Welcome back to this week’s edition of 2-Minute Tuesdays where we are bringing you one exercise topic, talking about it for two minutes, and giving you three reasons why you should follow our advice. This week we are talking to those of you who don’t have time or have very little time to exercise. What should you be doing when you workout to maximize the time you do have? How should you be exercising if you don’t have an entire hour to spend at the gym?
1) Exercise At A High Intensity
Our first tip is to pick exercises that you can do at a high intensity without compromising your joints or your muscle system. Think of exercises that you can do all-out for 10 to 15 minutes versus exercises that you might choose to do for a longer period of time.
Action Step: If you only have 10 to 15 minutes to workout, don’t think about going for a run or a walk with that time. If it is appropriate for your body, think about doing something more intense like sprinting. You can do sprints outside, or on a treadmill, elliptical, bike, rower, or with a jump rope. Essentially, anything that allows you to push yourself as hard as you can for 15 to 90 seconds followed by 30 seconds to three minutes of recovery. Cycle through these periods of super intense work with recovery for 10 to 15 minutes and you will get a ton of benefit from your exercise.
2) Eliminate Distractions
Our second tip is to eliminate all distractions. If you have a small window of time to workout, you need to make sure that everything else is out of the picture. When you are working out, you are focused solely on working out. You’re not checking your phone. There’s nothing going on with email. You are there for a small, short period of time, and you are getting your workout in.
Action Step: Leave your cell phone in your locker/car/office. Keep it off you. If you want to use an app to assist with your workout, consider putting your phone in airplane mode so you can’t receive messages.
3) Plan Your Workout
Finally, you need to make sure your workout is planned. When you go into your workout, everything is planned. You know exactly which exercises you are going to do and how much resistance you are going to use. You have every minute of your workout period mapped out.
Action Step: Keep a journal of your workouts where you record what you do (exercises, sets, reps, weights, time, distance, etc.). This way, when you go to workout, you have a reminder of what you did last time and know exactly what you need to do this time.
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