RKC News - October 2018

And what could be better than starting with such a truism to immediately counter the often-heard saying "no time." A quarter of an hour is easily manageable, and that's what this is about. A quarter of an hour is about two snooze phases of a modern alarm clock, so not really much time. The question arises: How do we use it?

Where a quarter of an hour could just as well be ten minutes or even twenty, the task remains the same:

I want to set a beneficial training stimulus in a very short time.

With the guideline of "little time," it should also be clear what we should rather avoid. Anything that smells of "endurance" doesn't fit into the time frame. Similarly, in my opinion, everything that requires setup times is out. Back squats with a barbell? Forget it!

This leads me directly to the next point:

Training stimuli for which I need to warm up extra to perform them are pointless in such a session. What remains? More than we initially believe!

A short, intense training session. For example, we grab a kettlebell of moderate weight and perform some Turkish get-ups on both sides. Strengthened, mobilized, and warmed up, we finish with a nice, freely improvised program, e.g., consisting of swings or snatches. Due to the limited time frame, I would stick to one kettlebell size.

Content-wise, we are talking about intense exercises with moderate weight, with the intensity increasing. Anyone who feels reminded of Pavel is right, as the principle is the same. It can also be done entirely without equipment: we crawl, then alternate between push-ups and single-leg squats, followed by burpees for those who can do them cleanly. Everyone else should do jump squats or tuck jumps. When done right, such a quarter of an hour is by no means "just" a little quarter-hour; those fifteen minutes can actually feel quite long...

For all those with limited time, the previously quoted rule applies:

Training is better than no training!

...that some of the ancient Greek philosophers are considered quite athletic. Plato is said to have advocated for making wrestling mandatory for young people, while Pythagoras (yes, that one!) was allegedly an Olympic champion.