Posted on June 12, 2017 by Jenny Cromack
Exercise can often get pushed to the back burner when life gets hectic, whether it is work, socialising, family or just lack of motivation everyone (even myself) have been guilty of making excuses for not exercising. So the question is…..how can we fit exercise around our busy lives, work and families.
So, without further ado, here are my top tips to fit exercise around work.
Below are the 4 typical mistakes we all make and how I recommend to overcome these obstacles to exercise.
Top Tips To Fit Exercise Around Work
1. The most common one and one that everyone at some stage will have thought, ‘I am too tired, I have worked really hard at work today, I have to cook tonight…let’s just skip today’s session’.
INCORRECT! Firstly, exercise has been researched to release endorphins that will make you feel more energised afterwards. So, if you had massive amounts of cooking to do, you’ll feel more like doing it after an excellent quality training session. Secondly, why have you waited until after work to train anyway? As a personal training company, we frequently have clients who train from 6am or 630am. Set your alarm early and get in the gym, believe me you will feel better for it.
2. Weekends. The amount of time I have heard ‘I want to train hard during the week and then relax during the weekends’. Doing this literally wipes out around 30% of your week. Make time for at least one workout during your weekend, you may be reluctant at first, but if you are anything like me you will grow to love your weekend workouts. Don’t get me wrong I love relaxing and doing very little on my time off, but make time to smash out ten intervals or a 45 minutes gym session in the morning and imagine how good you’ll feel for the rest of the day.
3. Fair enough sometimes the gym is last place you want to be, and I completely get that, it is the same for me occasionally. That does not mean that you can miss your training for that day. Some of the best and most effective training sessions use very little or even no equipment. If you doubt me on this one try this killer home workout…www.m8north.co.uk/blog/no-kit-no-problem-equipment–free–workout/
4. Obviously, family commitments sometime take priority over what you want to do (although it is important to make time for yourself). But there is no reason you cannot try and fit in some exercise into your daily plans. Try to involve walking where possible, think of how many great family activities can involve walking….shopping, taking the kids to the park, a day at the beach, etc.
5. Similarly work can stop you from doing any exercise at all, but there is still a way round this. Be proactive in your work space, walk up and down the stairs all the time. Offer to do jobs for others especially if they involve walking or if its delivering a message do it face to face, not over email like so many of us are guilty of. Make the office space as deliberately ‘annoying’ as possible have the water cooler as far away as possible so you have to walk to it to get water.
These top tips about how to fit exercise around work were so easy to write about as they all so common and relateable to ALL of us. Make sure you fight against your initial thought and get your session in for the day. Think about it like this, when have you ever completed a training session and regretted it……….