When I tell people that I own Fitter Body Bootcamp in Northampotn, this is very often the response that comes back my way.
“I’d love to exercise, but I’m just too busy”
It’s normal. I get it. In fact before I became a Personal Trainer I had the busy office job type life working 12-14 hour days and occasionally I even found myself saying this!!
The thing is as you start getting older and clothes start getting tighter, kids seem to have more energy than ever and ‘heavy weekends’ take longer to get over, you start to realise that ‘exercise’ isn’t an optional ‘nice to have’ anymore. It actually becomes a necessity.
I should may be clarify this statement a little bit. Exercise becomes an absolute necessity to those that would like the following:
- Improvement in energy levels
- Reduced risk in diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart related diseases
- Live longer
- Run around and keep up with kids
- Improve posture
- Stay physically active for longer
- Reduced risk in back problems
- Maintain healthy metabolism
If things like improved health, energy and feeling good about your body are not high on your priority list then give exercise a miss until they are – this normally happens following a health scare.
The reason that I make this observation is that as soon as you have strong enough reasons to exercise and those reasons are in alignment with your own personal values and goals in life then finding the time to exercise becomes a much easier thing to do.
Until this realisation is made, it’s too easy to take the car, have a lie in, go to bed later, eat convenient fast food etc.
Here are some tips then to start finding that time to exercise:
- Ride a bike to work – this can be a challenge in the UK during the Winter months but by no means is it an impossible task. Just wrap up and within 5 minutes of riding you’re warm anyway.
- Go to bed and set your alarm clock slightly earlier – If you currently go to bed at 11pm then go to bed at 10:30pm. Get up half an hour earlier and exercise. Go for a run or do a 20 minute routine in your living room.
- Brisk walk often – Use your lunch break to walk briskly for a couple of miles each day. Those miles will add up over the week.
- Find somewhere that fits within your schedule – if you prefer to work out in a gym or within a class then find somewhere that fits within this pattern. There are loads of options that can cater for everyone these days – we even run a6am group training session every day during the week.
- Just do a little bit – if the thought of driving to a gym doing a 60 minute workout and the driving back is just too much time out of your day then just do a 20 minute workout each day from home. At a high enough intensity, many 20 minute workouts wil be more effective than 60 minute gym sessions anway.
Consistency is the key. Making exercise a part of your weekly routine so that you don’t even think about it. After all, I bet you don’t think about having something to eat or having something to drink. You just do it because you know you have to. That’s how I would recommend you start looking at exercise as well.
Once you get going and start getting used to the extra release of those happy endorphins flooding your body and you start to see noticeable improvements in body composition, it might even start to become a little bit addictive!
Ricky