Rebecca:

I've often said my 2 favorite times to do cardio are first thing in the morning and after weigh training.

However I never said it should take you an hour and 45 minutes to get it all done. It's no wonder you're tired.

The average person doesn't need to spend an hour and a half in the gym unless you plan on entering a bodybuilding contest or sports event. If you have a family, career and other responsibilities you may want to practice a little time management.

If you do an intense weight training workout for more than an hour you will have exhausted most of you're energy stores.

By the time you start you're cardio you will have a hard time finding the energy or the motivation to get finished. I believe that's why a lot of people decide to skip cardio and go home instead. To understand why it' important to get done faster; let's take a look at how the body stores energy.

When you eat carbohydrates during the day glycogen is stored in you're muscles to be used as energy for physical activity. When you workout you tap into these stores for fuel but the harder and longer you workout the more glycogen-energy-stores the body burns.

If you spend too much time working out you will actually feel you're focus and you're energy begin to fade away before you're finished and you're workout will never be as good as it could have been. You may also be putting yourself at risk of injury because you won't be concentrating as you would under normal circumstances.

A better idea might be getting an intense weight training workout in 25-30 minutes while you still have gas left in the tank. Then finish with 35-40 minutes of cardio bringing the grand total of time spent in the gym down to approximately an hour and ten minutes.

This can be accomplished by cutting back on the amount of weight lifting exercises, reducing rest periods between sets and picking exercises that take less time to set up. If someone's using the machine that's next on you're program, skip it and do something else. You can go back to it later when their finished. It's also a good idea to stay away from people that spend most of their time talking rather than getting work done.

These techniques will allow you to get you're workout done before you're energy level reaches empty. If done correctly you can actually get a more intense workout in less time. What can be better than that?

It's important to understand that I'm not saying you should rush through each exercise; In fact I believe you should take you time and complete each exercise with the best form possible.

I am saying that I believe you can increase you're efficiency as well as save energy by reducing the total time spent in the gym. You'll get a much better workout.

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