TIPS FOR A SHORTER, BETTER WORKOUT

In today's fast-paced world, everyone deals with a hectic schedule. It's common to have a full- time job (or maybe even two), and a family or significant other demanding time and attention. In addition to these primary factors in our lives, there are also small "time-suckers" that are hard to account for but always seem to pop up during the day. It can be very difficult to juggle everything that needs to get done, let alone things that you want to do, like going to the gym or maintaining an active social life.

Unfortunately, it often seems like there isn't enough time in the day to complete your workouts. However, if developing a healthy and fit body that you're proud of is your goal, make it a priority and find a way to fit it into your schedule.

Fortunately, if you're strategic in how you devise your workout program, you can slash your gym time in half without sacrificing your results. Let's take a look at some of the top ways to make your workouts like a recon mission -- getting in and getting out while still achieving your objective.

No. 1: Be Honest About Your Rest Periods

A great way to instantly cut back on your workout time is to be completely honest with yourself about how long of a rest period you take between each set. Most of us take longer breaks between sets than we really need. This can unnecessarily prolong your workout duration without any added benefit of recovery.

Walking to the water fountain, chatting with your workout partner, or not knowing exactly what exercise you're doing next are all minor offenses that can have major effects on amount of time that you spend in the gym. So if you want to ensure that you don't go into gym "overtime," start timing your gym sessions with a stop watch. Using this method will not only save you time, but will even improve your results tremendously. It'll ramp up your overall workout intensity and help you learn to push through fatigue.

Keep your rest periods at approximately 30 seconds after any isolation exercises and 60-to-90 seconds between compound exercises. While you don't want the quick turnaround to cause you to have to drop your poundage, keep those rest periods short and snappy.

No. 2: Use Supersets

Another technique that you can start adding to your workout to get in and out of the gym faster is the superset. These consists of two or more exercises done in a row without a break. It doesn't just have to be two exercises for opposing muscle groups, however. You can also superset a lower-body exercise along with an upper-body movement.

This will dramatically reduce your downtime, since your lower body will be resting while you perform the upper body exercise, and vice versa. You may find that you only need 30 seconds of rest after each superset, so this is one way to create a truly fast-paced workout. As an added benefit, supersets tend to crank up your heart rate, making them perfect for those looking for maximum fat loss.

Superset two compound exercises whenever possible, because you'll engage more muscles than just the one involved in an isolation exercise. As a result, you'll get more muscle utilization for each precious minute you invest in that session.