How Do You Workout When You Have No Time?
No Time To Exercise Because You Work Too Much?
Do you struggle to make time for the gym? We don’t blame you.
It is extremely difficult to make time for exercise when you work full-time.
Keep reading for 5 tips on how to make time for exercise, even with an 80-hour workweek.
How Do You Workout When You Have No Time?
The key to exercising on a regular basis is to make exercise a part of your daily routine. In other words, it should feel weird if you don’t exercise.
So how do you get started?
The first thing you need to do is establish a post-work routine that is conducive to fitness. Every single day or shift at work has the potential to be drastically different from the one before it. As a result, your mood, energy level, and time in which you finish your obligations vary on a day-to-day basis.
Despite all of this, you still follow a routine.
No matter what kind of day you had at work or at home, I would bet that you probably
- still have dinner,
- take a shower,
- make a phone call,
- chat with family or friends,
- wind down with a TV show,
- or surf the web.
The point is, you create a routine that (for the most part) pretty much stays the same regardless of the kind of day you had. The key is to take a small portion of this routine and replace it with a quick training session that you could easily integrate into your life.
Sounds impossible?
Here are the 5 things that you need to do to integrate exercise into your post-workout routine:
1) Eliminate Your Commute As Much As Possible
One of the biggest hassles about exercise is the commute to and from the gym. When you work 80 hours a week, there is very little time to be wasted.
You must find a gym that is very close to where you live or work. Wasting time on a commute to the gym is the precious time that you could be using to train, and precious time that you could be using for the remainder of your post-work routine.
2) Bring What You Need To Avoid Going Back & Forth
Now that you have saved some precious time by finding a gym that isn’t out of the way, let’s move on to step #2. You must bring your workout clothes and equipment with you to work. This is a great way to create efficiency and to help set your mindset! Get yourself a nice compact gym bag and pack it with what you need the night before and you are good to go. Once your shift is over, change into your gym clothes before leaving work and go. Having your gym equipment with you serves as a constant reminder that you made a promise to yourself. It also helps to hold you accountable. When co-workers see you leaving the workplace with your gym clothes on, they know that you are headed to exercise. Perhaps, you could also motivate someone else to do the same and join you as a workout buddy!
If you have to go back home to get changed, this will then create a new challenge. You will have to fight the inertia of actually getting dressed and go back out, rather than just laying out on your couch. Plus, this is extra time that is wasted for no reason. This small change can make a big difference. You need to set yourself up for success, and it starts by packing your bag every night, and getting ready to go!
3) Schedule Your Workout: Make It To Your Exercise Sessions No Matter What
Most people find every excuse not to go to the gym. The only way to make training a part of your daily routine is by forcing yourself to go, no matter what. When it comes to fitness, something is ALWAYS better than nothing.
4) Master The Efficient Workout
The next thing you need to do is to learn how to create a short workout that maximizes your time at the gym. You do this by designing a workout plan that can be done in 30 minutes a day.
Yes, 30 minutes.
The good news is: you do not have to spend countless hours in the gym. Try one of our 30 minute RAW classes, designed to utilize ONLY the highest yield exercises to minimize the time needed to spend at the gym. You have to treat exercise like an investment. Why would you waste your time investing money into a venture that will only return 1%? You are much better at allocating your resources almost exclusively to the high yield stuff.
So what are the highest yield exercises?
The highest yield exercises are big, compound exercises with a large range of motion. The ones that exercise multiple muscle groups at once.
PS: Knowing that your workout will only last ~35 minutes makes the anticipation of training more palatable and self-motivating.
5) Make It Fun
Another way to help fit exercise into your busy schedule is to make your training fun, something that you will look forward to.
I know what you’re thinking. How could exercise possibly be fun?
The best way to do this is to turn your exercise routine into small challenges that you must accomplish.
If your goal is to just run on the treadmill for 30 minutes or to simply train your biceps, then you will get nowhere fast. This stuff is unbelievably boring.
Vague training plans such as these will not motivate you to exercise. By making your training fun, you are more likely to keep at it and find/make the time to do it.
Here are some quick strategies to make your training more enticing:
- Keep a Journal: Keep track of your progress. Document all of the exercises you perform, along with the weight, the sets and the reps you do. Nothing is more fun than progress.
- Aim for a Small Win Every Day: As you track your progress, try to be better than you were the day before in any measure, (sets, reps, weight, etc). It’s like watching yourself evolve!
- Take Progress Photos every 4 weeks: There’s nothing more motivating or uplifting than seeing before and after photos during a workout routine.
- Compete With a Friend or Family Member: Friendly competition always helps. See who can bench or squat more weight at the end of the month!
It is unbelievably rewarding watching yourself get stronger and beating your previous personal records!
We challenge you to use these five tips to fit an exercise session into your weekly schedule. It is not easy, but if you are disciplined enough to do this for a few weeks, you will build the exercise habit. Studies have shown that habits can be developed with 66 days of consistent deliberate practice. Additionally, you will also begin to note significant improvements in the way you feel, your energy levels, and your sleep quality.
Accept the challenge!