I was recently asked about how to find the time to train. The average person works an 8hr/day job, so my average answer is "go to the gym straight after work before coming home." But this person was in an unusual situation. She worked 6am-2pm, took care of her non-income-producing affairs 2pm-4pm, and then worked another job 4pm-9pm, and she did this 5-6 days a week. Obviously, there's not a lot of wiggle room there. So, what to do?
If, like this woman, you really don't have any significant blocks of time throughout the week to exercise in, it's actually not all doom and gloom, so long as you understand that you don't need to give 110% to exercise, and even given 10% is infinitely better than giving 0%.
When I was in high school and didn't know anything about exercise programming, I did push ups. Lots of them. And not much else. Come on, I was 15, cut me some slack. I don't recommend you follow my high school program of "do push ups, then do more push ups, then do more push ups, then do more push ups, then do some bicep curls, then do more push ups." It's unbalanced and probably won't turn out very well.
However, there was something to my exercise habits back then that I would recommend to someone who really can't set aside time to train. Back then, I didn't put aside half an hour or an hour or any amount of time for exercise. I rolled out of bed, then did a set of push ups, then got up and started getting ready for school. I had my shower, then did another set of push ups. I arrived at school, then did another set of push ups. Morning tea came, and I did another set of push ups. Lunch came, and I did another set of push ups. I got home in the afternoon, and I did another set of push ups. Every couple hours, I'd just do 1 set, then continue on with my day.
Depending on the activity, 1 set of an exercise generally doesn't take much time. On average you're looking at about 1min to do something, then get on with the rest of your life. If you do that once every waking hour (and have normal, healthy sleep patterns), that's going to add up to about 16min a day of exercising, which still isn't a lot, but is about the same as what the average person achieves in a 30min weights session.
Now, the idea here is that the exercises you do should be ones that can be done anywhere, so obviously bodyweight exercises are going to be our main culprit. I'll also include some band work, since resistance bands are extremely portable and very cheap. Am I promoting this as an ideal way to train? No. Is it better than nothing? Yes. Absolutely.
So, here are your exercises:
- Squats
- Lunges or step ups
- Glute bridges
- Push ups
- Band rows (wrap the band around a pole, or sit down with your feet out in front and wrap it around your feet)
- Planks
- Band pull-aparts
Optional: Dips and chin ups/pull ups if you have the equipment available. If you do dips, you must also do pull ups or chin ups, to keep the upper body muscle groups balanced.
Basically, you're going to go through each exercise at least twice throughout the day, just checking each one off the list as you go. Make sure you do all the exercises for the same number of sets, in order to keep things balanced. You can rearrange the order of exercises if there's anything that you'd feel too awkward about doing in a public place, but I recommend you stick to the specific exercises listed if you don't know enough about programming to be able to write up your own balanced program.
So wake up and do some squats. Get ready for work and do some lunges. Arrive at work and so some push ups. Keep cycling through the exercises throughout the day.
If, like this woman, you really don't have any significant blocks of time throughout the week to exercise in, it's actually not all doom and gloom, so long as you understand that you don't need to give 110% to exercise, and even given 10% is infinitely better than giving 0%.
When I was in high school and didn't know anything about exercise programming, I did push ups. Lots of them. And not much else. Come on, I was 15, cut me some slack. I don't recommend you follow my high school program of "do push ups, then do more push ups, then do more push ups, then do more push ups, then do some bicep curls, then do more push ups." It's unbalanced and probably won't turn out very well.
However, there was something to my exercise habits back then that I would recommend to someone who really can't set aside time to train. Back then, I didn't put aside half an hour or an hour or any amount of time for exercise. I rolled out of bed, then did a set of push ups, then got up and started getting ready for school. I had my shower, then did another set of push ups. I arrived at school, then did another set of push ups. Morning tea came, and I did another set of push ups. Lunch came, and I did another set of push ups. I got home in the afternoon, and I did another set of push ups. Every couple hours, I'd just do 1 set, then continue on with my day.
Depending on the activity, 1 set of an exercise generally doesn't take much time. On average you're looking at about 1min to do something, then get on with the rest of your life. If you do that once every waking hour (and have normal, healthy sleep patterns), that's going to add up to about 16min a day of exercising, which still isn't a lot, but is about the same as what the average person achieves in a 30min weights session.
Now, the idea here is that the exercises you do should be ones that can be done anywhere, so obviously bodyweight exercises are going to be our main culprit. I'll also include some band work, since resistance bands are extremely portable and very cheap. Am I promoting this as an ideal way to train? No. Is it better than nothing? Yes. Absolutely.
So, here are your exercises:
- Squats
- Lunges or step ups
- Glute bridges
- Push ups
- Band rows (wrap the band around a pole, or sit down with your feet out in front and wrap it around your feet)
- Planks
- Band pull-aparts
Optional: Dips and chin ups/pull ups if you have the equipment available. If you do dips, you must also do pull ups or chin ups, to keep the upper body muscle groups balanced.
Basically, you're going to go through each exercise at least twice throughout the day, just checking each one off the list as you go. Make sure you do all the exercises for the same number of sets, in order to keep things balanced. You can rearrange the order of exercises if there's anything that you'd feel too awkward about doing in a public place, but I recommend you stick to the specific exercises listed if you don't know enough about programming to be able to write up your own balanced program.
So wake up and do some squats. Get ready for work and do some lunges. Arrive at work and so some push ups. Keep cycling through the exercises throughout the day.
