14-Minute to Get Stronger

Fact: Gym visits nose-dive in November. Also not fiction: You can tone up and get significantly stronger anywhere—in 14 over-before-you-know-it minutes, no equipment ('cept your body!) required.
Indulge us in an SAT-ish math problem, okay? If Jane works out for only 14 minutes a day, three times a week, how many dumbbells will she have to lift to get stronger and slimmer in two months? The answer: none. All you need is your own body weight as resistance, says a new study in The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness. Researchers found that eight weeks of high-intensity body-weight circuit training majorly improved women's muscular endurance (shown by how many pushups they could do) and aerobic fitness (how well they utilized oxygen). And that just tops off all the previous science that has proven the method's fat-and stress-busting benefits. (Squeeze in a quick sweat session any time with Women's Health's 20-Minute Workouts DVD!)

"The beauty of body-weight training is that it allows you to jump quickly from one exercise to the next, which keeps your heart rate up and also helps you maintain form because you're not fumbling with weights," says personal trainer Gideon Akande, who took home the Men's Health Next Top Trainer title last year. (Plus, perfecting your form means that when you do grab a dumbbell or hit the machines, you'll be able to work more efficiently. Example: Once you've nailed a pushup, you can bang out a renegade row—a pushup where you pull a weight from the floor up to your side.)

Try this explosive full-body routine from Akande three times a week. Complete both sets of the circuit, doing each exercise for 40 seconds and resting for 10 before moving on to the next. The whole shebang clocks in under 14 minutes—but if you're extra pressed for time, do each move for 20 seconds and you'll hit finish in only seven.