For all the executives who do not have time for exercise due to their busy schedule.
OR, in other words,
Who usually give this reason as an excuse to not to exercise.
What is required for a healthy body? Immediately the answer would pop up, ‘a good diet and exercise’. We know this basic fact very well, but unfortunately when it comes to exercise, people would often find it hard to follow this due to lack of time, lethargy, laziness etc. Let’s discuss how to crack this.
1) Time: Time is always short for everyone. Especially the youngsters who are busy making their career and taking care of family life. They certainly may not be able to take an hour out of their busy day. Here it will be helpful to know that instead of spending an hour a day, even 20 minutes a day if allocated for exercise, gives good result.
According to the American College of Sports Medicine, adults should do about 30 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise for 5 days a week. And if the intensity of exercise is increased, 20 minutes of exercise is also sufficient. Any kind of exercise like running, brisk walking, swimming, cycling, gardening etc. can be done.
2) For those who don’t have even 20 minutes in a day: All those who cannot spare 20 minutes at a time, can do mini workouts of 5-10 minutes and it can be repeated 2-3 times a day. There are several types of mini workouts.
Tabata training is a 4-minute workout that involves exercise with full intensity for 20 seconds. After 20 seconds, a break of 10 seconds is taken, and the exercise is done again with full strength for another 20 seconds. A total of 8 such rounds equals to a 4-minute workout in total. These include special body weight exercises like pushups, burpees, squats, jumping jacks, crunches etc. Tabata work-out can be done from 4 to 20 minutes.
3) High intensity circuit training: (HICT) is also the type of exercise which consists of 3 sets of 7 minutes and can done for a total 20 minutes. This type of exercise includes both cardiovascular and resistance training. It requires warm up before exercise and stretching after exercise to avoid injury.
However, exercises like Tabata or HICT need to be learned first from a professional trainer. It targets full body workout and can be easily done at home once learnt.
Instead of exercising for 20 minutes at a time, the benefit is also seen if the exercise is done in two parts, morning and evening for 10 minutes each.
4) Now let’s talk about those who don’t get even 10 minutes a day. In simple words, exercise means, an activity in which body uses energy for physical movement which ultimately strengthens body muscles. Now, in case of lack of time, small steps can be taken to use more energy by increasing physical movement.
Few examples.
- Never use the elevator, take stairs instead to go down.
- Whenever bell rings at home, go to open the door by yourself.
- Don’t call a family member or a servant to give you a glass of water. Please help yourself.
- Park the car or your vehicle at a short distance away from your workplace and walk to reach.
- While talking on the mobile phone, walk.
- Target to climb stairs once a day. Number of floors can be increased gradually.
- In lunch break, walk outside for 5-7 minutes.
- While making tea/coffee in the kitchen, do 10 squats. Let tea boil nicely and you target to finish your mini workout.
- Take a stroll after dinner.
These are the activities that can be done easily. Once you start thinking about options, you will find many.
Your time is important and so is exercise. Once you decide to put it into action, options are plenty. Be creative and find out what suits you the most.