When you’re busy it can be hard to find the time to exercise. As a business owner and a mum to two young girls, I get it! However, getting your body moving is important, so if you training sessions aren’t happening, you need to shift your mindset and perhaps try a different approach.
Train short but often
Cumulative training – a workout split up over the course of your day – makes sure that you still clock up the exercise mileage but just not in one hit. Consider how you might be able to break up a 30 minute session into two 15 minute blocks, or three 10 minute ones.
For example, in the morning you could do a 10 minute lower body workout that you could begin while you’re waiting for the toaster to pop and kettle to boil at breakfast time. In the afternoon you could take a 10 minute walk around the block at lunch. In the evening, you could do a short yoga session, go for a jog or do some upper body and core exercises.
You still get all the benefits of moving your body to get fitter and stronger, but sometimes it can be a lot easier to find that shorter amount of time than a full half hour block.
Remember as well that getting your body moving in some way is infinitely better than not getting moving at all and trying to hold on for the holy grail of half hour+ sessions that just aren’t happening.
Work it into other activities
Can’t even seem to find 10 minutes to sort your exercise? Dual purpose your workouts. As a personal trainer I’m fortunate to get a decent amount of training in when I’m teaching others and demonstrating, but even I struggle to work extra exercise in on some days. My daughters have a lot of energy, so to get them to burn it off I find it helps to do my training with them sometimes.
This can sometimes be a gym workout or yoga session together, but more often it’s walking the dog with our family at the beach (the dog needs exercise too!), running around with a kite or soccer ball at the park, doing gardening or house cleaning activities, taking stairs instead of escalators or elevators…
Have a look at the activities that you normally do in your day – how could you add in bite-sized exercise sessions?