How to work out when you have no time

A client of mine, Rebecca W, recently came back from vacation. She isn’t quite as strong as she was before, but she’s in pretty good shape for being out of the gym for a month!

It’s always a nice surprise when your clients dutifully do their “hotel workouts.” It makes a tremendous difference in getting back into shape. If you don’t do anything for a month, you really have to ease back into things when you get back. This might take as long as 1-3 weeks, depending on the person, their age, how hard they train, etc.

Typically the mental side of it is even worse — people sometimes have a hard time getting back into the swing of things after a few weeks off. 1 week of “recovering from my vacation” turns into 2 weeks, which turns into several weeks….

Rebecca said one thing to me that really struck a chord. She said that when she had “no time” to train, she’d just do 20 single-leg RDLs on each leg, and then a few push-ups. That takes maybe 5-10 minutes, and it’s not such a strenuous activity as to require a warm-up beforehand.

(Lest I get into trouble, let me say that you really should warm up before any real exercise. But at this point in Rebecca’s training, 20 single-leg RDLs and a few push-ups ARE the equivalent of a warm-up for her.)

I really love this idea of doing “something other than nothing.” Charities will say things like “even a dollar can make a difference.” So can a few RDLs and a few push-ups!

So if you really have “no time” to train, consider doing something, anything, instead of nothing. Take five minutes out of your day and do something positive for yourself. It really can make a difference.