As our lives become ever more hectic by the day, it can be tough to priorities friends, family, work and socialising and still have enough time to exercise.

So with so many ties on your 24 hours, here’s 5 ways that you can make sure you use your gym time wisely. Five ways to use an hour effectively…

Workout using supersets…

Put simply, a superset is two exercises, performed back to back with no rest between. To avoid fatigue it’s a good idea to pick exercises which target different muscle groups. This will A) Make your heart work a lot harder transporting blood to different areas of your body and B) Allow one muscle group to work, while the other rests and recovers. Effectively you can get twice the workout in half of the time. For more information on supersets, how to include them in your workouts and the best way to structure your supersets, click here: http://www.michaeldarren.blogspot.com/2012/02/theres-reason-why-supersets-are-called.html

Workout in a class…

If time is short, working out in a class is a great way to get an effective workout in a short time; and better still, you don’t even have to think about it, someone will guide you through step by step. Don’t run a mile, it’s not all leg warmers and lycra these days; though these classes DO still exist. There are plenty of great classes now that will help you to build lean muscle and burn excess calories. Most gyms run a spinning class these days, give it a go, what’s the worst that can happen?

Workout using timed intervals…

Often it’s not the exercising which consumes most people’s gym time, it’s their long rest periods. An interval timer is a great way to avoid this. My favourite method of interval training is Tabata training. Format: 20 secs work, 10 secs rest for 8 sets. It’s one of the toughest 4 minutes you can have in a gym. You can apply this to a cardio exercise; or for a full body workout why not try a Tabata exercise for the chest, one for the back, one for the core and one for the legs – a full body workout in 16 minutes. You can even download Tabata interval timers for the iPhone for free – you have no excuses now!

Workout outside…

Take yourself outside, but unlike most, don’t just run. Try to create interval runs, altering your pace and terrain you run on. Interval running is far quicker and a more effective way to burn body fat rather than slow, steady intensity running. For even better results throw in some body weight exercises along your run; you’d be surprised what you can do with a park bench.

Workout using just your bodyweight…

Which brings me to my final point: Your body is probably one of your best workout apparatus. There are endless exercises that you can do using just your body weight for resistance. Better still, when you’re short on time you can do them in the convenience (and warmth) of your own home. For a few ideas on bodyweight workouts see this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R819KfRrRe0

Michael Darren, Personal Trainer.