One of the biggest complaints and issues many women face when trying to lose weight is finding the time to work out.
While it’s possible to lose weight without exercise through making dietary and lifestyle changes that limit your calorie intake – such as intermittent fasting – many find it’s just not enough.
You still gotta move your body at least a little.
I’ve had great success working out as few as 9 minutes per day, so I wanted to share this quick and easy workout routine for those days when you just can’t make it to the gym.
Here’s my quick and easy 9-minute workout routine for beginners.
How Much Exercise Is Enough To Lose Weight?
How much exercise is enough to lose weight, you ask?
A good general benchmark to shoot for is 20-30 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise per day.
What constitutes “moderate” or “vigorous” varies from person to person.
If you’re already quite fit, walking briskly for 20 minutes likely isn’t challenging at all, whereas if you’re brand new to working out that would suit you just fine.
You should feel at least slightly out of breath and be perspiring some for moderate cardiovascular activity.
For strength training, you should feel like the workout is challenging but not impossible, and have some difficulty finishing your last set of exercises – but still be able to complete it.
It’s Okay To Break Up Your Workout Sessions
Some beginners to weight loss and exercise have problems sustaining longer workouts.
The good news is it’s totally okay if you need to break it up!
And some activities that expend energy (but aren’t considered “working out”) count too, like washing your car!
So if you have trouble with the idea of actually completing a lengthy workout, you might go for a 10-minute walk, twice a day, and incorporate the 30-Day Fitness Challenge workout of the month as a little strength training.
But if that’s not your speed, here’s a super easy 9-minute workout that incorporates cardio, ab work, and legs!
Take a 15-minute walk and do this workout, and you’re off to an excellent start!
This workout is so simple and straightforward, almost anybody could do it!
Each of the six exercises is to be performed for just 30 seconds. But you do the whole routine three times. So, it’s a 3-minute circuit.
It goes like this:
- 30 seconds of jumping jacks
- 30 seconds of butt kicks
- 30 seconds of planks
- 30 seconds of crunches
- 30 seconds of lunges
- 30 seconds of wall sits
Wash, rinse, repeat three times, and voila! Finished!
I hope you like this workout – it’s a lot tougher than it looks. Especially for true beginners.
Good luck!
