‘I avoided gyms like the plague — until this one simple trick changed everything about how I work out’

I’ve never been the kind of person who exercises regularly. My lack of stamina means that after mere minutes, my pounding heart and burning muscles become so unbearable that the temptation to stop creeps in. And so... I do. It means my fitness levels have been so far from where I want them to be for years now, and it's not through lack of trying.

Desperate to find a form of exercise that doesn't end in the same old disappointing cycle, I've attended boxing classes, barre classes and shelled out for countless gym memberships. Each one promising — and then failing — to be the miracle cure for my hatred of exercise.

But all that changed when I joined a new gym that was located exactly halfway between my office and the station. I convinced myself I wouldn't be able to swerve a workout session if I literally had to walk right past the gym. Somehow, it worked and got me through the door. But the real game-changer? Discovering the holy grail of exercise: 30 minute classes.

Cutting down to half an hour changed everything

The thing with classes is, they've always made me feel suffocated. You can't quit. It would be utterly mortifying in a spinning class, among a sea of red-faced cyclists, to be the one who meekly stops pedalling and shamefully shuffles out of the room. But the thought of spinning for an hour? Not a chance in hell. So, I never signed up.

When scrolling through the list of classes at my new gym, I discovered 30 minute options for all of the favourites — HIIT, spinning, core — and it suddenly all felt a lot more doable. After five minutes of warming up, and then five minutes of stretching at the end, the actual exercise bit wouldn't be such a hardship, surely? So I put my name down, and found that this time, I could physically and mentally do it.

Over the following weeks and months, the odd spinning class morphed into three sessions a week, and I even began waking up early to squeeze in a class before work, revelling in the surge of energy it gave me for the rest of the day. When I went away on holiday for two weeks, I came back having missed the gym. Who was this strange creature that had inhabited my (now far fitter) body?

Committing to thirty-minute classes were what transformed me into a regular gym-goer, but it turns out they aren't just beneficial for enticing stamina-less people like me to get moving. "There's plenty you can get done in just thirty minutes when it comes to exercise," explains Jennifer Louise, a qualified Level 2 gym instructor. "You can burn fat, build muscle and definitely make headway on boosting your cardiovascular health.

"If you did just three high-intensity, 30-minute sessions per week, you'd easily be able to check off the NHS' recommendation of 75 minutes of vigorous (meaning: it's hard to talk whilst you're doing it) exercise "

Shorter sessions often mean you end up engaging in heart rate training, which requires you to exert more energy in shorter periods of time — the idea being that you switch between moderate (aerobic) exercise (achieved at around 60-80% of your maximum heart rate, or MHR) and intense (anaerobic) exercise (achieved at 80%+ of your MHR).

This kind of workout, says Israel Rivera, a health coach, is "calorie torching" because it burns carbohydrates as well as fat energy stores for fuel. So while you may be working out for less time (making it feel more doable), the training you're doing is often extra efficient.

In the long term, this kind of heart rate training, dipping in and out of both zones, can "increase endurance, improve cardiac health and help you burn fat while developing lean muscle mass," says Rivera.

How to pack the most into 30 minutes

Circuits are a particularly good form of exercise if you're keen on shorter sessions. "Select a series of 5 or 6 exercises to complete in as many circuits as possible within your chosen time limit," Rivera says. "Take 30 to 45 seconds of rest (maximum) in between exercises with 1 to 2 minutes recovery in between each circuit. The more fit you become the less recovery time you’ll need in between exercises and circuits."

When it comes to circuits, Rivera's most valuable piece of advice is perhaps to "select one upper body exercise followed by a lower body exercise, or vice versa". This is because, although you'll be giving yourself minimal rest time in between exercises, it will feel like you're resting because you'll be working different muscle groups. Your arms will get a break while you work your legs, or the other way round.

Several gyms offer 30-minute sessions as part of their offerings: Virgin Active; PureGym has a range of shorter classes, and apps like ClassPass give you the opportunity to select from thousands of classes at a time!

So, now you know how physically effective short workouts can be, what's stopping you?

Catriona Harvey-Jenner

Features Editor

Cat is Cosmopolitan UK's features editor covering women's issues, health and current affairs. news, features and health. The route to her heart is a simple combination of pasta and cheese (somewhat ironic considering the whole health writing thing), and she finds it difficult to commit to TV series so currently has about 14 different ones on the go.