SolveYourProblem Article Series: Exercise & Fitness
What Are The Most Effective Ways
To Exercise & Get Into Shape?

Finding Time For Fitness in Your Busy Schedule

Working fulltime can eat up more than forty hours per week for most workers and after family and other responsibilities, there’s not much time left to take care of you. Fitness is important, though, and is becoming more accessible to busy professionals in many ways. You may never be able to exercise an hour every day, but even the smallest effort counts. Read on for some tips and ideas about getting more fitness into your busy schedule.

Think Small

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to exercise for thirty minutes or more to achieve the maximum results. Recent studies have shown that smaller increments of exercise throughout the day produce the same effect as one longer workout, so you no longer have to worry about finding a large block of uncommitted time! Instead, plan your day to accommodate several ten-minute bursts of exercise. Fit in three of those segments and you have a total of thirty minutes for the day (which is the minimum suggested by doctors). Once you can comfortably incorporate three segments into the day, challenge yourself to add more until your daily exercise time is an hour or more. Think of it as making deposits in your bank of health: every ten-minute exercise burst improves your health and is available for you to call on when you need it.

Equip Yourself

When you have exercise equipment at the office and ready to use, you are much more likely to take a few minutes to work out. This doesn’t mean you should install a treadmill in your office (though it’s not a bad idea if it works for you!). There are plenty of smaller workout tools that challenge and strengthen your muscles. Resistance bands come in a variety of tensions so you can choose the best level of resistance for your needs. These bands are practically weightless and take up less room than your briefcase, and can be used in countless different ways. You can use bands for upper bodywork, stretching, leg training and more. A set of five usually costs less than $20 – at that price it’s more than worth it! Another useful tool is a small set of dumbbells, ranging in weight from three to ten pounds. This is also fairly inexpensive and most come with a small storage rack that keeps the weights safely out of the way without the risk of tripping. Dumbbells are used primarily in upper bodywork but there are many exercises that use dumbbells and call on the lower body muscles at the same time. You may also want to consider buying a yoga mat to keep at the office. A mat can do double duty by stabilizing you during yoga and also offering comfort for stretching routines. You can find yoga mats for as low as $10 but be sure to check the thickness as cheaper mats sometimes offer less padding and comfort. Add one or more of these fitness tools to your office and incorporate their use into your daily workouts, and the difference will be clear in just a few weeks.

Make Your Health a Priority

Too often busy professionals are willing to neglect health care unless it absolutely necessary. Trying to juggle a career, family, and more is highly demanding and doesn’t often leave much time for self-care, but in the long run this can be damaging both your physical and emotional health. By neglecting your needs, you send your body and psyche the message that you are not as important as other things. Stop it! Ignore your body too long and you may find yourself with serious health issues that could have been avoided simply by being conscious of your needs. Realize that caring for your body is a priority and needs to be treated with as much importance as the other concerns in your life. Schedule time into your planner just for you and follow up on it! If you’ve always wanted to take a yoga class on the weekend but couldn’t because of other responsibilities, find someone that can take over those demands, even if it’s just short-term. Hire a babysitter or arrange childcare with a friend and let the kids be off your mind for once. You only have one body, so invest some time and effort in making it the best body possible!

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by SolveYourProblem.com : 2005