"Get started. It all adds up. You're better to do 15 minutes than Jack (nothing)," Bridges tells AAP.
Australians should remember how lucky they are that they start the New Year in summer - perfect for getting outside and getting into the habit of doing some form of exercise. Bridges says it about starting new routines.
"Do something and you'll be surprised that it could spur you on to doing more and more and more," says the personal trainer.
In fact, she's put her no-nonsense words of wisdom into her new book, 5 Minutes a Day, Simple Tips for Weight-loss and Wellbeing, which she says is the perfect guide to help clean up your diet and do more exercise this summer.
Tips such as: If you know you have to train in the mornings, because you never do it in the evening even when you tell yourself you will, get to bed earlier and get it done.
"I think the best time to train is the morning - there are people who say the biochemistry is better, that you're burning straight into your fat stores and so forth, but I just think it's good to do it - get the monkey off the back," she says.
Bridges recommends interval training because it chews up stacks of calories and hits major muscle groups in a functional way.
Another tip is a quick seven-minute run. "Out of bed, joggers on and run away from your house as fast as you can for seven minutes. Turn around and return home in eight minutes," she writes.
Next time you go to the gym, she writes, warm up, then do a 500-metre sprint on the rowing machine - then do your regular training session - your workout will be taken to another level.
Turn up early, too. Jump on a machine before your class - you'll burn heaps more calories, she writes.
Finding a training partner can make a massive difference too she says.
"Get someone that's like-minded, someone that wants to achieve something like you - share and commit your goals with them. And kick each other in the butt when you need to.
"And you'll be surprised how much harder you can train when you're working with someone who wants it as bad as you do," she says.
Bridges is also a fan of technology.
"It's good to weigh yourself, it's good to measure yourself, it's great to have a heart-rate monitor to see if you're goofing off or if you're actually training hard and you know how many calories you're burning.
"It's nice to know the numbers, we've got the technology, why not use it?" she says.
Play mind games with the heart-rate monitor and tell yourself you cannot leave the gym until you have burned 600 calories, she writes.
Another tip from Bridges is to exercise while watching television - rather than sitting on the sofa at every commercial break, jump up and bang out some exercise - squats for first ad, push-ups in the second, crunches the next.
"If being time poor is your number-one excuse, you just lost it," she writes.
Once again, Bridges has the last word.
* 5 Minutes a Day, Simple Tips for Weight-loss and Wellbeing by Michelle Bridges is published by Penguin and available now. RRP $12.95
By Julia Carlisle
