Working out at home can’t always be a fix when you don’t have enough time to squeeze in a workout. Having anything less than an hour to hit the gym also seems to be an easy excuse to skip weight training. Which is why one must keep a few workouts under 30 minutes handy for the times when you are short on time. These workouts are intended to give the body enough of a heart-rate boost, a light sweat, a good test of strength and a decent pump to make sure you feel good. They should include weights and incorporate kettlebells, battle ropes and the cable machine.
There are two ways of approaching these workouts. One is to do a follow-along, which are easy to find on YouTube, and the other is to learn the formula of a 30-minute routine and substitute your own exercises depending on the muscles you’re working on.
Also Read | 5 exercises that you absolutely need to do in 2026
Fitness website Muscle & Strength have an excellent programme which is just made up of workouts that are about a half an hour long each. This programme is for eight weeks and is the perfect starting point for someone just getting into the habit of lifting.
For each day, there are no more than five exercises, and are all catered towards muscle building. The sets range between three to five, and the exercises need to be progressively overloaded. Here’s a leg day example: five sets of 8-12 reps of barbell squats, followed by a superset using leg presses and leg extensions. Then three sets of a stiff leg deadlift followed by three sets of leg curls (all between 8-10 reps).
Tom Peto’s barbell only workout
There are three rounds in this, and for it you need to keep the same weights on the barbell for the entire duration. This means equal stress but using different muscles and movements to lift the weight. The first round is 40 seconds on and 10 seconds off, and includes classic exercises like the thruster and the RDL-to-inverted row combination. It ends with a floor barbell bench press (swap with dumbbells here if you can’t lift the weights with a bar) followed by a 40 seconds rest period.
I did this workout this week and this is one of the best 30-minute workouts to do for a full-body challenge. I used just a 15kg barbell with no weights. Peto uses 25kg in his follow-along.
Jeff Cavaliere’s 30-minute chest and back workout
Here’s another workout I’ve tried and also tweaked according to the muscles I’m loading on the day. There are three blocks of exercises in this: a three-minute warm-up block which has two banded exercises to activate the upper body with 50 reps of each; a 90-second single set to get the body used to loading weights; a nine-minute block of one chest and one back exercise in three super sets at high intensity; followed by a three super sets of four exercises at low to moderate intensity performed in a 16-and-a-half minute block.
The workout allows for the rest period to be determined by you, with every block having enough time on the clock to squeeze in recoveries. It’s a bit complicated, but once you choose the exercises it makes sense. Choose something which can be done with the same weights and with the same equipment. For example, Cavaliere chooses an incline dumbbell press and a chest supported row as the main lifts. The four-exercise super set comprises exercises on the pulley machine, and some bodyweight work too.
The Australian Institute of Fitness 30-minute workout formula
Smartly named ‘30-Minute Strength Workouts for the Time-Crunched Executive’, the AIF’s formulas are split into three distinct parts: endurance-oriented workouts, max strength workout, and power and explosive workouts. The suggestion is to workout Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, with optional light work in the remaining days of the week.
Also Read | How you can achieve great mobility and get rid of knee pain with this exercise
They use a five-exercise circuit done for three rounds, capped at six minutes per round for endurance. The max strength day is the big one, with just four or five exercises done for 3-6 reps for 4-6 sets. But the catch is to have the weights at 80-90 percent of your 1 rep max.
This means 80kg for an exercise if your 1RM is 100kg on that exercise.
Their explosive workout day recommends cutting the weight to 30-50 percent of the 1RM, but is done in two supersets of three rounds each, and has moves like jumping squats, medicine ball slams and single-arm dumbbell rows. The rest time is usually between 60-90 seconds after each round or set. The athlete can utilise the 30-minute period however they want to, given they finish within the stipulated time.
Pulasta Dhar is a football commentator and writer.
