Don’t have much time or need just a little bit more punishment for your workout today? How about just over 5 minutes of high intensity cardio intervals?

If you think you don’t have enough time for a workout today, think again. Something is always better than nothing when it comes to exercise, so run through this very quick routine and get a metabolism boost that will last you the next few hours or more.

If you have already worked out today but feel like you need just a little bit more to round out your program then add this video to the end of your routine for those finishing touches. Or add this into the middle of a slower workout to pop your heart rate back up to keep your body burning calories at a higher level.

In this fast paced, short routine we use what is called a pyramid interval. Pyramid sets are often used in weight lifting but when utilized with interval cardio it becomes a whole new style of fun.  Basically a pyramid interval is an increasing time interval per set to a max time then a decreasing interval time per set until back to the starting time.  For our routine we will be starting with 15 seconds and adding 15 seconds per interval until we hit 60 seconds then we start back down subtracting 15 seconds each time. With a total of 7 sets the intervals in this video looks like this:

15, 30, 45, 60, 45, 30, 15

Each set will have a rest period of 10 seconds so your ratio of rest to work will change with each set. This is a great way to challenge your cardiovascular endurance without pushing too hard and ending up past your limits. Just as you think you can’t keep going the amount of time starts to decrease again.

To keep the routine simple we only use three movements/exercises during each interval set; Jumping Jacks, Mt. Climbers, and Squat Jumps. Each is done for two repetitions before moving on to the next and you repeat the cycle as many times as you can in the time given.  You can start back in where you left off in the cycle or you can start with Jumping Jacks for each set.  In the video I always start with Jumping Jacks but you don’t necessarily have to do the same.

Because you are only doing two repetitions of each motion the transition from one to the next is quite quick. If you feel like it is too quick to do the motions well, feel free to add more repetitions to each movement. For example you can always do three or four repetitions per motion.

With this video the calorie burn will not be very high just because of how short the routine is but because of the intensity of the exercises and their combination, you can actually burn a very high number of calories per minute.  You can expect to burn anywhere from 6 calories per minute on the low end and 13 calories per minute on the high end, giving you a total calorie burn of around 30 - 65 calories per minute. This seems like not that much but keep in mind that this routine is only 5 minutes long and if you do it twice in a row then your calorie burn bumps up to 60 - 130 calories for only 10 minutes of work.