It is no secret that stress hits us all. There is nothing we can do about that; however, we can take control of the stress. One of the most recommended remedies for stress is exercise. I do not know about you, but when I am stressed, I usually am because there are not enough hours in the day. Last thing I even want to think about is exercise.

There are very few of us can argue not being able to find 15 minutes in our schedules. 15 minutes is all it takes to burn off some steam without leaving the area. There is a simple 5-5-5 or “triple-nickel” equation to a simple workout.

Five minutes of cardio or simply moving the blood; five minutes of strength to flex the muscles; and five minutes of stretches to release the built up tension and re-focus our energy.

Five minutes of body moving:

This can be anything that makes the heart pump. You can jump rope, run in place, dance, hit a punching bag, find a staircase to go up and down, jog or walk briskly around the parking lot, etc. The idea is to simply move your body. We ignore the value of this so often throughout the day.

Five minutes of strengthening:

Grab some weights and do some reps, drop and give me twenty, iron chair, or whatever suits your fancy. The idea is to not stop. Roll into the next exercise from the previous one with only a short breather in between. I like to do some push ups, flip over and do bicycles, stand and do some lunges, drop into a plank, then do a different variation of push ups to start the next round, followed by crunches, an iron chair, and so forth until I hit my five minute mark. Varying the muscles worked allows one muscle group to get a break allowing for max effort when I come back to that muscle group.

Five minutes of stretching:

All of us know what types of stretches and method of stretching we prefer. Now, that our blood is flowing and muscles twitching, we can do our favorite stretches to reach the body parts we just exercised. However, our muscles are warm and we can actually push ourselves a little further than usual. Once you get to that point where you would normally stop, try to go just a touch more. Do not make it hurt; just push the limits a bit.

After these 15 minutes, you should feel less stressed. Even if you do not, at least you are in slightly better shape than before.