The Ten-Minute Home Workout

Ten minutes isn’t a long time. It isn’t long enough to reap the long-term benefits of cardiovascular exercise or get in a solid muscle-building session. However, it is long enough to quickly tone your body and do just enough exercise to jump-start your metabolism. Here are some ten-minute workouts that can accomplish a mini fitness-goal: burn a few extra calories, strengthen your body or work on flexibility. The best part of all is that you can do any of these quick workouts right in your apartment. Use them as a compliment to your regular workout or when you can’t fit in a trip to the gym.

Quick Cardio Blast: Burn up to 150 calories

• Minutes one to two: High-intensity cardio, jump rope or run up and down stairs.
• Minutes three to four: Do as many push-ups as you can.
• Minutes five and six: Jump rope or run stairs again.
• Minutes seven and eight: Do squats by standing with your back against a wall and squatting as low as you can. Focus on form rather than speed.
• Minutes nine and ten: Back to the high-intensity cardio, but this time give it your all. Try to get in ten more jumps or stairs in the same amount of time.

Tone and StrengthenDo each of these exercises for about one minute. The goal is to move continuously for the entire series.

• Squats against a wall: Stand with your back against wall and squat down as far as you can.
• Push-ups: Focus on form, not quantity. Knee push-ups are perfectly fine until you have the strength for military style.
• Walking lunges with a front kick: Step forward with one leg and lunge until your knee is above your front foot. Stand and kick up, lower your leg and repeat with the other side.
• Squats/Chest squeeze: Hold a weighted object and pull it in towards your chest as you lift up.
• Dead lifts: Stand with a weighted object in your hands and bend forward until your back is parallel to the floor. Keep your back lifted the entire time. For an extra challenge, stand on one leg and alternate.
• Shoulder raises: Keeping your arms straight, lift the weight to the front of your body and hold. Lower slowly and repeat.
• Side raises: Stand with your upper torso parallel to the floor. Raise your arms to your sides with your thumbs pointing up. Squeeze your shoulder blades together and hold.
• Triceps Dip: Support yourself on a couch or sturdy chair with both hands behind you, facing away from the chair. Bend your knees and lower yourself using only your arms. Lift and repeat.
• Wide-leg squat: Stand with your legs spread open past your shoulders and squat as low as you can.
• Crunch: Lie on the floor and do a set of traditional crunches, with your arms behind your head and your knees bent. Lift up your upper torso, squeeze in your abs, lower slowly and repeat.

Stretch and LengthenThese five stretches will target the major muscles in your body. Hold each stretch for one minute on each side.

• Hamstrings: Sit with your legs in front of you and reach for your toes with your hands, keeping your back straight. Then alternate the same stretch on each leg, bending your other leg inwards.
• Triceps: Hold one arm under your head, bend it and use your other arm to gently push it back, stretching the muscle on the front of your arm.
• Shoulders: Stretch one arm across your chest and hold it in place with your other arm. Gently pull the straight arm towards your chest.
• Quadriceps: Stand up and bend one leg back behind you. Pull the leg in with the same-side arm until you feel a stretch.
• Spinal twist: Sit with one leg straight and the other bent. Twist your torso toward your bent leg, supporting yourself by resting the opposite elbow on your leg. Use your other arm to hold yourself up by resting it on the floor behind you.