In my studies for my Certified Fitness Trainer exam, I’ve had to learn a lot about weight training. Now, my experience with a gym was limited to once about 30 years ago when I was the “friend” for “Bring a Friend Night”!
If I would have had to depend on going to a gym and doing weight training to get fit and lose weight/inches, I would not be where I am right now! I just didn’t have time for that, nor any inclination, either!
One thing doing this study has shown me, though, is how many people are conditioned to think that they must work out for 1 1/2 hours to do any good. I remember reading something our county Extension Homemakers office sent out that claimed you need 90 minutes of exercise to lose and 60 minutes to maintain!!! Oh, HELP!
THE GOOD NEWS?!
NO, YOU DON’T!!!
I think I could count on two fingers the times I worked out for 1 1/2 hours! Well, in the beginning it took me that long to do the short 15 minute Basic Workout Plus (BWO+) because I was doing it from the book! LOL!
But in all seriousness, I went back through my 4 years of records and 80% of my workouts were shorter ones.
Yes, you read that right!
EIGHTY percent were BWO+, Basic Tempo, MORE, SATI (Step Away The Inches), the Total Workout broken up or maybe Hit the Floor now and then. NONE of those are over 30 minutes, with most at 15-20!
For breaking up Total Workout (TWO), you can do one of three things:
1. Simply cut the reps down to 4.
You will be surprised how you can focus on form doing this! This is what I’m doing now to help prepare for teaching it. Takes about 30-40 minutes, depending on how long your water breaks are! 
2. Split TWO over two days:
Day 1–PBS through Airplanes
Day 2–Do PBS, then Thread the Needle to the end
These each would take roughly 25 minutes.
3. Split TWO over three days:
Day 1–BWO+
Day 2–PBS, then Lunges through Airplanes (or Runner’s Stretch)
Day 3–PBS, then Thread the Needle to the end (or Arms to end)
These take 15-20 minutes each.
Obviously, you do not have to exercise 90 minutes daily to lose! In fact, that is a good way to overtrain and actually stall inch loss!
The beauty of T-Tapp is that it is doable–three big factors draw most people in:
1. NO jumping or stress on knees and joints
2. NO equipment needed
3. Can be done in 15 minutes a day!
Add to that that your body becomes its own resistance “machine”, so you never have to do more than 8 repetitions!
What more could you want?! All for a cost much cheaper than a gym or Curves, and you get unlimited help from the T-Tapp forums as well as the office! (Friendly help, too, I might add! )
You can take the T-Tapp form principles and apply them to sneaking moves in throughout the day and/or your favorite workouts other than T-Tapp, including walking.
How often did I work out? At the beginning it varied from 4-6 times per week. I would go for some spurts of 6 weekly, then life would happen and I might get in 4. But consistency is the main key–do something consistently!
In fact, Dan Wiley, a T-Tapp trainer, often posts that T-Tapp’s “proven formula” is based on three things:
1. Proper form (to your best ability)
2. Isometric contraction (tightening and going to your max–and that progresses,
too!)
3. Consistency!
If you have the first two but aren’t consistent, then you may not see the results you want!
And if you are consistent, but not focused, that also might not yield the results you seek!
The next three weeks I will be addressing each of these steps to the “proven formula”.
Lest you think I’m just some anomaly, that short workouts won’t work for everyone, let me direct you to three great posts on Charlotte Siems’ blog (you know, the mom of 12 who lost 9 sizes? And became a T-Tapp trainer in her spare time?! 
):
http://charlottesiems.com/short-workouts-revisited-2#
http://charlottesiems.com/making-short-workouts-effective-part-ia-2
http://charlottesiems.com/making-short-workouts-effective-part-1a-p-s-2#
Until next week–Keep on Tappin’!