How many times have you thought, “there just aren’t enough hours in the day?”
For as long as I’ve been in the fitness industry, I’ve had to fight the idea that exercise takes away from your total, available time in a particular day. When you look at it in just the short term, of course it does. However, the practical benefits are so worth it.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to look your best. Simply put, investing time into maximizing your appearance is huge for your quality of life! Improving your physique and shedding excess fat will make your life better in just about every way from how you feel, to how your brain functions, to how you look.
There are numerous activities that – while not full-on “exercise” – allow your body to stay active and engaged1. You’ll burn calories and realize they’ve been incorporated into your daily routine quickly. This article2 is geared towards women and mothers, but has time balancing tips that apply to everyone.
If you have days where the opportunity to hit the gym just isn’t viable, there are so many exercises you can do from home. First and foremost, stretch! Every day you possibly can, you will feel better by making your muscles and joints more limber. There are suggested stretching exercises elsewhere on this website and even more on the Allwell app. If you have no equipment for cardio, do 3 sets of jumping jacks – as many as you can handle. There’s also stomach crunches, pushups, squats, and tricep dips.
The proper form for all these are in the Allwell app’s “Workouts”, “Video on Demand (VOD)”, and “Video Workout” sections.
Putting exercise aside for a moment and dealing with time management specifically, it is hard to give “catch-all” advice as everyone’s lifestyle & schedules are different. The end result is huge if you can achieve it including stress relief and the ability to achieve goals3 (in family and work). The above-linked article details on a work-centered time management approach and suggestions on how to be as “present” as possible while on the job.
Another article pertains to how to find more time for family if you feel overwhelmed at work4. I feel like I’d be doing these articles a disservice by summarizing them – they are very comprehensive.
Like anything in life, improvements require a structured plan and the discipline to follow through in it. We would all like to have more time for friends/family/enjoyable activities than the 24 hours the sun allows us! It is attainable and we just wanted to add some framework! That said, we hope your takeaway is that incorporating exercise – or just things to make you more active/less sedentary – actually adds time in the end. “Lack of time” really is the number one excuse we hear. Once that mental barrier is crossed, the world is your oyster!
Footnotes
1 BizJournals, “How To Add Exercise To Your Daily Routine” – https://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/how-to/human-resources/2022/01/how-to-add-exercise-into-your-daily-routine.html
2 Morning Motivated Mom, “Over 30 Ways to Add Fitness to Your Daily Routine” – https://www.morningmotivatedmom.com/30-ways-add-fitness-daily-routine/
3 Corporate Finance Institute, “Time Management: Planning & controlling how much time to spend on specific activities” – https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/careers/soft-skills/time-management-list-tips/
4 Mitoq.com, “10 tips for balancing work & family life” – https://www.mitoq.com/journal/10-tips-for-balancing-work-and-family-time
