Most people think that if they don't have an hour to workout, than it's just not worth it. That's complete hogwash. Look at it like this, if someone asked you "How do you feel at 59 minutes and 59 seconds in your workout?" Nothing magical happened at 60 minutes did it?

The answer, of course, is "no".

The thing you have to understand about your body is that it responds to consistency. It doesn't respond any better on a longer slower approach than it does to a shorter, higher intensity workout. An effective workout can be had in any amount of time, depending on how you change the way you workout.

How to structure your 30-Minute Workout?

First of all to maximize the benefits, your 30-minute workout should consist of both resistance training and cardiovascular training. I like to break up my workouts with a 1:3 ratio. Meaning one third of my workout is devoted to cardiovascular activity and the remaining two thirds are essentially high intensity resistance training.

In order for your workout to be fast, effective you NEED to increase the intensity not necessarily the duration. A more intense workout burns more calories per minute, and will result in a much stronger post-exercise development. When you add fire to your workout, your body goes through micro-tears in the musculature in order to grow, change, and function optimally (but in a good way). Brain weaves are elicited throughout the body that sends a signal telling your body that you are a lean, fat burning machine!

For resistance training, always remember that it is important to cover the whole body. I use just about every muscle group available to me at once, by combining lower- and upper-body exercises. By the end my body is screaming for mercy!

Here's some of my favorite 30 minute Fat Blasting Workouts:

Dumbbell Swings with a Squat

Medicine Ball Woodchops with a Plie Squats

Dumbbell Rows with a Pushup

Burpees

Lateral Pulls with a Reverse Lunge

One Arm Millitary Dumbbell Press with a Close Stance Squat

V ups

Windshield Wipers with a Barbell Press

With these types of compound moves it's important to note that it takes a little coordination to do two things at once, but it's even more important to focus on good form and technique while performing these rigorous exercises.

Do 10 challenging repetitions of each exercise, moving from one to another in circuit fashion. After you've completed every exercise once, start the cycle again and continue until you reach 20 minutes.

Once the 20 minutes are up, it's time to move on to 10 minutes of fat blasting cardio.

Use intense intervals during your cardio session, taking about a minute to get from moderate speed to high intensity.

Whether you're on the stair-stepper, the elliptical trainer, or the treadmill, do:

30 seconds of the highest speed you can tolerate.

Then 30 seconds of normal speed.

Then 30 seconds of the all out teeth gritting resistance you can handle.

Then 30 seconds of normal.

Keep toggling back and forth between speed and resistance until you've completed 10 minutes.

And how often should you do the workout? I would suggest every other day, for beginners but it's OK to do it two days in a row if that's what fits your schedule. The body gets maximum benefit from one full day of recovery so go in, go hard, and go home!