Efficient Training for Maximal Results

This article describes ten different types of workouts that can be done in ten minutes along with some of my favorite elite challenges for each.

Train to Live

Physical health is a lifestyle.

Exercise culture has created the illusion that movement can be scheduled into time blocks to check the box that is your fitness and health.

There isn’t a fitness program in the world that can effectively improve and sustain your physical health if you’re otherwise sedentary.

When it comes to general physical fitness, the most important principle is to live actively.

Stay on your feet when you don’t need to sit.

Move.

Play.

Physical tasks can be both productive for your chores and health.

Wear or carry weight to enhance the benefit.

There are all kinds of ways to creatively encourage an active lifestyle.

All this being said, general physical fitness can only help you generally.

If you’re looking to improve specifically, you must train specifically.

Intention, effort, and consistency are required for progressive improvements in any domain.

Great to know but who has the time to fit in a specific training program on top of everything else?

Thankfully, a lot can be done in a little amount of time.

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Ten-Minute Training

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Ten minutes is a breeze for most activities. It is also all that is needed to make productive improvements if you’re willing to be consistent.

If you have more time for training, great! You’ll be able to cause productive adaptations in less amount of time overall assuming proper nutrition and recovery.

Time, however, is an enormous barrier to entry for most people who’d like to get in better shape.

Anyone can find ten minutes in their day. Wake up a little earlier, take a shorter lunch break, schedule it, ask for support, skip a meal, omit the show, earn the social media time, replace a habit, or do it with someone you care about.

Prioritize a small chunk of time for yourself to realize it positively influences your ability to effectively show up elsewhere.

On the Huberman Lab Podcast, Dr. Andy Galpin outlined nine physical adaptations that can be caused with specific physical training:

• Skill/Technique: specific movement proficiency

• Speed: rate of acceleration

• Strength: maximal force

• Power: speed combined with strength

• Muscle hypertrophy: muscle growth

• Muscular endurance: load maintenance over time

• Anaerobic capacity: high intensity exertion for short duration

• Stamina/Maximal aerobic capacity: sustained high intensity duration for longer durations

• Endurance/Long-duration training: maintain less than high exertion for long durations

All of these adaptations, with the exception of endurance, can be specifically trained and improved upon in ten minutes a day or less.

Assuming you set the physical foundation of endurance and movement with an active lifestyle, selecting your desired adaptation to consistently train is how you can expand your capacity.

There are many different workout structures that can target any of the previously mentioned adaptations.

Once you understand the structures and adaptations, programming your training simply becomes plug and play. Tracking your results within each training session allows progress to be measured, tested, and intentionally controlled.

When I’m pressed for time, which isn’t uncommon, I’ll use any of the following structures to give myself a brutal workout that makes the rest of my day feel easy.

Below you will find ten different workout structures with several examples of some of my favorite ways to execute them in approximately ten minutes or less.

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Efficient Workout Structures

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EMOM

Every Minute On the Minute (EMOM) is far and away my favorite workout structure. I could and eventually will write an entire post (or book) on the beauty of this style of training.

Any significant challenge can be made more manageable by breaking it down into chunks. EMOM does just that. Furthermore, this structure requires presence and intention both in the workout and the recovery. No doomscrolling between rounds or losing track of time.

A well-planned EMOM will maximize your return on investment of time and effort.

By definition, the standard format for an EMOM workout is determining the exercise(s) and then completing it/them intermittently within a given minute. The rep count, exercise transitions, exertion levels, time within the minute, and general approach can all be modified based on goals. You can also adjust this formatting by changing the interval length. Rather than every minute on the minute, you can do every five minutes on the minute meaning five minutes rounds for a certain period of overall time.

All aspects of a given EMOM workout can be modified down or up based on proficiency, available time, and goal for the challenge.

Endless options for any adaptation, time period, and/or exertion level.

EMOMx10 - 20 burpees

Before completing a “50 burpees a day for 50 days” challenge about seven years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to complete ten burpees a minute for ten minutes. I’ve progressively built up to this capacity over time. As always start somewhere challenging but manageable. My general recommendation for picking a rep count is to choose a number of burpees you can do at about 80% exertion (unable to breath exclusively through your nose) for 30-40 seconds based on proficiency with the movement. If you do it right, you should be pretty tired halfway through and the second half should be miserable. Having just done this challenge, it’s always one of the most miserable ten minutes I create. Whenever I feel like I have anything left in the tank at the end of ten rounds, I know I’m ready to add another rep next time around.

EMOMx10 - 15 100lb KB swings

One of my favorite resilience within fitness authors is Ross Edgley. In one of his books (they’re all great), he mentioned a EMOMx10 ten 100lb KB swing challenge as a great way to test your stamina. I was able to complete this challenge and felt relatively good afterward. The next time I did 11 and have progressively built up to 15 over time. I recently attempted 20 swings per minute for ten minutes and fell apart after six rounds. These failed attempts are such valuable lessons to help me recalibrate and either not be a dumbass and increase my rep count by a smaller amount or to do variations of the training (such as larger rep counts for shorter amount of overall time or same rep counts within a longer amount round time). I will be going for 17 on my next attempt.

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Tabata

A standard Tabata set is twenty seconds of intense work followed by ten seconds of rest for eight rounds. Therefore, each set is only four minutes.

One set of Tabata done correctly hurts; two or more is extremely challenging.

Any good Tabata timer will allow you to modify the work, rest, and round counts as desired.

These workouts can involve just one exercise performing throughout the entire set or two exercises to alternative between each round within a set. I find I can typically maintain a higher exertion level and output when alternating between two movements rather than one unless I’m extremely proficient. Regardless, you should be going hard enough that nasal breathing is difficult to impossible.

When I have the time, I’ll do six to ten sets of Tabata for different movements. If I’m short on time, I can still get two sets of Tabata with a one to two-minute rest in between in less than ten minutes. To add an extra layer of challenge, count your reps in the first round and then do everything you can to get at least that same number or better for each subsequent round. Your score per set is your lowest total reps. Here are my current numbers for this approach to Tabata:

• Burpees: 10

• Leg up-downs: 11

• Kick outs: 22

• Big flutter kicks: 42

• Jump squats: 22

• Plank up-downs: 14

• Russian twists: 42

• Jump rope (singles): 55

• Jump rope (double unders): 32

If you own a stationary piece of cardio equipment, Tabata sets are a great way to train your anaerobic capacity. A favorite of mine when I want to induce symptoms that feel like a panic attack is ten rounds of a reverse Tabata on the assault bike.

Reverse Tabatas have shorter work rounds and longer rest rounds. Standard reverse Tabata would be ten seconds of work and twenty seconds of rest for eight rounds.

For my assault bike ten minutes of torture, I sprint for twenty seconds followed by forty seconds of rest for ten rounds. My original goal was to burn greater than 100 calories but it has since built up to 110. I’m always tracking really well halfway through and then the fatigue starts setting in. Maintaining ~90 perceived exertion is extremely challenging in this format as the rounds progress. I typically step off the bike when finished and collapse on the floor into the fetal position for a few minutes until I get my breathing and body regulated. Best feeling in the world (after a few minutes of misery).

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AMRAP

As Many Reps As Possible or As Many Rounds As Possible (AMRAP) is another brutally effective way to get a lot of work in a short amount of time.