Time is a piece of reality in life we can’t fully control. After reading the previous sentence, that moment will be stored in the archives of history along with the many other events we have participated in throughout our lives. The idea of time can be limiting for us. We have twenty-four hours in our day to interact with the world. This could mean allocating eight to twelve hours working toward our jobs, making sure our children are getting to school and sports practices on time or running grocery store errands. Before we know it, the end of the day approaches and we are met with the darkness of the night. We only have a few hours to eat dinner and get some sleep until we prepare for the next day.
A barrier to achieve fitness goals we hear from our personal training community is the obstacle of time. People have expressed their fitness is negatively impacted due to the amount of time necessary to devote toward exercise. This is a challenging topic because many normal functioning humans spend a significant number of hours in their week dedicated to their profession. We all understand the importance of being the best version of ourselves for our jobs that financially support ourselves and our family. However, the most important person responsible for these responsibilities is commonly overlooked. That person is the human we look at in the mirror every time we wake up in the morning.
Diminishing returns play a significant role in our maximum potential to support our body, emotions, and mind. Our goal to spend ten hours of unblinking energy to accomplish the daily task list for the day is an admirable attribute. This list will undoubtedly fill back up after the day is over. The left-over items on the yesterday’s task list will be anxiously awaiting your attention when the rooster crows at the break of dawn the next as the sun rises. Once our eyes open back up, we shower, eat our breakfast, and get dressed, yesterday’s unfinished tasks are still there waiting to be tended to. Spending time on the to-do list everyday will make for a productive and successful day. However, if there isn’t any time laid out to focus on self-care, the prolonged hours of labor inflict wear and tear on the body and mind in the form of increased stress hormone concentration circulating throughout our bloodstream, neglected healthy dietary decisions, and loss of fitness throughout the body.
We can achieve the benefits of exercise by completing some consistent body weight exercises on a daily basis. A term we call “consistent practice” are a few simple yet effective exercises we include to our personal training client’s fitness homework programs. These consistent practice exercises consist of exercises that won’t exceed 30 seconds per set that can be done any time throughout the day. Three exercises that stimulate a large surface area of muscle is chosen to be performed at any time throughout the day. Example of low learning curve exercises could be the body weight squat, straight arm plank, and incline push up. The squat covers a large group of lower extremity exercises while the plank and push up cover a substantial area of upper extremity and assistance core exercises.
A preview of how these consistent practice exercises are performed might look like this:
- After waking up in the morning and prepare hop in the shower, it takes a moment for the hot water to warm up. Perhaps this would be a good time to perform ten pushups on the bathroom counter.
- Now that you are squeaky clean after a refreshing shower, you might make your way to your dresser. Before putting your socks on, this might be a perfect time to complete ten repetitions of body weight squats.
- About to the head out the door for a thirty-minute commute to work? There’s always time for a thirty second straight arm plank. Get down and post your arms on the ground for ten to thirty seconds to get the muscles of the upper extremities and core stimulated.
These intermittent exercises throughout the day performed in short spurts of limited time apply muscular stress throughout the body. Performing these simple to exercises on a consistent schedule trains the body to adapt to additional demand imposed upon it. The result is a momentary increase in stimuli in the muscle, a slight increased heart rate response, and a much-needed break for our minds that preparing to endure the tasks we will conquer in the day.
When there isn’t time to get to the gym for a concentrated exercise session on a jam-packed day, don’t worry about it. Performing simple and effective exercises for just one set randomly dispersed throughout the day elicits similar body strengthening and stress reducing results. It’s true that we all only have 24 hours in our day to get things done. However, we all have 5 minutes somewhere throughout the day as well. Take some time out for yourself to fit in exercise to assist us in being elite performing humans and getting more out of our twenty-four hours.
Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.
