When a busy sales executive told me he could only fit in 15-minute workouts at 5:15 AM with minimal equipment, I told him something that surprised him.
He’d still make progress toward his fat loss goals, even with just a 15-minute workout.
Meet Chris. His world just got flipped: new job, territory sales, home office base. His reliable lunch break workouts? Gone. His equipment? Limited to what fits in his spare bedroom. His available time? Just 15 minutes before his day begins.
Sound familiar? Whether it’s a career change, growing family responsibilities, or life simply speeding up, finding time for proper workouts keeps getting harder.
That’s exactly what led me to develop the LET Method. It’s a simple framework that helps you build strength and muscle efficiently, whether you have 15-minutes or 45, whether you’re working with dumbbells or a full gym.
This isn’t another “quick fix” gimmick. This is a systematic approach to building real strength and muscle when you only have 15 minutes to train.
With the LET Method, you’ll get:
- Confidence that your 15-minute workouts are actually effective
- Clear guidelines for maximizing limited training time
- A system that works with minimal equipment
- The ability to maintain (or even build) strength with short, focused sessions
What you’re about to learn is going to transform how you think about 15-minute workouts.
Table of Contents
What is the Minimum Effective Dose (MED) in Fitness?
That answer is going to look different for almost everyone. We’ve all got unique demands on our time, equipment, injuries, and goals. However, there are general principles you can follow to make sure your MED workouts are getting the job done.
To figure out the right number of reps to do for your MED workouts, you need to consider 3 factors. Because everyone loves a good acronym, we’re going to call it the LET METHOD.
As in, let us show you how to make your short workouts more effective.
Introducing the LET Method: Load, Exercises, and Time
LET stands for: Load, Exercises, and Time. Each variable impacts your MED workout rep range, but makes it easier to determine how to make it all work.
Load: This is the weight you use, relative to your own strength. The heavier the load (think max reps, around 1-3 reps), the fewer exercises you should perform.
Exercises: The more exercises you perform, either the more time you need for your workout OR the lighter the load needs to be.
Time: The more time you set aside, gives you two options: either do fewer exercises with a heavier load OR do more exercises with a lighter load.
View each as a dial that you turn up or down. Turning one up, means you have to turn 2 other dials down. Let’s walk you through how it all works.
3 Short, Effective Workout Strategies Using LET
Strategy 1: Building Pure Strength (Heavy Load Focus)
If you only have 15 minutes and want to focus on strength, you’ll need to focus on just 1 exercise with a heavy load.
That’s because you’re going to need to perform many (many) sets to effectively build up your strength, and take about 2-3 minutes of rest between sets. You’ll get stronger, but you won’t leave much room for volume that will optimize muscle growth.
An example: You’ll increase the weight on each warm-up.
Warm-up set 1 (rest 2 min): 3-5 reps
Warm-up set 2 (rest 2 min): 3-5 reps
Warm-up set 3 (rest 2 min): 2-4 reps
Warm-up set 4 (rest 2 min): 2-3 reps
Working set 1 (rest 2 min): 1-3 reps
Working set 2 (rest 2 min): 1 -3 reps
It won’t seem like much, but it’ll help you build strength when limited on time.
Strategy 2: Muscle Growth and Fat Loss (Moderate Load, More Volume)
If you have those same 15 minutes, you can avoid workouts calling for sets of 1-3 reps, and instead add volume by doing more exercises and moderate weights, bundled in a circuit.
Exercise 1 (no rest): 8-12 reps
Exercise 2 (no rest): 8-12 reps
Exercise 3: 8-12 reps (rest 2 minutes)
You’ll be able to repeat this circuit 3-4 times, and then call it a day. Same time, more reps and exercises, but the intensity is lower.
Strategy 3: Strength With Efficiency (The Hybrid Approach)
If you really want to focus on strength and lower reps but have limited time, try EMOM (every minute on the minute) workouts.
Your time will be the same, but you’ll limit your exercises and lower rest periods. Here’s an example from The Fit Father Guide: EMOM RDL’s (Romanian deadlifts).
Set a timer for 15 minutes. Hit start on the timer, perform 3 reps of RDL’s, and put the weight down. Watch the clock, and when a full minute is completed, do another 3 reps.
Put the weight down, rest for the remainder of the 60 seconds and repeat. Do that until time is up.
Choosing Your Strategy
Everything will come down to your goals. When time is limited, it’s important to play the long-game and be hyper focused on what you want to accomplish.
If you’re looking to build muscle or burn fat, your most time-efficient workouts will require something in the 10-20 rep range. Because they’re the best mix of load and volume, you’ll only need a few sets to challenge your muscles fully.
No matter what equipment you have or how much time you can commit, figuring out those 3 variables will LET you (get it?) see the results you want with a minimum effective dose plan.
B.J. holds a B.S. in Health and Human Performance and multiple certifications, including Precision Nutrition Level 1 and BioForce Certified Conditioning Coach. Over his 14-year coaching career, he’s been fortunate enough to coach a wide range of clients. From online clients looking to get in great shape to CEO Nate Checketts (Rhone) and CEO Marcelo Claure (Softbank), and professional skateboarder Sean Malto. Before beginning his training career, he was a sports science lab research assistant.
