There are so many thousands of people who will excuses like "Oh, I just don't have time to go to a gym". They assume that fitness is something that can be achieved with long hours at the gym where they will have to run on a treadmill or pump serious weights.

The truth is however far from it. Depending on your current physical condition, it can be possible for you to really start making a difference in your fitness with workouts that take as little as 15 minutes.

Let us start with this simple test. Lie down on a mat and attempt to do some pushups. How many were you able to do? If you are in really poor physical condition, you will find that doing even a couple will be really difficult. Some will not even be able to do one. It is generally accepted that an average man should be able to do about 30 pushups at one go.

Pushups - If you were to start working on your pushups or press ups right away, there is no reason why you will not be able to do the average number in a couple of months. A push up is a very simple exercise to do although it is very complex in the sense that it works several parts of your body. Your chest or pectoral muscles are used extensively when you do a push up. These are very large muscle groups in the body and bigger chest muscles will give you a defined look. Larger chest muscles will also mean that your metabolism rate will be increased as the body burns more and more calories to feed your larger muscles. A push up will also work on your triceps and shoulders. They will also make you strengthen your abdominal or core muscles that will be used to stabilize the body. As you can see, a simple exercise like a pushup will be able to work on several parts of the body, thus giving you a very time effective exercise routine. Even if you were to do just pushups to begin with, you will have taken a pretty good step towards your fitness goals. A set of three pushups will take you about 10 minutes at the most and if 10 minutes are all you have in your day for a workout, spend them on a push up routine.

Chin-ups - The average man should be able to do about 8 chin-ups. These are great exercises for the back and arms and will complement pushups very well. Pushups will allow you to tone and strengthen your front side of the upper body while chin ups will tone and strengthen your back. These are pretty difficult exercises to do, especially if you are just starting up. You can go in for a weight assisted pull up or chin up that will offset some of your body weight. If you cannot go to a gym to do weight assisted pull ups, ask your workout partner to give you a spot by supporting your hips. Do the best you can and try to work your way up to higher repetitions.

Lower body workouts - The two exercises above will give you a great workout routine for your upper body although you will have to give attention to your lower body as well. Squats are a great way to work your thighs, buttocks and even your calf muscles at the same time. These are high intensity exercises and one will have to be careful about starting up slow. If you get over enthusiastic and do 50 all of a sudden, you will be pretty sore the next day and may not even be able to walk as your muscles will be too tight. Start with a small number like 10 and work your way up to higher levels. Once your legs get stronger, use other exercises like lunges or weight assisted lunges to step up your lower body workouts.