Written by Garett Reid | NSCA, CSCS, CISSN, M.S.E.S.S
Fact checked by Kiel DiGiovanni, Co-founder
FACT CHECKED
Not everyone has hours and hours to spend working out. Not everyone even has time to go to the gym. But there’s no reason everyone can’t get in their training during the week with the 30-minute home workout you’ll learn in this article. Unfortunately, we live in a world of fitness where it’s all or nothing – either you spend hours in the gym, or it’s not worth training. This couldn’t be farther from the truth, and if you’ve been having trouble getting your workouts in due to time, you’ll dig this 30-minute home workout.
3 Key Factors For A 30 Minute Home Workout
Training at home has benefits, but it also has some obstacles you’ll need to overcome to get an effective workout. In this section, we’ll discuss some things you should know to make the most of your 30-minute workout.
1. Use Of Supersets
The following 30-minute home workout will heavily use supersets. A superset is made by pairing two exercises that train different body parts and completing them in succession with minimal rest in between. This allows you to get more work done in less time.
Sometimes, people use supersets to increase fatigue. In these, they perform the two exercises back-to-back and then rest between sets.
You will use these supersets simply because you will be able to put in more work. To do this, you’ll follow a slightly different format, which we’ll go over below.
2. Exercise Selection
If you want to complete your full-body training in 30 minutes, you need to be smart with your exercise choices. This workout means you’ll primarily be doing compound movements, including some full-body exercises such as thrusters.
These types of exercises use multiple muscles at once, allowing you to get the most muscle-building work possible.
3. Minimize Rest
So this is a balancing act. When you don’t have much time to train, you want to minimize the time you spend resting between sets and exercises. On the other hand, you don’t want to cut out so much rest that you’re too fatigued to perform quality work.
We already discussed this above with the reason behind using supersets. However, we wanted to emphasize this as many people can unknowingly waste time during their workouts. Maybe they get into a texting conversation, or their friend sends them a funny meme.
Therefore, when you’re training, stay focused. It’s only 30 minutes.
Not only do you want to minimize the rest between the exercises in the supersets, you want to move through the 5 groups of exercises quickly as well.
The Best 30-Minute Workout At Home
Don’t get confused. Just because you see “30-minute” and “home workout” does not mean this will be an easy training day. In fact, this may be one of the more challenging workouts you’ve done simply due to its nature – you’re getting an entire full-body workout done in 30 minutes. This means it requires an enormous work capacity.
The Workout
We’re now going to lay out the exercises. As we mentioned, this workout will contain 5 groups of exercises. The first 4 groups are supersets and will pair a lower body exercise with an upper body exercise. Then, the 5th group will have 3 exercises, including thrusters and some core exercises.
Right now, we’re just going to list the exercises. We’ll then review the rep scheme and other guidelines for this 30-minute workout.
- Dumbbell Deadlift + Pushups
- Goblet Squat + Bent Over Row
- Romanian DL + Shoulder Press
- Lunge + Renegade Row
- Dumbbell Thruster + V-Ups + Flutter Kicks*
*If you have a favorite core exercise, feel free to replace either of the two.
Equipment Needed
This workout can be done with minimal equipment: either dumbbells or kettlebells. Ideally, you have more than one set, but as long as you have a single set, you can get started.
Related: How Much Does A home Gym Cost?
How To Run This 30 minute Home Workout Routine
You now have the workout. We’ll go over how you’ll run through it.
Rep Scheme
Usually, we would lay out a specific rep scheme for you to follow, like 3X8 or 5X5. However, giving a blanket rep scheme won’t work as not everyone will have access to the same equipment.
For example, if we say to do 5X5, but you can do 10 reps with your heaviest set of dumbbells, that won’t work. Therefore, you’ll use RPE, or rate of perceived exertion, to dictate your reps.
You’ll perform 2-3 sets for each superset. For the first 1-2 sets, you’ll use an RPE7-8, meaning you’ll perform reps until there is 70-80% failure. Then, you can bring the reps to failure on your last set.
You can decide how many sets you can do based on your fitness level and training frequency.
Rest
Rest for the supersets will be a bit different than normal supersets. Your goal isn’t necessarily to increase fatigue but to simply get more work in. Therefore, you won’t perform the exercises back-to-back and then rest.
