15- and 20-Minute Workouts at Home: What to Do on Which Day

One Reddit user asked the question most short-workout pages skip: “Do I focus push-ups for 15 minutes one day, then squats the next day, then pull-ups the next day, and so on? Or do I try to mix complementary exercise in a limited window?”

Mix, but don't cram your whole body into 15 minutes. Two pairs of moves fit, and that's enough to work half your body well, so split your body in two and take turns. With 20 minutes, you can do the whole body every time.

Both ways work. A 2024 review of 14 studies found that splitting the body across days and training it all at once built the same strength and muscle, as long as the total number of sets in the week was the same. So pick by the time you really have on most days, not the time you wish you had.

• 15 minutes: the two sessions below, A and B. Week 1 is A, B, A. Week 2 is B, A, B.
• 20 minutes: the one full-body session, with a day off between, say Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
• Some days only 10: do one pair and call it done. Our workouts for busy moms guide builds a whole week out of 10-minute pieces.

Each session is two pairs. Do the first move, go straight into the second, then rest 40 seconds. That's one round, about 2 minutes. Each pair matches a leg move with an upper-body move, so your legs rest while your arms work. For weight, use dumbbells or a backpack with a few books in it.

Session A: squat and push

Session B: hinge and pull

A works the front of your legs, your chest, shoulders and the backs of your arms. B works the back of your legs, your glutes and your back.

Two pairs again, but each pair gets four rounds, and together they hit every muscle group. Same rhythm: first move, second move, 40 seconds of rest. Same dumbbells or backpack.

If a day opens up to half an hour, our 30-minute workout at home adds a third pair.

For getting stronger, yes. What counts is the hard sets each muscle gets in a week (a hard set ends with a few good reps left in you), not how long one session lasts. A 2021 review on training when you're short on time puts the minimum at 4 hard sets a week for each muscle group. The same review says supersets, where you do two moves back to back, roughly halve the time it takes to do the same work.

Both plans give you well over 4. Miss a 20-minute session (it happens) and you still get 8 that week. On the 15-minute plan, pick up with the session you missed, so A and B keep taking turns.

Short sessions have held up in studies too. In one, people who trained in three 13-minute sessions a week for 8 weeks gained about as much strength as groups who trained far longer. Those were men who already lifted. In another, women new to lifting did one set of each move, 3 days a week, and got stronger by 12 weeks. A group doing more sets kept improving to 24 weeks. The one-set group made no significant gains after 12. So start with the minutes you have, and add sets when your weeks open up.

A hard set doesn't mean going until you can't do another rep. Stop with a few good ones left. A 2023 review of 15 studies found no evidence that going all the way to failure builds more muscle.

When you reach the top number of reps in every round, make it harder next time: add a book to the backpack, pick up heavier dumbbells, or move your push-up hands from the couch to the floor. When the backpack runs out of room, our guide to a dumbbell workout for women says which two pairs of dumbbells to buy.

These sessions are your strength days. The US guidelines also ask for 150 to 300 minutes a week of moderate activity like a brisk walk, so walk on the other days, or after a session when you can. Our free weekly workout planner lays out your lifting days and walks from the minutes you have.

Our creators build for busy weeks too. Of the 183 Solin programs whose creators say how long a workout takes, 110 never go past 30 minutes, and 29 never go past 20.

Lauren Mohns describes her Hot Mom Kickstart as “smart, efficient, 20-minute strength sessions that fit seamlessly into your life.” Kate Nolte's Quick Minutes – Lean Transformation promises “Just 15-30 minutes a day to reconnect – with your body, your energy, and your confidence.”