Every consecutive year people add more to their already busy lives. To be honest I don’t know how they do it. Looking at some people I am baffled and pretty damn impressed with how they juggle 100 things at a time.
This craziness in our everyday lives forces exercise to be pushed back day after day and finding that hour to workout becomes even harder.
Even if we are able to find that hour in our schedule things are always popping up or slowing us down while just ticking more time off the clock for those workouts.
When I first began training and started getting busy, I was told that I need to live the brand. I could have taken this two different ways.
First, by working harder and longer hours without taking care of myself because I was “living the brand”. Second, I could begin taking better care of my health and make sure that I am doing the things that I was having my clients do.
SO HAPPY I CHOSE OPTION TWO. Option one sounded lame.
The problem was that time was getting away from me, and finding that hour during the day for my own workouts was getting more difficult as my schedule picked up.
Another reason why I believed option two may have some more benefit for me.
I had to change my mentality and put my own health and wellness as a top priority for each day.
It’s what keeps me happy, healthy, and sane. Making it a priority in my head was a hell of a lot easier than a priority in my schedule.
Looking at my week I needed to find times that I could fit in a workout and times that were out of the question. For most days early mornings were out of the question because clients were always picking up those hours (which I love).
Next I had to find out what days worked best. Some days I was out earlier, some later, and then I could also look at my days off. From this point I knew potential times, days, and durations.
Now the hard part, forming these times into my schedule as set block. No overbooking, no changing, I needed to stick to this.
Making a direct hard change in my schedule was hard at first but it was the only thing that kept me from overriding my “personal time” with more work.
I know I wasn’t the only one having trouble scheduling out my own time to exercise.
For anyone with a similar issue, the first step that you must do is to sit down and lay out your entire schedule. Look at your open time periods, how many days you need, how long you need, and if things can be moved around.
Now that you laid out everything in front of you, it’s time to make it official and block off that time all together. That is YOUR time and you DESERVE it.
Trying to just “fit in” a workout during convenient times will be a recipe for inconsistency. Don’t fall into this trap.
Everyday is an opportunity to grow, and that goes for all aspects of life, make sure you are moving your big rocks and making them a significant part of your schedule.
Once you make it a priority and it’s part of your routine that’s when real consistency shines.
Moving away from the actual scheduling piece there are other problems as well.
There are a lot of people in this world who think it is a waste of time to do a workout that is less than 1 hour long. I will tell you, they are WRONG.
Any amount of time doing physical activity is more beneficial than doing nothing at all.
If you only have a 20 minute window then a 20 minute workout, planned well, can be much more beneficial than you think.
Look at your training block and find something that you could/want to be better at. Please don’t just pick bench press when you already do it 4 times a week.
Make a realistic choice of something you really need work on. Like a unilateral squat variation, everyone hates them, but they are damn great exercises.
Devoting a full 20-minute session to that one particular movement is a great way to develop strength and skill in that pattern.
Another option for those 20-30 minute blocks is a to condense your workout to fit that time period.
Say your plan for today was 9 exercises ranging from 3-5 sets each. Target the main exercises that will give you the most bang for your buck. So choosing a squat over a donkey kickback.
Stick with about 5 exercises for this option.
With your workout laid out in front of you, cut your rest periods down to 30 seconds. This keeps you moving but won’t make the session feel like cardio with weights.
Modify your weights to fit the shorter rest periods and I am telling you, this will be a very effective workout.
Changing up certain variables is good to keep variety within your program. Your body is not adapted to these new changes so the novelty can yield great results.
The last option I am going to lay out with caution: Circuit style training.
This is when you have a group of different exercises and you go from one exercise to the next. Once you finish all the exercises that is one set and you restart the circuit.
Circuit style training in this portion of the post has caution tape around it because people are addicted to this style of training. All those group-ex classes and “women-only” clubs formulate their entire business model around circuit style training.
I know this is a severe over-generalization but most of these classes are the cardio with weights mentality.
“Grab those 3 pound dumbbells and do 45 overhead presses”
Little does this person know that they have the strength to press 20-pound dumbbells overhead, but will never realize it!
For the people who have never tried this style of training or do it on rare occasions I think it is a great option.
It will have similar effects as the previous options due to the novelty. If you are always doing straight sets and maybe the occasional superset then you will benefit so much from a few circuit style workouts.
Once again, pick exercises that are of higher value.
Here are some options for those shortened workouts.
OPTION #1: Short Rest
1a. Deadlifts: 4×5 30 second rest
2a. Chin-ups: EMOM 5-10 reps 4-5 minutes
3a. Z-Press: 3×6-8
3b. Overhead Carry: 3x40yds 30 seconds rest
4a. Weighted Side plank: 3x:30ea no rest (one side after another)
OPTION #2: Circuit Style
1a. Box Squat: 4×5
1b. Reverse Lunge: 4×6-8ea
1c. Dual Bent Over Row: 4×8
1d. Ring Pushups: 4×8-20
1e. Straight Leg Crunch: 4x10ea
Rest 1:00, repeat
Time is our biggest competition in this world because it never stops. If we don’t start taking the time to care for ourselves our time will come much faster. Extend your time and push yourself harder.
Jeffrey Nagle