Instead, you’ll alternate between the two exercises with 30-45 seconds of rest in between. For example:
- Exercise 1
- Rest 30-45sec
- Exercise 2
- Rest 30-45sec
- Exercise 1
- And continue…
This means that each superset will take around 4-6 minutes. After you finish the first superset, you’ll jump right into the 2nd.
Then, for the 5th group with three exercises, you won’t rest between exercises or sets. You’ll simply run through the circuit 2-3 times.
Training Frequency
Now you have your home workout, you can decide how often you run it during the week. This is almost entirely up to you.
Ideally, you can run this three times a week with at least one day of recovery between training days.
Under normal circumstances, the general recommendation is to train a muscle group only two times a week, with three times being the max. However, because it’s only a 30-minute workout, you could probably do it four times a week if you wanted to.
That said, the general rule is to spread out training days throughout the week.
For example, if you can only train 2 days a week, you could train on;
- Monday & Thursday
- Monday & Friday
- Wednesday & Saturday
If you can train 3 days a week, ideally, it may look like this;
- Monday, Wednesday, Friday
- Monday, Thursday, Saturday
- Tuesday, Friday, Sunday
And 4 days:
- Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday
- Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday
You get the idea. You should separate the days as much as possible.
Progressing
In an ideal world, you have a massive set of dumbbells from 5lbs to 150lbs, making progressive overload easy. In this scenario, all you would have to do is gradually use heavier and heavier dumbbells for different exercises.
However, this isn’t reality.
Most people will have limited equipment, but that doesn’t mean you can’t progress; it’ll just look different.
You basically have 3 options.
- Do more reps per set. For example, let’s pretend that in the first week, you did 10 reps for an exercise. The next week you could do 11.
- Use tempo training—slow down each rep, especially during the eccentric contraction. At the same time, really utilize a mind-muscle connection and focus on the intended muscles during the reps.
- Do more work in the 30 minutes. You would do this by simultaneously increasing the total number of sets you perform while decreasing your rest time in between exercises.
4 Benefits Of Training At Home
Training at home, or at least having the ability to provide a ton of important benefits. Many are pretty obvious, but we will list some out anyway.
1. Convenience
The most obvious benefit is convenience. Training at home obviously means you don’t have to drive to the gym. Instead, you can roll out of bed in your underwear and knock out a workout!
You also never have to wait for a machine; you can choose your music and wear whatever you want. Training at home can really make you realize how simple training can be.
2. Simplicity
One aspect of training at the gym is that it will likely keep things simple. Even if you can access a nice rack, a barbell, maybe a trap bar, and kettlebells, your training will still be “simple” compared to the gym.
Now, simple does not mean easy or subpar. In fact, we at SET FOR SET like simplicity, sticking to the basics, and foundation lifts. The gym is definitely not bad in the slightest; however, it can sometimes lead to excessive work as there are so many different machines and equipment to use.
We love simplicity and genuinely believe that this is where you will make the most gains.
3. Maintain Adherence
Most importantly, this can help maintain adherence to a training program. Adherence is arguably the most important aspect of weight training, especially in terms of general health. You are much better off working out at home for the rest of your life than training in the baddest gym for a few years and then dropping out because you don’t have time anymore.
4. Save Money!
Although many gyms are pretty affordable, training at home is still more expensive, especially this 30-minute workout!
In addition to fees, remember that time is money as well. If you’re a busy person,
Now, we believe that buying a gym membership and driving to your workout is definitely an investment well worth it. However, if you’re trying to save some money, getting a couple sets of dumbbells and training at home is the way to go.
Related: Is It Cheaper To Have A Home Gym Or Membership?
Train At Home
As you can probably tell, this is an intense workout. It’s no joke! That’s because we at SET FOR SET don’t believe training at home needs an easier version of training! Of course, we love the gym, but training at home can be just as effective, if not more. More importantly, having a brutal workout you can do is essential to ensure you can adhere to a training program.
Things happen in life that make getting to the gym hard. Now, with this 30-minute at home workout, you can train your entire body at the same time it would take you to drive to the gym and back!
Garett Reid
Author