BDST: 1739 HRS, Aug-23, 2014