Fitness

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Gallery: Pump Up Fast! These Classic Fitness Moves Save Time—and Turn Heads

When your schedule gets tight, one of the first things to go is exercise, but it doesn’t have to be. All you need are a few fundamental exercises and some creativity. Compound moves that work multiple muscle groups are key here, as they offer more bang for your buck. Check out the moves on the following pages, then set a time limit and go. For example: 10 pullups, 15 pushups, 20 lunges and 30 kettlebell swings in 20 minutes. If that’s not challenging enough, try multiple rounds. As long as you’re sweating and your heart is pumping, you’ll be making a helluva lot more progress—and, yeah, becoming a lot sexier—than if you spent those 20 minutes on Netflix, right?? Photo: Getty/gilaxia

Pull ups: There’s no better compound movement to blast the upper body. Pullups work so many major muscles including lats, biceps and pectorals as well as a lot of little ones in between. The pullup also happens to be an excellent exercise for the core and will take you a long way toward ripped abs. Struggling with pullups? Try TRX rows. They can be scaled to suit your ability. Photo: Getty/AJ_Watt

Pushups: Another compound movement, the pushup hits multiple muscle groups such as your arms, shoulders, chest, back and abs. Recruiting energy from all these muscle groups requires a lot more energy and therefore burns more calories. Exactly what you are looking for when you are short on time. That and the fact that you can do them anywhere, anytime. Photo: Getty/DeanDrobot

Lunges: The squat may be the king of lower body exercises, but the multiple variations and isolated nature of this fundamental exercise increases its functionality. By engaging not only your quads but also the underused glutes and hamstrings, lunges hit all the major leg muscles They also increase hip flexibility while strengthening your core. The best part is that you can do them at different angles (diagonally and laterally) and with a foot raise to make the exercise not so linear and more challenging. Photo: Getty/shironosov

Jumping Rope: If you’re looking to burn more calories and train your cardiovascular system, then you need to work a jump rope into your exercise routine. Although it primarily works the leg muscles, you do engage the whole body, which is great for overall fitness. Use it on its own or as an active rest between sets of weight training and you will not only boost your stamina but also burn fat. Photo: Getty/Antonio_Diaz

Kettlebell Swings: The most fundamental of kettlebell exercises is hardly basic when it comes to keeping you in shape. By recruiting muscles from the entire body, this movement increases power, muscular endurance, aerobic capacity and anaerobic capacity. It’s an insanely efficient exercise that can be done on its own or with any of these other exercises—and it will certainly leave your heart pounding when you are done. Photo: Getty/Jacob Ammentorp Lund

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