How many times have you been really busy and said to yourself, or someone else, “I don’t have time to exercise”? This is an easy excuse, even though we know that regular exercise is important to prevent disease, to maintain a healthy body weight, for more energy, etc. Everyone gets busy, whether you’re a stay-at-home mom or you work outside of the home, keeping up with kids activities, in addition to all the other stuff you have to do, can be exhausting and exercise is usually the first thing to get pushed aside.
First of all, we don’t need an hour every day to workout. Research shows that high intensity interval training, aka HIIT workouts, can burn more calories in a shorter amount of time than moderate intensity cardio, such as the treadmill, bike or elliptical. HIIT involves short bursts of high intensity exercises, followed by short rest periods, for a total of 10-30 minutes. These higher intensity workouts can produce the same health benefits as other types of workouts in a much shorter amount of time. This is great news for those of us who don’t have a lot of extra time in our busy day! Surely you can find just 10 minutes?
Here are my top 5 tips for fitting in exercise to your busy schedule:
1. Set An Exercise Goal. Think about your long-term and short-term health goals. Make a specific exercise goal that includes how many days per week you will exercise and then create a general schedule with what type of exercise you will do on each of those days.
2. Schedule Your Exercise. What I recommend to clients is to schedule your exercise like you would any other appointment or meeting. At the beginning of each week, take a look at your calendar and block off time when you will exercise. Now that you have a workout schedule in mind, you can plug in your workouts on the appropriate days. If you have it planned out in your schedule, you’re more likely to stick with it.
Do you need help with these two? This is where a personal trainer can be very beneficial. Whether you just need one session to help you create a new routine and give you suggestions on which exercises would be best, or maybe you want to schedule several sessions to help you do the exercises correctly and help you reach your goals. Personal trainers can offer as much, or as little, support as you need. I would love to help you with this, I offer in-person and online personal training.
3. Recruit A Friend. It's a great idea if you can find a friend to exercise with you. If
you can schedule one or two sessions per week with a friend, you’ll be even less likely to
cancel than if you were doing it alone. You're also more likely to push yourself a little harder when working out with a buddy.
4. Find A Group Class. You will probably find several group classes offered at your gym or even outdoor workouts in your neighborhood, such as boot camps or running clubs. Find something that interests you, at a time that you can commit to, and then you know they are expecting you to show up each week. It can be very motivating to have the group support and accountability. plus you'll probably learn a lot.
5. Move More During The Day. Aside from formal exercise sessions, we do need to be
active during the day, every day. But this is especially important on days that you can’t fit
in that 10-60 minute exercise session. Focus on moving more during your day. What do I mean? Every time you drive somewhere, park at the back of the parking lot and walk those extra steps into your office or into the grocery store. Always take the stairs instead of elevators or escalators. Take small breaks from any task you’re doing during the day and do a lap around your house or stand up and do 25 squats. Anything to get you moving throughout the day. My Apple watch is great for giving reminders every hour to stand, use something like that, or set a timer so you will be reminded to step away from your computer every so often. Just these little bouts of exercise during the day will make you feel better, and they all add up. When you find an extra 5 minutes during the day, go for a quick walk.
These are all really simple things you can do, and I’m sure you’ve heard them all before. What are some other ideas or things that you have done to fit in exercise during busy times?
My challenge for you is to take a look at your calendar and schedule your exercise for the next week. Make it a priority. And then I want to hear how it worked for you!