22 Jul How to Quickly Get Fit On a Tight Schedule

It is a well-known fact that an active lifestyle has impact on many things in our lives. A good workout can help us perform better at our jobs, be more relaxed at home and maintain activity in our community. Recent studies show that people who work out on a regular basis sleep better, have reduced risk of premature death, healthier bones and joints, reduced stress levels and a healthier immune system.

In the real world, where a day has ‘only’ 24 hours, committing one hour per day to a workout program may seem like an impossible challenge for many people. Juggling work and family responsibilities makes it very hard for people to even start thinking about working out. To be able to sneak in a workout into your daily routine, you have to be a little creative. If you want to put those muscles to work each day, the advice provided below will help you fit some exercise into your busy schedule.

Get Those Sneakers on and Run

Do you remember Tom Hanks in “Forrest Gump”? You don’t need several hours per day and professional equipment to start running. Get creative and turn your commute into a workout. Stash your necessities into a fanny pack or backpack and get going. You can invest into a treadmill and run on it anytime you want. Keep in mind that this way you will become a role model for healthy behavior for your spouse and children.

Quality is something you should put before quantity. To bring quality into your running exercise you have to bring balance into it. Put more focus on threshold work, resistance training, speed intervals. This method will give you better results than simple moderate-paced aerobic training.

Exercise at Home

Don’t worry if you don’t have time to lose on traveling to/back from gym; there are plenty of exercises you can do and achieve goals from the comfort of your home. Many people think that home exercises are made for beginners only, but this is not true. Most home workouts last under 30 minutes and the gear you need to complete them consists of a yoga mat, resistance band and set of dumbbells. Having a staircase in your home is a nice perk that can bring diversity into your workout plan.

If you find yourself enjoying this type of workout, you can invest into building a small home gym. You can easily turn some unused area of your home into an exercise heaven. In the privacy of your home gym you won’t need to wait for anybody and you can easily focus on the task at hand.

Make the Most out of Weekends

Weekends provide people with the opportunity to make up for lost time. During weekends, you have more time and energy to spend on workouts. Depending on your preferences, pick what suits you best.

Bike riding in the nature is an excellent exercise that both activates the muscles and allows your lungs to take a break from the city air. Taking a hike on steep trails is a perfect fit for people who want to reconnect with nature and unplug from society while working on their endurance. Kayaking is an excellent workout if you want to burn more than 300 calories while meditating in the peace and quiet on water.

If you have access to a pool in the area you live in, take advantage of it. Swimming exercises are fun and gentle on your joints and muscles. On top of that, it is a workout that activates your entire body including your core.

The weekend is a time when your body has to get rest and get ready for the upcoming week. Working out more during the weekend will help you achieve both.

Go on a Healthy Diet

One of the worst enemies that threaten your “get fit” plan is an unhealthy diet. Unhealthy stands for all those carbohydrates that set you up for a blood sugar rollercoaster, alcohol, dehydration, too much coffee and late night snacks. Nobody is blaming you, with so many obligations during the week, it is easy to forget about health.

We live in the internet era, so go wild and look for recipes that are not complicated and don’t take too long to prepare. With the access to big markets and organic food supplies you can become a pro cook in no time.

The most important thing is to make sure to start your day off right. Breakfast has to provide you with energy without any side effects like feeling of being bloated or sleepiness. For this meal you want to have food with complex carbohydrates and products that are rich in protein and provide you with healthy fats.

Everything Counts

If you have few minutes to spare whether you are at work, home or on the move, you can turn them into a mini exercise session. You can take a couple of minutes every few hours and do 5 push-ups, followed by squats or jumping jacks. This is not the same as a regular workout, but it still requires you to move. You can try doing this while you are waiting for something in the kitchen or in front of the TV. Heck, even when you decide to go and get a glass of water you can try to be quick and make a mini power walking exercise.

Just before taking a shower is a perfect time for a mini exercise series consisting of a march/jog in place, vanity pushups and plie squats.

As you can see, everything can be achieved with just a little will power and proper motivation. Regular workouts will give you plenty of energy that lasts throughout the day. Changing your lifestyle is a process and there is no better way to start this change then by committing to a certain amount of physical activity each day. This routine will help you pave the way to a healthy life. The time has come for you to stop making excuses and to start integrating regular exercise into your daily routine.