How many times have people told you that in order to reach your fitness goals, you must workout for at least an hour at a time each exercise session?

As a former group fitness instructor this 1 hr approach to fitness was actually they way they taught and certified us to instruct. The breakdown was as follows: 10-15 minutes to warm up, 35-40 minutes of exercise, and another 5-10 minutes for cool down. Funny thing is, I’d have more than half the class breaking a sweat during the warm up thinking to myself “Please don’t let Emily in the back pass out 10 minutes into class”. I always wondered why 60 minutes was the “magic number” for what I thought then was the most effective way to get the most from an exercise session.

It’s when I transitioned to one-on-one personal training where I threw the 60 minute exercise model out the window. My days of in person training were dedicated mostly to fast paced professional women (similar to the ladies I...