How to Get a ‘Fit’ Body in 30 Minutes or Less

I picked up No Gym Needed, by Lise Cartwright years ago when I was looking for ideas for body weight exercises I could do in my office. While the book gets repetitive and is geared more towards absolute beginners who are extremely out of shape, I did find a few nuggets of helpful advice as well as some exercise ideas to get started.

Here are my favorite twelve takeaways from the book:

1. “No matter what exercise you’re doing, always suck your belly button into your lower back. This ensures that you’re protecting your lower back at all times and helps prevent injuries developing.”
2. “At the end of each routine you need to stretch, even if you’ve only got a couple of minutes. Believe me, I learned the hard way. You don’t want your muscles to be screaming at you tomorrow morning and the next, and you won’t be able to work out.”
3. “There are 5 main body shapes,… Inverted Triangle… Trapezoid… Rectangle… Triangle… Oval… Your body shape will never change… Learn to work with it and you’ll have a much easier time with losing and maintaining your weight… No matter what your body shape, you should always ensure that you are aiming for total body workouts. Use body-weight or weighted exercises to target your trouble areas, and use cardio (if you want fast weight loss) to get a full workout.”
4. “If you’re planning to work out in the morning, eat a big breakfast. Aim for eggs, spinach and other vegetables for this meal. And don’t think small here, go big. A big breakfast will actually reduce hunger and promote weight loss as it kicks your metabolism into gear. Just make sure it’s full of good foods, not heavy carbs. Think slow-carb here.”
5. “If you’re training with any type of weights, you need to allow 24-48 hours of rest between weighted exercises to allow muscles to repair themselves. Keep this in mind when you’re using any of the weighted exercise routines. The ideal weight loss regimen with weights is 2-3 times per week.”
6. “exercise in the morning, before 11am. A study conducted by Appalachian State University found that people who exercised in the mornings spent up to 75% more time in reparative “deep sleep” than those who exercised later in the day.”
7. “Look at adding intermittent fasting to your diet… Studies show that you can lose 2-3 pounds (0.9 – 1.3 kilograms) per week through fasting. Start with fasting for 12 hours each day and work your way up to 16-20 hours (with 20 hours being the maximum time to fast) per day.”
8. “Do whatever it takes to keep exercise in your schedule and guard that 30-minute time slot because that’s still all it takes to keep the weight off: 30 minutes a day, 3-4 times a week.”
9. “I’ve found that if I exercise 4 times per week and eat right 5 days out of 7, I can easily maintain my weight, and this is still only working out 30 minutes on those days”
10. “try turning your workout into a game! There is a great iOS app called Teemo that takes you on virtual adventures during your workout. If you like to run and have an Android phone, then Ingress is another virtual world that you might like to check out too.”
11. “Pick a 24-hour period (I find Friday night through Saturday night works really well!). Eat whatever you want during this period that you choose not to eat during the week – things like pizza, pasta, sweets, fast food, etc”
12. “When it comes to measuring, the easiest way to do this is to use an app to hold all your details or you can download my Google docs spreadsheet so that you can track and measure your progress and use the chart function to make comparisons.”

No Gym Needed – Quick & Simple Workouts for Busy Guys: Get a ‘Fit’ Body in 30 Minutes or Less! by Lise Cartwright

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