Your exercise regimen doesn’t have to take over your life. Getting the fitness result you want—whether it’s losing weight or reshaping your body—can be as simple as squeezing in an extra 30 seconds here or minute there. These fast, tiny tweaks to your program will help you rev your energy level, burn more calories and sculpt new muscle. Incorporate our one-minute workout boosters into your daily routine and tighten those areas that need some extra TLC.

1. Do a Kegel while you crunch.
Contract your pelvic-floor muscles—the ones that you use to stop the flow of urine—as you lift and lower. This will help you recruit more of the entire abdominal group and make the muscles work harder.

2. Close your eyes on the ball.
Doing abdominal moves on a stability ball with your eyes closed is extra challenging. Because you don’t have a focal point, your body senses that it’s in an unstable environment and your core muscles have to work harder to stay balanced.

3. Target your belly during strength-training breaks.
That minute between weight sets is valuable workout time. Take advantage by filling it with ab moves. You won’t have to do crunches at the end of your workout (when you may be tired out), and it’ll keep your heart rate elevated, upping your calorie burn.

4. Bump up the resistance.
To sculpt any muscle you need to add resistance, and since your arms are extended in this exercise, it’s more difficult. Grab a pair of dumbbells or a medicine ball. Lie back with knees bent, feet flat. Extend arms straight back so that your biceps are next to your ears and dumbbells are about an inch off the floor. With abs tight, slowly crunch up and down, keeping arms stationary. Do two sets of 15 lifts.

5. Slo-mo your moves.
Take four counts to lift and two to lower. Research has shown that abdominal-muscle activity is significantly greater when lifting than when lowering. When you slow down the upward phase, you spend more time in the most beneficial part of the exercise. At this rate, you should be able to do only about 10 crunches per minute.

6. Lunge day and night.
First thing in the morning and last thing before bedtime, do five rear lunges (step back and lower until front thigh is parallel to floor) on each leg and then do five squats. You’ll definitely notice the difference in your rear view: This one-minute addition to your day adds up to 300 lunges and 150 squats per month. That’s a lot of leg and butt toning.

7. Tighten your tush while you wait.
Make use of your downtime — standing in line, sitting in the car or waiting in the doctor’s office — by squeezing and releasing your gluteal muscles for one minute. And when you’re finished, draw your navel toward your spine for 30 seconds to work the deep abdominal muscles.

8. Give your triceps an extra boost.
After finishing a set of overhead triceps extensions, hold the weight up with elbows slightly bent. Squeeze your elbows in toward your head 12 to 15 times as an extra push for the backs of the arms.

9. Tone during commercials.
Try this one-minute butt booster from The Commercial Break Workout Book by Linda J. Buch and Seth Anne Snider-Copley (Prima, 2002). Lie on the floor with your left knee bent and foot flat; keep right leg straight, six to eight inches off the floor. Inhale and push down through the heel of your left foot until your butt and lower back come off the floor. Exhale and squeeze your glutes for about 15 seconds. Repeat four times, alternating legs.

10. Work your calves on the stairs.
For every three steps you take, stop and do five calf raises (coming up onto the balls of your feet and then lowering heels to just below step height).

11. Do “office push-ups.”
These will work your chest, get the blood pumping and give your brain a mini refresher. Stand up, lean over, and place your palms on the edge of your desk (make sure it’s sturdy). Keep your body straight as you lower and press up. Push-ups on an incline are slightly easier than on the floor, so you can do more in one minute without compromising your form.

12. Challenge your balance.
At the end of your workout, stand on a balance board or disk for 60 seconds. It’ll force you to recruit more muscles, especially in your core, legs and hips. Your body has to work up to 30 percent harder on a wobbly surface than it does on a stable one. Once you feel comfortable balancing, try doing lunges with your front foot on the board.

13. Squeeze a medicine ball.
To work your legs, glutes and inner thighs, lean against a wall and squat. Make sure your thighs are parallel to the floor.

14. Stand on one leg during upper-body exercises.
You’ll work your arms and also target your abs and the quadriceps and hamstrings of the standing leg. To stay balanced, tighten your core and contract the muscles of the leg you’re standing on.

15. Triple up on weight moves.
Hold a dumbbell in each hand and do a biceps curl as you squat. When you stand up, press the dumbbells straight overhead to work your shoulders and back.”You can do one set of 15 in one minute.

16. Add squat thrusts to your routine.
Incorporating 60 seconds of these between weight sets will target several large muscle groups and burn 140 additional calories during a 30-minute workout. Squat down with palms on floor. In one motion, hop both feet behind you so that legs are extended in push-up position. Jump knees back underneath you and stand — or jump — up.

17. Pump up your plank.
Pressed for time? This total-body strengthener takes only a minute to do. Begin on your elbows with your torso off the floor, legs extended and toes tucked. Lift one foot at a time and hold for eight counts. Then, with knees slightly bent, jump feet wide and hold for two counts. Jump feet back together. Repeat series three times. You activate your entire lower body to push off and control each landing. Plus, the abs have to kick in even more to help you jump.

18. Sculpt your upper back with “wall angels.”
Stand with your back against a wall, feet about a foot away from it and knees comfortably bent. Start with arms overhead, palms out and your upper body flush with the wall. From this position, slowly move your arms down, then up, keeping elbows and the backs of your hands on the wall at all times. This strengthens your mid back and the rotator cuff muscles. Do two sets of 10 sweeps.

19. Exercise at your desk.
Chair squats and toe-ups are both easy to do in an office or cubicle. Stand several inches in front of your chair with arms extended in front of you, and squat down until your butt barely touches the seat. Then stand and rise up onto your toes. Repeat eight to 12 times.

20. Get down on all fours.
Downward dog and upward dog are two of the best total-body stretches around. Together, they target the hamstrings, calves, hips, lower back, chest and shoulders. Hold the downward dog for five to seven deep breaths and the upward dog for two to three breaths. You can do about three sets in a minute.

Posted in Exercise/Personal Training