In today’s personal training coaching tip we explore how to overcome the common excuse of being too busy to fit in exercise and activity into your life, by simply allowing yourself small chunks of time rather than large time slot commitments.
Let me first start by asking several questions. Are you stressed out with all your family and work responsibilities? Do you find that you’re always tired? Do you ever have that inner battle that you should do something active (get down and play with the kids, go for a walk), but you just want to sit instead?
You’re not alone! It’s called parenting, career, aging and life!
Somewhere in the back of our minds we know that exercise is good for us and can probably help, but we just can’t manage to make it happen.
Finding a balance
People assume that because I’m a personal trainer that I have all the time in the world to fit in exercise in my day. After all, I work at a gym, right? This is far from the truth.
I remember when I welcomed my 2nd child into our family. It was a big adjustment going from 1 kid to 2. Then when we had a 3rd child, even more challenges came into the mix. Or in the words of a great friend of mine, Sean Mooney, we went from ‘tag-team’ to ‘man-on-man defense’, to ‘zone defense’. Before our 2nd child came, both my wife and I were able to spell each other off and find time to workout and exercise. Now, each kid has different needs and schedules and finding time to set up the bike on the trainer and spin for 2 hours just doesn’t happen-I’m lucky to fit in 5 minutes of exercise. Finding a healthy balance is crucial, but very hard to do.
I know that this is not unique to me. I think ALL OF US are just plain and simply busy, stressed and time-crunched. We have SO little time and SO many barriers to exercising under those conditions: getting changed into workout attire, getting to the gym with traffic, knowing what to do once you get there, not having enough time to do the whole exercise video or whatever the case may be. The list goes on. It doesn’t have to be like that. Let me help you with today’s personal training coaching tip on how to fit in exercise in your busy life.
The Power of 5 Minutes
Let me enlighten you with 2 little facts:
1- Taking a few minutes away from being dad/mom/parent/caregiver to take care of yourself doesn’t make you a bad dad/mom/parent! It might even make you a better person.
2- 5 minutes of fitness training is better than 5 minutes of sitting on your butt! Will it be the worlds greatest exercise bout? Maybe not, but it can still be effective. Ever heard of high intensity interval training (HIIT)? Isometrics? You can even break up a bigger workout into smaller chunks throughout the day. These are like dreams come true for the time-crunched among us because it doesn’t take a lot of time yet it still pays big dividends.
What if you don’t have the fitness to do those?
Should you work up to it? What if you lack the motivation to do something like that today?
Answer: Do SOMETHING!
The psychology in how to fit in exercise into your busy schedule
Let me say it again. If you’re time-crunched, fitting in 5 minutes of some sort of fitness exercise is better than nothing. It’s more than just moving for 5 minutes, you are telling your subconscious that wellness, fitness and exercise are a priority that you are making time for. You are making a conscious effort to create or maintain your healthy lifestyle. As you do this, you will start to feel better, have more energy, be able to think clearer. You will lead by example to your partner, friends, and children.
There’s a lot less mental friction to commit to 5 mins than 2 hours. So your challenge will be to work to fit in exercise in smaller time increments throughout the day.
This is huge because often you will find yourself with 5-10 minutes to workout, and if you can get in the habit of doing something then you’re one step closer to your goals. This creates small wins and builds on the law of momentum. Then when you find yourself having more than 5 minutes to exercise you won’t have to have that inner battle of what you’re going to do because you’re used to working out for a lot less time. You’ve now solidified the healthy habit of exercising in just about any situation. Taking advantage of these small bits of time keeps the ball rolling-and is the first law of exercise.
Another benefit that will start to appear is you will end up working out longer. Often once you subconsciously allow yourself to be done in 5 minutes, that after those 5 minutes have passed, you realize you’re starting to feel good and you will continue for another 5 or 10 mins. It’s a little like slowly wading into the subconscious swimming pool. The thought of jumping right in to 15 mins may be too much. However, committing to 5 minutes is ok and you’ll end up still doing 15 min, but this time with little to no mental resistance.
Your mission:
Don’t let those little pieces of time slip away or be squandered because you ‘don’t have enough time to workout’. Use them, do something and keep that habit and healthy lifestyle up.
You can do and you are worth it!
2 responses to “How to fit in exercise into your busy schedule”
[…] 5 minutes of working out is better than nothing. Consistency is SO crucial to keep up the habit and motivation. Instead of worrying about doing 3 sets of 10 reps of something, maybe do 10 sets of 3 reps, spread throughout the day or even week. Either way in this example you’ll be doing 30 reps. Why is interval training so popular? Because it’s effective to get in something intense, but short duration. You don’t have to do a full-on grueling HIIT (high intensity interval training) session, unless you can and want to. Simply put, you can still reap a lot of benefits by doing little bouts. […]
[…] often said that it doesn’t matter if you don’t have tons of time to exercise. I firmly believe that it’s MUCH easier to keep up momentum of a healthy habit than to have […]