Giving that popular 7-Minute Workout a try

The only equipment the Scientific 7-Minute Workout requires is a set of small weights. | Sue Ontiveros Photo

Ooh, look; a workout from the New York Times that’s only seven minutes.

That sounds good, doesn’t it, for the time-strapped among us? The Scientific 7-Minute Workout doesn’t require a lot of space and the only equipment needed is a set of hand weights.

But a little more about that before you start doing handstands over it.

It’s a very good workout, but don’t equate seven minutes with ease. Quite the contrary. These are serious resistance exercises (lateral pillar bridges, planks) that require you maintain good form. Some of them involve a series of moves and feature the weights, so you really want to make sure you get the sequence and how to segue from one to the other.

Since it was published last week, I’ve been doing the workout, but slower (and taking more than seven minutes) so that I can get the positions correct. I’d really recommend doing the same, even if it does take more than seven minutes. It’s better to have the proper form than to do them incorrectly (and in a way that could lead to injury).

If you have someone at home who can observe (without giggling) while you’re doing them and can tell when you’re out of form, that’s helpful, too.

Once you get the moves down, by all means work on doing as many as possible in the time allotted (they vary from 30 to 60 seconds). Maybe you’ll be surprised as I was how slowly 30 seconds passes while doing them.

Do the moves right and quickly and you will get your heart rate up. Each time I’ve done it, I’ve been sore (in a good way) the next day.

This actually is the second seven-minute workout featured by the New York Times. It was developed for the Times by the Phoenix-based company EXOS. It’s considered more advanced than the first one, which you might want to start with and then work your way to the newer one.

You also can download the app to your mobile device here. Give it a try.