Burn 100 Calories in 10 Minutes

While many of us think we're too busy to exercise, experts are busy taking that little excuse out of the mix.  We now know
that short workouts (2 or 3 10-minute workouts throughout the day) can be just as effective as longer workouts.  The key is to
focus on intensity and use your time wisely.  The sample workouts below offer a variety of cardio and strength ideas to get the
most out of your exercise time.  Substitute exercises to fit your fitness level and don't forget to cool-down and stretch after each
workout.

Your 10-Minute Cardio Blast

To get the most out of 10-minute cardio workouts, you want to focus on working harder than usual.  The following workout
offers some ideas for how you can work hard during the time you have.

 1 minute - Brisk walk or march in place

 1 minute - Light jog outside, around the house or in place
 1 minute - Jumping jacks
 1 minute - Long jumps - jump forward, landing with both feet
 1 minute - Light jog
 1 minute - Jumping jacks
 1 minute - Squat and kick, alternating legs
 1 minute - Light jog
 1 minute - Long jumps
 1 minute - Brisk walk to cool down

If you're feeling creative, make your own workout using some of the activities listed below. Each exercises will burn about 100
calories (depending on your weight, fitness level, and intensity) in 10 minutes:

 Running - 1 mile
 Jumping rope
 Stepping - 30 steps per minute, 7 inch step
 Cycling - 13 mph
 High-impact aerobics
 Running up stairs
 Circuit training
 Calisthenics - pushups, jumping jacks, plyometric jumps and kickboxing-type moves

Strength Training Circuits

Circuit Training involves performing exercises one after the other, with no rest. Below areexamples of total body circuit training
workouts both for the gym and home. Do each exercise for about a minute or to fatigue before moving on to the next exercise
with little or no rest. If you don't feel fatigued by the end of the minute, increase your resistance

Experts offer their favorite moves for making the most of your workout time.
By Barbara Russi Sarnataro
WebMD Weight Loss Clinic - Feature

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Experts say there is no magic to exercise: You get out of it what you put in. That doesn't mean you
have to work out for hours each day. It just means you need to work smart. That said, experts agree
that not all exercises are created equal. Some are simply more efficient than others, whether they
target multiple muscle groups, are suitable for a wide variety of fitness levels, or help you burn
calories more effectively.

So what are the best exercises? We posed this question to four fitness experts and compiled a list of
their favorites.

1. Walking. Any exercise program should include cardiovascular exercise, which strengthens the

heart and burns calories. And walking is something you can do anywhere, anytime, with no
equipment other than a good pair of shoes. It's not just for beginners, either: Even the very fit can get
a good workout from walking. "Doing a brisk walk can burn up to 500 calories per hour," says Robert
Gotlin, DO, director of orthopaedic and sports rehabilitation at Beth Israel Medical Center in New
York. Since it takes 3,500 calories to lose a pound, you could expect to lose a pound for every seven
hours you walk, if you did nothing else. Don't go from the sofa to walking an hour day, though.
Richard Cotton, a spokesman for the American Council on Exercise, says beginners should start by
walking five to -10 minutes at a time, gradually moving up to at least 30 minutes per session. "Don't
add more than five minutes at a time," he says. Another tip: It's better to lengthen your walks before
boosting your speed or incline.

2. Interval training. Whether you're a beginner or an exercise veteran, a walker or an aerobic

dancer, adding interval training to your cardiovascular workout will boost your fitness level and help
you lose weight. "Varying your pace throughout the exercise session stimulates the aerobic system
to adapt," says Cotton. "The more power the aerobic system has, the more capacity you have to
burn calories." The way to do it is to push the intensity or pace for a minute or two, then back off for
anywhere from two to -10 minutes (depending on how long your total workout will be, and how much
time you need to recover). Continue doing this throughout the workout.

3. Squats. Strength training is essential, the experts say. "The more muscular fitness you have,"
says Cotton, "the greater the capacity you have to burn calories." And our experts tended to favor
strength-training exercises that target multiple muscle groups. Squats, which work the quadriceps,
hamstrings, and gluteals, are an excellent example. "They give you the best bang for the buck
because they use the most muscle groups at once," says Oldsmar, Fla., trainer David Petersen.
Form is key, though, warns Petersen. "What makes an exercise functional is how you perform the
exercise," he says. "If you have bad technique, it's no longer functional." For perfect form, keep feet
shoulder-width apart and back straight. Bend knees and lower your rear, says Cotton: "The knee
should remain over the ankle as much as possible." "Think of how you sit down in a chair, only the
chair's not there," suggests Gotlin. Physical therapist Adam Rufa, of Cicero, N.Y., says practicing
with a real chair can help. "Start by working on getting in and out of a real chair properly," he says.
Once you've mastered that, try just tapping the chair with your bottom, then coming back up. Then
do the same motion without the chair. Gotlin sees lots of patients with knee pain, and says
quadriceps weakness is the cause much of the time. If you feel pain going down stairs, he says,
strengthening your quads with squats may very well help.

