My Own Fitness Journey…
I’ve been going to gyms since the ripe age of 17 when I first moved to go to college in the big city. I didn’t know anyone and I liked sports, so it made sense for me to join the gym—somewhere I can meet people and be active. And as they say, the rest is history! Since then, I’ve always belonged to a gym of some sort. I liked to change location every 2 or 3 years to try a new exercise format and have a new environment to workout in—I can get bored easily!
This went on until roughly two years ago when my mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s; I needed to be more present for her and my dad so I decided to “save time” and work out from home. Frankly, I was a bit afraid to see if I would stick to my workout schedule and still be able to motivate or “push” myself as much as I would in my Crossfit class.
Working Out From Home
Now reflecting on that decision 2 years later, I am happy I made the choice to start working out from home, as it truly did decrease the stress of making it to a set class time and gave me the flexibility to fit my workouts in when it made sense in my schedule. It also saved me a huge amount of time as I don’t have to travel to the gym, worry about changing clothes, taking a shower etc… and let’s not forget layering up in the winter—which is a workout in and of itself!
An effective workout for someone with a busy schedule can be as little as a 30-minute time commitment, just enough time to actually DO your workout! All the other factors can sometimes become deterrents for us adding physical activity to our routines. Additionally, less is more when it comes to exercise! Long-gone are the days where we think we have to spend hours at the gym to “get healthy.”
Many of my patients push themselves to go to the gym or “want” to go to the gym but sometimes it is not always feasible. Between their work, their commute, the 2 kids in competitive sports and dinner to be made, their own health and fitness often take a back seat when there simply isn’t enough time to make it to the gym. Or, they believe that if they spend anything less than 2 hours on the treadmill that it’s not even worth it.
There are two flaws in this way of thinking:
- That you can’t have an effective workout without being in a gym
- That longer forms of cardio exercise or heavy machinery is needed to have a good workout.
With the support of science on the importance of High-Intensity Interval Training, long hard cardio sessions are not needed or necessary to reap the health benefits of exercise. Sometimes it only takes a combination of bodyweight, free weights, a floor and no more than 30 minutes to get an effective workout going! In addition, it’s equally as important to add variation to what we’re doing: strength, endurance, mobility and functional movements in combination are what lead to the best results. It may seem overwhelming at first, but with some guidance and some basic equipment, a little can go a long way!
I truly believe that we need to change our mindset about exercise and understand that even 20 minutes a day 5 days a week with some variation to our routine can and does have tremendous health benefits. There are even many resources online to help you with workout ideas and circuits—you just have to start looking for them.
A Quick Solution!
I would love to share with you my last workout cycles to give you some ideas and to help you design your own workouts. Don’t forget, we are all different and have different goals and needs but at the end of the day it’s all about exercising for better health and longevity. Let’s keep moving shall we?
Click here to get my 6-day advanced workout program, I hope you enjoy!
