Research shows you don’t need to spend hours a day in the gym to build solid muscle. You can transform your whole body in just 30 minutes a day, and we’ve created this guide to show you how. It’s packed with fast, efficient workouts that hit every area and help you reach any goal, whether it’s shredding fat, gaining power, or improving flexibility. We’ve even thrown in some 30-minute workouts you can do on the go—no gym required—and a few 15-minute burners for those days when you don’t have the time, but you do have to move. And as a bonus, you’ll find fast meals your muscles crave. All you need is 30 minutes and this book. Let’s go.
Why 30-Minute Workouts Will Work for You • Less is more when it comes to exercising for fitness, strength, and health.
1 Fast-Track Your Fitness • The body you’ve always wanted is in reach with these 23 strategies.
2 Transform Your Physique • These intense 30-minute total-body workouts from top trainers lock in big gains and build a rock-solid body from head to toe. Mix and match throughout the week, or follow provided directions for how to make the most of any given workout by repeating it throughout the week or month.
THE 6-MOVE FULL-BODY BLAST • You’ve done bench presses before—but not like this. Here you’re blending classic (and, okay, boring) muscle exercises with calorie-burning body-weight exercises so you can challenge new muscles. Do this workout 3 times a week. On off days, do 20 pushups, 20 dumbbell rows per arm, and 20 body-weight squats.
30 MINUTES TO STRONGER • From biceps curls to dumbbell rows, many go-to exercises focus on a single muscle (or a handful of muscles). But in real life, our muscles work together, whether we’re driving to the basket or shoveling the driveway. Teach your own muscles to work more efficiently as a team with this routine. Do it 4 times a week, resting a day between sessions. On rest days, take a 20-minute walk. After a month, your whole body will feel stronger.
YOUR TOTAL-BODY TUNE-UP • Indulge a little too much lately? To help you recover from any food-fueled celebration, we turned to Sean Garner, N.S.C.A., creator of Project DadBod, for a full-body session. For the past eight years, Garner has worked with hundreds of guys to help them reclaim their best bodies without turning every workout into a suffer-fest. This program emphasizes four key ways you move: a push, a pull, a hip hinge, and a squat. You’ll also target your abs, and you will redline your heart rate with bursts of cardio. The result: awakened muscles and lubricated joints. Let’s get started!
THE ALL-IN-ONE WORKOUT • This five-move workout builds total-body muscle and strength and rocks your abs by turning every exercise you do, from bench presses to squats, into a stern test for your core.
SLOW DOWN, SPEED UP, AND BUILD MAJOR MUSCLE! • Slow and controlled. It’s a phrase you hear often in the gym. Thing is, you can move fast, too. And to develop muscle and insulate your joints against injury, you need to challenge your body to be explosive on some exercises, then flex your patience and move slowly on others. That’s the game plan with this workout: Do it 3 or 4 days a week.
TWIST & SHRED! • Let’s remind your body that it’s built to twist and turn. This underrated skill utilizes muscles you know well (abs, obliques, lats, and glutes, among others), but it’s often forgotten in training plans. That leaves you vulnerable to injury when you shovel snow or pick up your toddler. Fix that by doing this workout 4 times a week.
SUPERSETS FOR SUPER MUSCLE • Itching for a sweat outside? Start by priming your muscles for any outdoor activity with an old bodybuilder technique—the superset.
MAYHEM & MUSCLE! • Forget kettlebells, medicine balls, and ropes. The no-nonsense path to muscle starts with dumbbells. Think about it: Even...