Our health and fitness routine will always be one of the first things to go when life gets crazy. Our health and fitness is important, we kind of know that, but it's never quite as important as whatever life throws at us.
Some of life's challenges may include:
- A crazy travel schedule where you will be in Singapore one day and San Fransisco less than a few days later
- Your child's school prize day and/ or sports day
- A last minute dead line for a project at work
- A heavily booked up social calendar
- An important presentation that has to go perfectly
- An intense negotiation/ crucial conversation
This newsletter will give you the top 3 strategies to maintaining your fitness routine at times of high stress.
1. Scale back
Learning to scale back is a real game changer for many. Most of us are all too happy to sabotage our fitness routine as we have suddenly become extremely stressed and time poor. Most things in our life are going on hold for the time being.
The key here is to simply scale back whatever you have been doing. If you happen to work out 4 days a week, try going to the gym 2 times that week instead.
If your sessions are usually 60 minutes long, try setting a time limit of 20 minutes. What you do is not hugely important, just do something that gives you a light sweat.
I can tell you from experience that when we completely abandon exercise, we tend to feel much worse. We have no outlet for our current stress levels and it takes us longer to get back into the routine again.
Goodness me do you feel it those first few sessions back!
When we stick somewhat loosely to our routine, we will reap a few benefits from our commitment. Some of these include our ability to de-stress by switching our mind off during the session, giving ourselves more energy through movement and remaining sharper mentally which tends to improve our performance at work.
2. Reduce The Volume Of Your Workouts
Exercise is in fact a stressor. It can be a good one, but If we push too hard and for too long this can have a detrimental impact on us.
If you are pushed for time and doing a more intense HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) workout, try giving yourself more recovery. For example, if you spend 10-20 minutes doing 20 seconds of intense work and only 10 seconds to recover, try giving yourself 10-20 seconds of intense work and 40-50 seconds of rest each set.
If you are doing a weight training routine and usually do 3-4 sets per exercise. This is probably a good time to reduce the work to 2 sets per exercise. You may keep the weight the same, but just keep the volume lower. You will feel less tired afterwards, reduce your chances of getting post workout DOMS and remove any guilt you may have about missing training.
3. Do What You Enjoy And With Friends
When you are stressed, time poor and the last thing you want to do is exercise, making the workout fun and something you enjoy is essential. This is an important time to lower the barrier to exercise.
If you like walking, try something as simple as going for a 20 minute stroll around the block. You enjoy beating the crap out of a boxing bag? Then get those gloves on and go at it. If you enjoy lifting heavy weights as they make you feel strong, then that is what you should do.
Keep it simple and keep it easy, as you do not want to dread exercise in your current mental and physical state. See it as an energy top up.
Exercise is even better if you bring friends. Being able to let off some steam by talking or just being with your buddy will increase your enjoyment as well as make you more likely to go. There is nothing better feeling than knowing someone is suffering with you.
Conclusion
Make exercise as simple as possible, even if you only do one exercise. Perfection is the enemy of good, particularly at times like this, so forget optimal and have fun!
Yours In Health
Patrick Fallis
Founder of Leaner
www.leaner-uk.com