If you have a busy life, and most people do, you know that it can be hard to find time to exercise. The demands of children, work, or school can keep you from sticking to your goal to burn fat.

Most people can find a few ten minute blocks throughout the day, so are shorter workouts just as effective as one longer one?

You often hear that it takes the body about twenty minutes to start burning serious calories and fat, so wouldn't that make shorter workouts ineffective? What is the best way to burn fat on a tight schedule?

If you spend the same amount of time on your short workouts as you would on one long ones, the American Heart Association says that you will get the same benefits.

This means that if you do four ten minute workouts, you are doing the same great things for your body that a single forty minute workout can do. To make it even more effective, the AHA recommends that you make these short workouts as intense as possible.

Moderate exercise won't cut it for your short workouts. You need to make them challenging. Try the following tips to get the most from your mini workouts.

1. Pick up the pace. A lot.

With a short workout, go faster than you normally do during a long workout. Run for ten minutes at a fast pace. If you prefer to walk, go much more briskly than you usually do. The key is to get your heart going.

2. Hop on the treadmill or elliptical.

If you are at the gym or have equipment at home, jump on and exercise extremely rigorously for ten minutes.

3. Use the stairs. Or a hill.

Then walk back down and repeat until you hit ten minutes.

4. Try some jumping jacks.

5. Do ten minutes of jumping rope.

What makes a good ten minute workout is intensity. Work hard, go all out, and you'll burn fat. Strength training is also great for your mini-workouts.

Your body needs a variety of activities in order to burn fat. Warm up for a few minutes with light cardio, and try the following moves:

* Squats. These are one of the best moves to get your body in shape.

* Lunges

* Bicep curls

* Tricep dips

* Pushups

For great results and a great workout, do several repetitions of each. You can also combine the moves, called compound moves. These work more than one muscle group and include chest presses combined with lunges or overhead presses done with squats.

Just because your workout is condensed, don't neglect the warm-up and cool-downs. Walking briskly to warm up, and walking at a more moderate pace to cool down is sufficient. You can also do some stretching moves to release tension in your muscles.

Exercise only works if you do it. Fitting in four or so ten minute workouts a day is effective. You will get in shape, burn fat, and have time to spare!

Working out for shorter periods of time can also be much more motivating and can help you stick with your exercise program.

You may have a hard time getting yourself to do a forty minute workout, but you can always do ten, right?