No Time To Work Out?

It’s hot. It’s been an intense year. Balancing work, social lives, kids, weddings, care duties and your own sanity is not an easy task. 

When life is chaotic, regular exercise makes you feel more in control. Finding the time to work out might feel impossible right now, but I promise you that even the smallest windows of time are worth it. 

The difference between zero workouts a week and one workout a week is the biggest difference there is.

With muscle, strength and fitness, it is a case of ‘use it or lose it’. So when you’re really busy, focus on maintaining the progress you’ve made by using what you’ve got and moving your body. 

Most of our members need a least one period of reduced training per year to compensate for life circumstances. Let’s look at three members and what we’re doing right now to help them maintain progress when external factors are threatening to derail their fitness goals.

Member #1: How to get lean when you’re travelling

Challenge

Member #1 has a fat loss goal but travels for an average of two weeks every month for work.  When they’re in the UK, they can commit to 60-minute gym sessions, but when they’re away, it’s far less predictable. 

Solution

When Member #1 is travelling, their daily step count is naturally higher from walking around cities. This increase in NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) movement takes care of their baseline fitness and necessary calorie expenditure to support their fat loss goal. 

Their coach supplements this with two 30-minute hotel room or hotel gym workout routines, dependent on the hotel and the equipment available. These workouts support their overall fitness and help with muscle retention, to ensure Member #1 is losing fat and not just weight (muscle and fat).

Member #2: Fitting in exercise during school holidays

Challenge

Member #2: has strength and growth goals, but their child is home for school holidays, and they are the sole caregiver. 

Solution

We switched Member #2’s routine from the gym to at home for the school holidays. To facilitate the difference in equipment, their coach has put an emphasis on compound (multi-joint) exercises and some tempo work (slowing down reps to produce overload with a lighter weight).

Diet-wise, Member #2 can find it difficult to fit in regular mealtimes. With this in mind, we’re ensuring they hit their protein goals by supplementing with shakes and bars, so their muscles can fully recover and grow in strength.

Member #3: Keeping fitness on track with a hectic social calendar

Challenge

Member #3 has fitness and fat loss goals but is going to weddings or festivals almost every weekend this Summer.

Solution

If we had put Member #3 on a strict calorie tracking plan, we would have set them up to fail. With calorie tracking off the cards, we focused instead on helping Member #3 to make healthy choices during the week and make lower calorie alcohol choices at the weekends, helping to reduce their overall calorie intake without stripping the fun out of Summer.

Their coach reduced the intensity of workouts to compensate for a potential lack of energy, especially at the start of the week – this conscious training choice means Member #3 is more likely to do the workouts and maintain progress toward their goals. If we kept the intensity too high, we’d be setting them up to fail.

Come September, we’ll re-up the intensity for Member #3, who will have maintained their fitness and not regressed. 

Don’t let perfectionism get in your way

Things that are outside of our control threaten our health and fitness progress. But if you can keep up just 20-30% of your ideal routine, it will go a long way to maintaining the work you’ve done and make it much easier to get back into it when you get your usual routine back.

‍Take charge. Join Another Round and start personal training today.