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10 minute workout

10 Minute Workout – Burn Fat in 10 Minutes

A 10 minute workout that will burn fat and build muscle as part of a weight loss or exercise program sounds too good to be true – is it?

Absolutely not! There’s a common misconception that for exercise to be beneficial and to burn lots of calories you have to spend hours in the gym on the weights or doing long, boring cardio sessions. It doesn’t have to be that way!

If you’re a busy person, and let’s face it most of us are you’re likely to find it difficult to fit a regular workout into your packed schedule.

Many people use that as an excuse to do no exercise at all.

10 Minute Workout

Now if you have the time and the inclination, then go ahead and spend hours working out. But if time is tight then building short, whole body workouts into your weekly weight loss or fitness regime can work wonders.

10 minute workout

If you’ve read some of the articles on this site you’ll know that I’m an advocate of short, intense strength and interval training workouts as the best way to burn fat and raise your metabolism – say 3 times a week for 45 minutes with some fun activity done on the remaining days of the week.

Our fat loss workout article explains further.

However, if even that time commitment is too much, try breaking your workouts down into even shorter time periods – a 10 minute workout, for instance. Most people have 10 minutes to spare, don’t they?

A 10 minute workout can be done 5-6 days a week, and as long as you vary the exercises it can work your whole body over the course of the week.

The key is to use compound exercises that work a lot of muscles in one go. That way you’ll be burning more calories and can exercise your whole body in your condensed workout.

Now this is a weight loss site, not a bodybuilding site so the focus is on fat loss and burning the maximum number of calories as fast as possible, but you will build muscle following our approach to a 10 minute workout.

Building muscle is the key to fat loss as:

  • Muscle is responsible for most of the calories you burn each day
  • The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn
  • Muscle burns calories all day, not just during your workout – even while you sleep!
  • If you workout in a gym or have a home gym, then you can choose exercises that involve weights or a machine. If you have no fancy equipment or are stuck in a hotel room somewhere, then you can use your bodyweight.

    10 Minute Workout Examples…

    Here are some sample routines that you can use for your 10 minute workout.

    All include upper and lower body exercises so your whole body gets a workout in one go. The exercises are done as supersets to save time and maintain workout intensity.

    A superset is doing two or more exercises that work opposing body parts immediately after each other as one extended set.

    A short warm up is included in the 10 minutes.

    Sample Bodyweight Workout 1

    Warm up – 1 minute jogging on the spot
    Superset – 15-20 bodyweight squats with 10-20 pushups (or to failure)
    Rest – 1 minute max (reduce rest period to add intensity)
    Repeat – 1-2 times
    Cool down – 1 minute jogging on the spot

    Sample Bodyweight Workout 2

    Warm up – 1 minute jogging on the spot
    Superset – 15-20 lunges ( with each leg) with 5-15 pull ups
    Rest – 1 minute max (reduce rest period to add intensity)
    Repeat – 1-2 times
    Cool down – 1 minute jogging on the spot

    Sample Bodyweight Workout 3

    Warm up – 1 minute jogging on the spot
    Superset – 15 split squats with 20 second side plank (each side)
    Rest – 1 minute max (reduce rest period to add intensity)
    Repeat – 1-2 times
    Cool down – 1 minute jogging on the spot

    If you have some dumbells and an exercise ball, choose a pair of dumbells that enable you to do around 15 reps for each exercise…

    Sample Weights Workout 1

    Warm up – 1 minute jogging on the spot
    Superset – 15 split squats (each leg) with 15 dumbell chest press (if you haven’t got a bench do them lying on an exercise ball or on your back on the floor
    Rest – 1 minute max (reduce rest period to add intensity)
    Repeat – 1-2 times
    Cool down – 1 minute jogging on the spot

    Sample Weights Workout 2

    Warm up – 1 minute jogging on the spot
    Superset – 10-15 leg curls on the exercise ball with 10-15 bent over dumbell rows
    Rest – 1 minute max (reduce rest period to add intensity)
    Repeat – 1-2 times
    Cool down – 1 minute jogging on the spot

    Sample Weights Workout 3

    Warm up – 1 minute jogging on the spot
    Superset – 10-15 dumbell lunges (each leg) with 15 dumbell shoulder presses
    Rest – 1 minute max (reduce rest period to add intensity)
    Repeat – 1-2 times
    Cool down – 1 minute jogging on the spot

    Get the idea?

    You can add a third exercise to each superset and repeat twice if you want to and still keep to a 10 minute workout.

    There are so many exercise combinations to try for endless exercise variety so there’s no reason to get bored!

    For more ideas for a 10 minute workout you may be interested in our review of Turbulence Training, an exercise and weight loss program with a ton of ideas for short, productive workouts that’s ideal for busy people.

    About Ebnul Karim