Busy People & Exercise

Busy People Need to Exercise Too by J.P. Linck There is a term used to describe the lives of people who live in our society – BUSY. People who work, go to school, raise a family, or are involved in any other normal life activities often find that trying to fit new habits, such as exercise, into their lives is a challenge. I recently had the privilege of presenting a workshop about this very subject. I’d like to share some of the ideas I offered to those attendees. Time-minded workout routines are designed to provide optimal training is fewer and shorter allotments of time. With planning, these workouts can be effective and fun. There are five steps required for a successful program. Before any activity is begun, the first step is to set realistic fitness goals. The specific goals vary with each individual, so each person must select the areas that they want to work on. Do you want to improve your cardiovascular health and improve your general health? Do you need to lower your blood pressure or try to counteract a family history of heart problems? Do you want to improve your stamina? Is your posture and body alignment a problem? Do you need to increase your general body strength or are you interested in specific muscle groups? Do you have joint problems or injuries that require exercises for improvement? Do you want to improve the tone and appearance of your muscles? Do you need to increase your flexibility? Do you want to decrease your amount of body fat? Do you need to decrease your stress level and improve your mood? It is important for the overly busy person to select one area to improve instead of a multitude of goals to keep the program realistic. Once you have decided which areas you are interested in concentrating on, the second step is to explore the activities that you could choose from. For example, if you want to keep your heart healthy and decrease stress, you would probably focus on aerobic activities. If you need to increase your strength or improve your posture, you would use a very specific resistance training program. The specific activities you choose should be ones that you can fit into your normal schedule. The decision about where to exercise is a large factor in considering the amount of travel time and accessibility. Your program should be enjoyable so that you will look forward to it and be more inclined to do it. If you have a long lunch hour and work very near a fitness facility, you may want to exercise at that facility. If you are an “early morning” person who enjoys a private time with the TV news before the family gets up, exercise can be done while listening to the reports. If you think being outdoors in the evening would be a treat after a long day indoors, you should explore outside activities. The third step in planning a successful fitness program is to decide how often you will exercise, how long the sessions will last, and how hard you will workout. The general ranges for aerobic activity is 3-5 times a week for 20-60 minutes at a pace that will cause you to breathe harder than normal but not so hard that you need to stop before the session reaches its cool down. These ranges include beginners to advanced exercisers, the beginners using the lower range and the active person working out harder and more often. Muscle or resistance training can be performed 2-3 times as week with as few as one set of exercise for each muscle group. More advanced exercisers can do more exercises or sets of exercises as they desire. But the average busy person can benefit with a very realistic and manageable amount of resistance training. The individual who does not own weights and chooses not to join a fitness facility can get a good muscle conditioning workout with large elastic bands designed specifically for this activity. Flexibility exercise is a part of the cool down or final part of either aerobic or resistance workouts. Additional stretching can be done daily if desired. Once your program has been planned, the fourth step is to make a commitment and begin your routine. This is it!! As you get used to including the activities in your week, you will form a habit of doing them. The fifth and final step is to record your program and access it regularly. A simple notebook or daily calendar can be used to write down your activities, including the amount of time, how hard you worked, and resistance used. You may want to note any changes you are noticing. About once a month, review your progress and see if you want to revise your program in any way. This step will help you keep your program working for you and motivate you to continue. Some people find they need more knowledge about exercise before they can follow these steps. There are many wonderful references about exercise available: books, video tapes, and fitness instructor. As a personal trainer, I have helped many people start and follow exercises programs they can live with. Make use of the sources available and you can enjoy time-minded fitness programs in your busy life.