Credit: Ben Wiseman/The New York Times

Short on time but want to get in shape? Cram your whole workout into seven minutes a day.

It sounds too good to be true, but as The New York Times reports on its website, an article in the American College of Sports Medicine’s Health & Fitness Journal provides an approximately seven-minute exercise regimen that is scientifically designed to offer the typical benefits of a longer fitness routine. The workout is shown in the graphic above.

As the Times notes, for the workout to deliver results, you have to really exert yourself: “The exercises should be performed in rapid succession, allowing 30 seconds for each, while, throughout, the intensity hovers at about an 8 on a discomfort scale of 1 to 10, Mr. Jordan says. Those seven minutes should be, in a word, unpleasant. The upside is, after seven minutes, you’re done.”

Commenters on the Times post report positive results. And see the “Fitness Pollenator” blog for a tweaked version of the seven-minute workout.