Staying Active With a Busy Life

If you’ve read any of my previous work you know I have talked about the importance of controlling your calendar, especially if you are trying to stay active.

For many of you, life is chaotic and there is no escaping it, every day/week brings something new and just when you think you’re in the clear it smacks you in the face again. Whether you are juggling work, family and personal commitments, or as I found out last week, being sick can often leave little room for exercise or at least exercise you had planned. But in my experience, where most people fall down when it comes to exercise and life is the incessant feeling that the situation has to be perfect to get the workouts done.

When it comes to exercise for the large majority of the population, the Excuse Fairy is always hovering nearby waiting for the moment to “not” be perfect. You left your workout clothes at home, the meeting ran 10 mins over, you ate too much at lunch, you slept in 5 mins more than you wanted and now it’s too long. And so on and so on. Any of this sound familiar? Have you ever NOT worked out because the preparation for it wasn’t perfect???

For you to workout, do you need the stars to align to make it happen or can you just show up and get it done?

In my experience of working with clients for over 20 plus years it is rare that the stars actually align, for anybody. Time is one of the biggest hurdles for people getting workouts done: “I’m too busy and I don’t have time” or “the gym is too far away from me and I don’t have the time to drive there and back.” In fact, to further illustrate this, I will share a couple of examples from clients I have had in the past. I have worked with people that have way more time than most, whether it be retirees with an abundance of time, parents that work from home with very flexible schedules, or individuals in between jobs. In all situations there really shouldn’t be any excuses, certainly not time, to get their workouts completed. All of them had time. For the most part, they could wake up when they wanted, go to the gym when they wanted, eat, socialize, spend time with their family etc when they wanted, they had complete control over their calendars because largely, they really didn’t have any established commitments per se. And guess what, they still didn’t work out, at least not to the level that is needed for improvmenet.

What were their excuses? The stars didn’t align to get it done, it wasn’t perfect, something always got in the way!

Bottom line, we all overcomplicate the approach to exercise!

We think that exercise has to be this grand event that takes immense planning, and we have to be in the most optimal mental state when in actuality, all it takes is just showing up!!

There was a study many years ago looking at college males and they compared 2 groups to see who would get stronger and more muscle over the course of their academic year. They had free access to the fitness center and both groups were told they needed to workout at least 3x a week, that was the only major requirement. One group was given an individualized program, that is each subject had a program that was created specifically for them, updated and improved, it was by all intents and purposes “perfect”. The other group got nothing, they were just told to show up.

What the researchers found at the end of the study was that the group that was given the program had superior results in strength and body composition changes, which actually makes sense. HOWEVER, what the researchers didn’t expect was that the group that just had to show up, had unbelievably good results as well. Not as good as the programmed group obviously, but still really exceptional results, much better than they expected. What was fascinating about this, is that you had one group with direct instruction on what to do each week and one that didn’t have a clue, just go to the gym and do whatever, piece it together, we don’t care, the only requirement — show up at least 3x week!!!

So that’s your requirement, in a perfect world or not, just show up.

Staying active doesn’t require hours at the gym. It’s about integrating movement into your daily routine in manageable ways. How do you do this? Well, here’s a few tips that could help:

Schedule your workouts: Make it a non-negotiable time for you. If you need to finish work at 4pm to get to the gym before heading home to family and dinner, be selfish, make your last meeting for the day at 3pm. Make your time, your time. Reschedule other meetings, be selfish of your time and your body — you are important.

Embrace “micro” workouts — if you can’t get your perfect 60 mins of workout time, be creative with the time you have, set your priorities in the exercises you are doing. If you are lifting, go for super sets, or circuits. If it’s a cardio day, try interval training that day.

Move more through the day — look for opportunities to move more throughout your day, burn calories for the sake of burning calories.

Make it enjoyable — get outside or workout with friends, find that external motivator to help you.

Build in your rest and recovery — this is just as important as your workout. Set aside 5–10 mins for a light stretch, or to close your eyes and decompress, your body needs it physically and mentally.

Staying active doesn’t mean overhauling your entire schedule. Your day is never going to be perfect. So it’s about making conscious choices to show up, adapt and adjust and move more throughout your day.

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Dr. Dan Dodd is an Exercise Science and Nutrition Coach and is an avid writer on Nutrition, Exercise, Metabolism and Body Composition. If you’d like to receive more stories, subscribe to get these stories and more.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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