6 Tips to Help Fit Exercise Into Your Busy Day
We all know the importance of exercise and have heard countless times that we should perform 150 minutes of moderate- to vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity per week. But what if we just don’t have the time (or so we think)? Squeezing in time to exercise doesn’t need to be hard – we just need the right tools & mindset to get us there! CG Zest Wellness is here to help with 6 tips to help fit exercise into your busy day.
1. Make exercise a habit & build a system
If you’re reading this blog, your goal obviously might be to exercise more, which is a great start! In order to not make this wishful thinking, we first need to build a system to ensure exercise becomes a healthy habit.
What exactly do we mean by that? Goals are a target you want to achieve in the near future, whereas systems are the processes you put in place and the everyday tasks that you do in order to achieve your goals. Systems are designed to make it easy for you to regularly repeat the necessary tasks to help you achieve your goal.
With that being said, that’s exactly what we’ll be talking about in this 2 part blog series and how you can establish a system by incorporating simple tips to ensure exercise becomes part of your life. Select some of the tips below to build your bulletproof system!
2. Take three 10-minute walks a day
Walking is one of the easiest ways to fit physical activity into your busy day, especially when you break it down into small chunks. An easy way to do this is to walk 10 minutes in the morning, at lunchtime, and in the evening. Even better, try to fit these walks in after eating a meal. Walking after eating has many benefits, including improved digestion, reducing blood sugar levels & blood pressure, and more. Plus, three 10-minute brisk walks a day adds up to 30 minutes – do this 5 times a week and that adds up to 150 minutes!
3. Exercise in the morning
You might be dwelling on the fact that we’re mentioning exercising first thing in the morning (we get it). But if you can overcome the hurdle of waking up slightly earlier, you can reap plenty of benefits from a morning workout.
Morning workouts ensure that unexpected events throughout the day won’t interfere with your workout time and it can also be a great feeling of accomplishment, checking off an important task first thing in the morning. But that’s not all – morning workouts have plenty of physiological benefits too. They help control appetite throughout the day, manage blood pressure & glucose, and improve alertness, energy, focus, mood and sleep. Try it out!
4. Exercise while watching TV
Do you like to catch up with your favourite show after a long day of work? Try working in some steady state cardio (like riding an exercise bike, a brisk walk on the treadmill, using a StairMaster or an elliptical machine) while you binge away. Combining exercise with watching TV can also help make exercise time pass by much quicker and you're getting the benefits of physical activity while enjoying some leisure time. Don’t have any of the equipment mentioned above? Jogging on the spot, jumping jacks, or even shadow boxing can do the trick!
5. Try HIIT workouts
You might have heard of HIIT (high-intensity interval training) workouts as it’s become very popular recently, especially with boot camp workout classes. But there’s a reason why they’re so popular, especially when you’re short on time! What is HIIT? It involves short bursts of intense exercise followed by low-intensity rest periods, with workouts typically lasting 10-30 minutes in duration. An example of this could be using an exercise bike and cycling for 30 seconds as fast as possible with high resistance, followed by 1 minute of slow, easy cycling with low resistance.
HIIT workouts also have plenty of health benefits such as burning a high number of calories in a short amount of time and continuing to burn calories hours after exercise (increased metabolic rate), it can improve oxygen consumption (your muscles’ ability to use oxygen), reduce heart rate & blood pressure, and so much more!
If you’ve never done a HIIT workout before, we recommend starting with 1 interval (30 seconds of high-intensity movement followed by 1 minute of low-intensity movement) and building up over time to achieve 10-30 minute workouts. Remember to always work at your own pace and slowly progress. The fact you’re trying something new is an accomplishment itself!
Looking for a HIIT workout to get started? Check out the CG Zest Wellness Youtube workout playlist.
6. Try exercise snacks
Have some time in-between work tasks? Take some time to do exercise snacks! Instead of grabbing another cup of coffee when the afternoon slump hits, try doing short bursts of exercise. The name “exercise snack” sounds funny, but these are a great way to restructure exercise into your day, rather than restructuring your day around exercise.
Exercise snacks consist of short bursts of exercise, like 1-2 minutes of squats, jumping jacks, running on the spot, stair climbing etc. These short sets of exercises are spread out throughout the day with the goal of elevating your heart rate. These are a great way to break up sitting periods if you’re working a desk job and can also help give you a boost of energy and improve productivity.
There you have it! Try utilizing these 6 tips to help fit exercise into your busy day and build your own bulletproof system to ensure you stay physically active. Never think of exercise as something you have to do, but instead as something you want to do to improve your wellbeing. You got this!
Want more tips? Stay tuned for part 2.
