Kedric Fink, a Certified Personal Trainer with the National Academy of Sports Medicine, is the Wellness Coordinator at the YMCA of Greater Brandywine’s West Chester location. He’s been busy since he started working at the YMCA and has still found time to workout. Below he shares how to get a workout in when you have a full schedule.

You’ve got no time, so I’ll make this short. Between work, kids, the holidays and epic commutes, you long for a break where you can stay under the covers until spring. All this and you still need to find time to work out.

Not to worry. I’m going to show you how to use the afterburn effect of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) to get the same results of a 90-minute workout in 30 minutes or less.

Known to us fitness gurus by the technical term of Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC), the afterburn effect happens when the body is trying to restore itself back to its resting state after strenuous activity. It causes your body to burn the same amount of calories after your HIIT workout that a traditional cardio workout burns during your workout. That’s why you can get the same results in just a fraction of the time. Not only does it burn calories, it also has similar results on heart health and fitness.

Enough with all the explaining already! Let’s get down to different HIIT workouts you can do. This first workout is one that you can do anywhere.

The Tune Up

• Warm up for five minutes with a light jog
• Run as fast as you can for 25 seconds
• Rest for 90 seconds
• Repeat six times
• Cool down for 5 minutes with a light jog

That’s it! Easy peasy. If you aren’t able to get outside because you’re snowed in, warmup and cool down by jogging in place and do burpees instead of running as fast as you can. Don’t know how to do a burpee? See below.

This next one requires a single piece of equipment.

The Bike Race

To do the Bike Race, warm up on a stationary bike for three minutes. Get your heart rate to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate. Seventy percent of your maximum heart rate is when you’re breathing heavy, but not so heavy that you would be cursing me under your breath…if you were able to breathe.

• Pedal as fast as you can for 20 seconds. I mean fast - like E.T. is in your basket and you’re going to fly across the moon fast.
• Pedal at the same pace as your warm up for two minutes.
• Repeat three times

Now, get off the bike and continue with your extremely busy day. You’re done. That only took 10 minutes total.

This next one is going to require going into your local YMCA. You’ll need something to warm up on, like a kettlebell and something to do body rows on (TRX straps, a Smith Machine bar at torso height, etc). It’s one of the workouts that you will find in the new Y Pack at the West Chester Area YMCA. The Y Pack is a community of Y members that meet for team-based training that offers alternating workouts that are fun, challenging and motivating.

The Kettlebell Way

• Warm up for five minutes on any piece of cardio equipment.
• 10 kettlebell swings
• 10 body rows
• 10 Pushups
• Repeat all three exercises for nine repetitions
• Then eight repetitions
• Then 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and all the way down 1 repetition.
• Stretch

The only rest you’ll get is the time it takes you to move from one exercise to the other. This routine usually takes about 25 minutes to complete from warmup to stretch. That’s the good part. I will warn you, though. It’ll make you sore for days.

There you have it. That’s three ways to squeeze in your workout so that you can go on to conquer your day. I’ll give you one last bonus option. Join the Y Pack at the West Chester YMCA by visiting the West Chester YMCA’s member services desk.

Consult your doctor before beginning any workout regimen is recommended. Results vary by person. If you experience any pain or difficulty while exercising, immediately stop and consult your healthcare provider.