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At the start of October I joined a 30-day challenge on The Betty Rocker’s website. Each week she’d sent out a new workout challenge for people to do at home — you could do it as often as you liked, or tack it on to other workouts, but the goal was to get it in three times a week at minimum. Each workout was a series of seven one-minute exercises, which you were supposed to repeat at least three times.

The challenge also included access to an active Facebook group page and periodic emailed tips, recipes, and other encouragement from Ms. Rocker, and really, it was great. Just a super helpful, incredibly positive experience, and it cost zero dollars. I totally recommend checking out her next free challenge, which it sounds like she’ll be doing in early 2014.

What I really learned from doing this is that you can absolutely get an amazing workout in about twenty minutes, WITHOUT Jillian “Don’t Phone It In” Michaels, with no equipment and very little floor space. I wish I could share her exact program with you, because it cleverly built each week so by the end of the month I was doing moves I absolutely couldn’t have managed during week one (push up jacks! Get right out of town!), but — well, shit, I don’t really know how this stuff works but I’m thinking that’s her intellectual property and even though she provided it for free it’s probably not kosher of me to copy and paste it elsewhere.

But the concept itself is basic and adaptable, so if you’re in the market for some new home workout options, here’s the idea:

• Write down a list of bodyweight exercises. You know: squats, pushups, tricep dips, planks, mountain climbers, lunges. Here’s a handy reference.

• Make a circuit out of seven of them. Adapt as needed — everything should be challenging, but not in sustain-a-brutal-injury kind of way. Pushups too hard? Do them inclined or from your knees. Pushups too easy? You monster. Do them on an exercise ball or raise one leg.

• Program that shit into an interval timer. I’m a fan of Interval Pro. It’s only $3 (there’s a free version, too, and I cannot remember why I upgraded — maybe it has ads?), it plays nice with iTunes, it’s got a clear readable display. Here’s how I set up the 3-sets-of-7 routine:

So that cycles between a high interval that’s one minute long, during which I do as many reps as I can of one exercise, and a low interval of fifteen seconds, during which I gasp and wipe sweat and get ready for the next thing. It repeats for seven cycles to get in all seven exercises, and I follow it through three times.

• Last but not least, have music in your ears. This is the most critical step and the thing that actually keeps me motivated and preferring this type of solo workout WAY more than listening to Jillian tell me to “Make! The! Most of it!”: you need some righteous tunes playing directly into your ear-holes so you don’t have to hear yourself panting or your kids playing nearby or anything at all other than the sweet gritty scream of AWOLNATION singing “This Kid’s Not Alright.” (Your power song may vary.) Just make sure you have your interval timer where you can see it.

You could repeat it 5 times, you could mix up the exercises each interval so you don’t get bored, you could really strategize over what order you do them in so you work in supersets or give yourself much-needed muscle breaks (pushups followed by squats, say). You could add weights (squats with overhead presses), or mix in some evil plyo moves.

Three sets of seven basic bodyweight moves is highly effective all on its own, though. I find that the time goes by pretty quickly, too — there’s something about knowing you only have to do something for a minute that keeps you going.

Anyway, forgive me for the occasional boring exercise-related post. I always get excited when I feel like I’ve discovered something that works for me, and I JUST WANT TO SHARE.

I was dropping Riley off at school a couple days ago and before I pulled away from the curb Dylan pointed to a kid nearby and said “Hey, I know that guy, that’s Riley’s friend Devon.” I paused there for a moment, watching Riley run up behind the kid and do that thing where you tap someone on one shoulder and duck sideways to the other so they have to look around. I had this morbid desire to … well, I guess to see whether’s Devon’s face fell or showed irritation once he spotted Riley. I felt like if it was a one-sided friendship, I’d see it right away in Devon’s expression. I just wanted to know.

During our conference last week, Riley’s teacher described some of the anxiety he gets in class. It sounds like things have improved since last year, but he’s still very rigid about rules and worries excessively about falling behind or not being able to do things exactly right. One example was his reaction to taking a math test — because the teacher had to log everyone into their computer one by one, Riley became panicked that he wouldn’t have enough time to finish the test and started crying. “He’s a boy who takes things very seriously,” she said.

She also said he was a wonderfully responsible student, never causes any trouble, and is generally a delight to have in her class. “I can always count on him,” she told me, and I’m proud of him for that and so many other things. But I worry about his worrying, you know? It’s something we try to help him with, it’s something we’re keeping an eye on.

Mostly, though, I wanted to hear how he was doing socially. Of course I want to know if my second grader is falling behind academically, but to be honest my main concern at this age is whether he’s happy in school and making friends. Last year he struggled a little with kids he felt weren’t following the rules, which resulted in a couple of tattling situations. It doesn’t seem like that’s going on this year, though. “He seems very well-liked to me,” his teacher said. “I think he’s one of the few who truly gets along with everyone in class.”

It’s a tough balance, wanting to preserve and protect your sensitive child at the same time. You’re perfect the way you are, I think. But sometimes also this: Oh, buddy. Don’t make things harder than they need to be.

What I saw the other morning was a little boy who was thrilled to see his friend. Devon’s face lit up and he grinned at Riley with sincere delight: Well holy shit, fancy seeing you here! They ducked their heads together and ran into the school side by side, giggling. I drove away, because that’s my job: to watch, to listen, to help when I can — and ultimately, to leave.

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