Exercise: 7 Most Effective Exercises (cont.)

4. Lunges. Like squats, lunges work all the major muscles of the lower body: gluteals, quadriceps,
and hamstrings. "A lunge is a great exercise because it mimics life, it mimics walking," only
exaggerated, says Petersen. Lunges are a bit more advanced than squats, says Cotton, helping to
improve your balance as well. Here's how to do them right: Take a big step forward, keeping your
spine in a neutral position. Bend your front knee to approximately 90 degrees, focusing on keeping
weight on the back toes and dropping the knee of your back leg toward the floor. Petersen suggests
that you imagine sitting on your back foot. "The trailing leg is the one you need to sit down on," he
says. To make a lunge even more functional, says Rufa, try stepping not just forward, but back and
out to each side. "Life is not linear, it's multiplanar," says Rufa. And the better they prepare you for
the various positions you'll move in during the course of a day, the more useful exercises are.

5. Push-ups. If done correctly, the push-up can strengthen the chest, shoulders, triceps, and even
the core trunk muscles, all at one time. "I'm very much into planking exercises, almost yoga-type
moves," says Petersen. "Anytime you have the pelvis and the core [abdominals and back] in a
suspended position, you have to rely on your own adherent strength to stabilize you." Push-ups can
be done at any level of fitness, says Cotton: "For someone who is at a more beginning level, start by
pushing from the kitchen-counter height. Then work your way to a desk, a chair, the floor with bent
knees, and, finally, the floor on your toes." Here's how to do a perfect push-up: From a face-down
position, place your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Place your toes or knees on the
floor, and try to create a perfect diagonal with your body, from the shoulders to the knees or feet.
Keep the glutes [rear-end muscles] and abdominals engaged. Then lower and lift your body by
bending and straightening your elbows, keeping your torso stable throughout. There are always
ways to make it harder, says Rufa. Once your form is perfect, try what he calls the "T-stabilization"
push-up: Get into push-up position, then do your push-ups with one arm raised out to the side,
balancing on the remaining three limbs without rotating your hips.

6. Abdominal Crunches. Who doesn't want firm, flat abs? Experts say that when done correctly, the
familiar crunch (along with its variations) is a good choice to target them. For a standard crunch,
says Cotton, begin lying on your back with feet flat on the floor and fingertips supporting your head.
Press your low back down and begin the exercise by contracting abdominals and peeling first your
head (tucking your chin slightly), then your neck, shoulders, and upper back off the floor. Be careful
not to pull your neck forward of the rest of your spine by sticking the chin out; don't hold your breath,
and keep elbows out of your line of vision to keep chest and shoulders open. For his part, Petersen
teaches his clients to do crunches with their feet off the floor and knees bent. He says that with feet
kept on the floor, many people tend to arch the back and engage the hip flexors. "Crunches can be
excellent, but if they're not done correctly, with the back arching, they can actually weaken the
abdominals," Petersen says. To work the obliques (the muscles on the sides of your waist), says
Cotton, take the standard crunch and rotate the spine toward one side as you curl off the floor.
"Twist before you come up," he says. "It's really important that the twist comes first because then it's
the obliques that are actually getting you up." But keep in mind that you won't get a flat stomach with
crunches alone, says Cotton. Burning belly fat requires the well-known formula: using up more
calories than you take in. "Crunches work the ab muscles; [they're] not to be mistaken as exercise
that burns the fat over the abdominals," he says. "That's the biggest myth in exercise going."
7. Bent-over Row. Talk about bang for the buck: This exercise works all the major muscles of the upper
back, as well as the biceps. Here's how to do it with good form. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, then
bend knees and flex forward at the hips. (If you have trouble doing this exercise standing up, support your
weight by sitting on an incline bench, facing backward.) Tilt your pelvis slightly forward, engage the
abdominals, and extend your upper spine to add support. Hold dumbbells or barbell beneath the
shoulders with hands about shoulder-width apart. Flex your elbows, and lift both hands toward the sides
of your body. Pause, then slowly lower hands to the starting position. (Beginners should perform the
move without weights.)

Technique

These seven exercises are excellent, efficient choices, the experts say. But with just about any
strength or resistance exercise, says Petersen, the question is not so much whether the exercise
works as how well you execute.

"Done with good technique, all exercises do what they're supposed to do," says Petersen.

The trouble is that poor form can change the whole exercise, putting emphasis or even strain on
different areas than intended. This can hurt, rather than help you.

So especially if you're a beginner, it's a good idea to seek the advice of a fitness trainer - whether it's
a personal trainer or a trainer at your gym -- to be sure your form is safe and correct.

Originally published April 26, 2006.

Updated March 2007.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4Cd-QzyQiY&feature=related