Time is of the essence. You have to make time for fitness or you will not be productive in the rest of your life. Yet it sometimes seems nearly impossible to get enough exercise into a hectic life. The good news is that you do not have to work out for hours a day to have an effective muscle and fitness program. Here are a few fast workouts that will help you get fit, burn fat, and add lean muscle.

1. Sprints

Set up a cone to mark the distance you want to go for your sprint Warm up, of course. Jog in place for a couple of minutes to get your heart rate up and then do a bit of dynamic stretching. Now you are ready for your sprints. Run full out as fast as you can for the cone. Then, keep moving and jog more slowly back to your starting position. Do this about five times. Research has shown that this fast fitness workout can be as effective as an hour of slower cardio exercise.

2. Jump Rope

Jumping rope is a tried and true fitness exercise that has been used for increasing cardiovascular capacity. Get a sturdy jump rope with comfortable handles. If you are handy, you can make one, but be sure the rope is heavy enough to drop back to the floor when you put your arms down. It can be a thin rope, just not an extra light length of material like twine. Jump for 10 minutes straight, increasing your intensity over time as you improve your fitness.

3. Stair Climbing

First, make sure the stairs are clean and the stairways are free of clutter and debris. The first time you work out, just walk up the stairs. As you continue over time, you can walk up more quickly, begin to skip steps or even bound up the steps in great leaps.

4. Bodyweight Exercises

Learn the basic bodyweight exercises and how to do them in proper form. Learn exercises such as different forms of pushups, bodyweight squats, lunges, floor planks, bodyweight deadlifts and lying leg thrusts. Every day you are short on exercise time, put together a short routine doing a few of these exercises. By varying the routines, you will find the workouts more interesting and productive.

A few tips for fast muscle and fitness gains:

Time your workouts. Rather than going by repetitions, go by how long you have been doing the exercise. It is a revolutionary idea, but a good one. You can focus on intensity rather than the number of times you do the exercise. You can do things like lowering the weights slowly and using correct form without worrying that you are going to be all day in the gym.

Work alone. Some workouts are great with a partner, but if you want to do a fast workout, work by yourself. Then, you can go at your own pace.

Skip all the rest in between exercises. You are only decreasing the intensity of your workout when you stop to rest for a lengthy period between each exercise. Remember that high intensity is what makes fast workouts effective. That is why you can work out for less time and still get great results.