Build a routine

emfab74
emfab74 Posts: 1 Member

I work 60 hours per week and finding time to excercise is a full time job!
tips and more tips

Replies

  • JefftheBuff
    JefftheBuff Posts: 5 Member

    Jeff works 35 hours a week, which is only half. However, Jeff reccomends finding pockets of time that you didn't think of before. For example, Jeff wakes up at 5 am every morning to workout and have a matcha latte. Try focusing on 1) waking up early to workout using time you would have been sleeping and 2) trying shorter but effective workouts (ex. HIIT workouts!) Intervals are great, Jeff has used them for years to maintain his skinnyness.

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 36,541 Member

    I've been there, the 60 hours a week thing. It does increase the challenge.

    If the main goal is weight loss, that can happen entirely on the eating side of the equation . . . but exercise is good for a body for many reasons, so worth doing.

    Short bouts of exercise are potentially easier to fit in, and better than no exercise. If your 60 hours includes any breaks, just walking during those breaks rather than sitting is one option. Ditto for at home time. I don't know about you, but there are times when I'm waiting for something to happen (microwaving something, say) and I can do a few squats or calf raises or something instead of just standing/sitting there.

    There's a whole thread here where people discuss ways to incrementally increase calorie expenditure by increasing non-exercise activity (though the suggestions do wander over into mini-exercise as in the previous paragraph. Maybe some of the ideas in that thread will help you. It's here:

    The other thing I'd say is to consider how your 60 hours is distributed across the week, and think about whether you can fit in some exercise during the times when you have fewer work hours. It doesn't need to be some extreme, exhausting thing. It doesn't even need to be official "exercise", but can be playing active video/VR games, playing frisbee with the kids if you have some, going to a square dance on Saturday night instead of a movie, etc.

    Home-based activities may be easier to fit in than gym-based, even when we're talking official exercise. If it's a gym, one on the way home from work (or the way there) is better than one that's out of the way. Pack your workout clothes in the AM for after-work workouts in that scenario, or wear the workout clothes to the gym in the AM and pack work clothes to shower then change into.

    If you have a desk job, and it would be permitted, get one of those under-desk pedal thingies, or use something like that at home if your off-hours activity is computer based. If your off-hours activity is something like TV, watch while doing some standing exercises with resistance bands or weights, or do some calisthenics moves that let you keep watching.

    I'm not saying all of the above would be realistic for you. Details of your lifestyle matter. What I'm suggesting is that if increasing exercise is important to you, it can help to think creatively about where you may have pockets of time where you can move more than you are now, even just standing rather than sitting, walking rather than standing, etc. Little things add up.

    Good luck!

    P.S. Eventually, even while working a pretty intense schedule, I found an exercise I enjoyed so much that I really wanted to do it just for enjoyment. At that point, I found the time to fit it in. That kind of thing might not be true for someone who's a more well-functioning mature adult than I am, and who is more focused on doing things that are good for them, or who've already maximized what they can fit into a day. True for me, though: Once something clicked in my brain, made the activity a serious priority, I was able to finagle things to fit it in. YMMV.

  • I2k4
    I2k4 Posts: 197 Member

    Not my problem any more but (since you don't specify modes of interest) you might want to think along the lines of the (paid) Mind Pump "MAPS 15" built on brief daily resistance training sessions of around 15 minutes, focused on sets of two foundational compound exercises per workout and doable at home if necessary, with progression steps built into the schedule. It seems to simply make sense for people without the time for extended gym sessions, and someone with enough experience can probably improvise on the concept without buying their routine.

    https://www.mindpumpmedia.com/blog/maps-15-minutes-the-best-online-workout-program-for-busy-professionals

  • jca1021
    jca1021 Posts: 5 Member

    I personally have to get up early every morning (4:50am) to get my main workout done each day. Then in the evening I do yoga to relax and melt away stress.