Do you have a busy schedule? I’m sure you do, or else you wouldn’t have come to this article.

We’re all trying to enjoy our lives and make progress in our daily worlds. In the activity of work, adulting, friends, second jobs, kids, hobbies, fun and anything else in life that takes up time we sometimes forget we’re gifted an amazing creation – our body.

We forget to take care of this magnificent and complex meatsack that keeps us alive.

However, without our health, we may suffer which can detract from our happiness, joy and fun in life. Which is why this article is great because even on a busy schedule I’ll give you ideas of what you can do to get your exercise in throughout the week.

My name is Chaz and I’m the founder of The Fitness Wrangler, certified personal trainer and fitness instructor living in Tampa, FL. I was always healthy growing up, played sports and exercised plenty. But when I got my first professional job out of college I gained 20 pounds quick, suffered from IBS suddenly and even got cancer.

Thankfully now I’m cancer free, have significantly reduced my gut problems and cut down 30 pounds.

I understand trying to stay healthy and fit as a busy professional. I’ve failed to do so in the past but now I’ve got a routine down to keep in good shape throughout the year.

In this article I’m going to cover 5 ways you can get in exercise throughout the week, even on a busy schedule.

My big mission to help people get control of their health and fitness so they don’t have to suffer as I did. If you can implement even 1 of these ideas into your life I think you’ll see significant improvements in your health and fitness.

 

1. Short and Intense Workouts

I’m sure you’ve heard of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) by now, right? It’s been popular for a while now and with good reason, because it’s effective. But HIIT isn’t the only way to exercise in a short amount of time.

Introducing…High Intensity Functional Training (HIFT)! Yup, I just brought in another acronym for you to remember now.

HIFT is a combination of different training modalities in a single workout performed at a high intensity. Basically, combining strength, power, stabilization, plyometrics and more all in one at a fast pace.

There was a study done by the Kennesaw State University that took 26 adults (men/women) and put them through a 16 week HIFT program; workout out at least twice a week. (1)

During the study they assessed strength, skill, and metabolic performance as well as body composition (body fat percentage, fat mass, bone-free lean mass…etc).

They found that HIFT was an effective workout style to improve physiological and performance measurements.

 

Specifically, what I’m advocating is doing intense strength and power workouts in a short time frame (30 minutes).

The great thing about doing a 30 minute workout like this is the combination of muscle development and a high heart for rate fat burning. Even if you’re not looking to be “jacked”, or for the women out there not wanting your legs to be enormous, this workout will be excellent because of the combination different exercises at once.

And if you do workouts like these consistently (3 to 5 days a week) then you’re going to be getting in amazing exercise on that busy schedule of yours.

For example, one set in a 30 minute workout routine I’ll do curls of 5 to 8 reps and then, with no break, go into a wall ball toss of 12 to 15 reps. This hits my biceps for strength and then keeps my heart rate up, usually about 144, to help burn fat and spike my metabolism for an after-burn effect; known as post-exercise oxygen consumption, or EPOC.

 

2. Exercise On Lunch Breaks

I know I know, lunch breaks are the only utopia you may get in a day. Totally aware of that! However, not saying you have to do every lunch break working out but only a couple a week.

Don’t slump on lunch; pump on lunch

There was study done by the University of Occupational and Environmental Health that took 59 working professionals and had them do what they call “active rest” (which is getting exercise in during work breaks instead of sending emails, playing games or other related activities) for a short workout during lunch. (2)

They measured various aspects such as personal relationships, mental health, and physical activity through a Brief Job Stress Questionnaire, anthropometric measurements (measuring fat, BMI…etc) and other assessments before and after 10 weeks.

What they found was a short exercise break over lunch, even 10 minutes, improved personal relationships, job stress, mental health and fitness levels.

Lunch break workouts were always my go to when I was working in an office and didn’t have much flexibility with time or my schedule. I loved the lunch workouts because it was like a safe haven for me during a crazy day, it took my mind off of work, gave me a little spike of energy for the rest of the day and (of course) helped keep me as fit as I could during that time.

 

3. Use Movement Throughout The Day

Find it hard to squeeze in a 30 minute workout? Can’t take lunch breaks for fitness due to your job? No problem, I got a solution for that. And it’s pretty NEAT 🙂 LOL, had to throw in one cheesy joke.

If you haven’t heard of NEAT (it means Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis and is the energy we burn that’s not during sleeping, eating or exercising) then let me tell you how fidgeting, pacing on the phone and bouncing your leg can help you burn hundreds of calories extra A DAY!

To understand NEAT we first have to look at how calories are burned overall.

TEE: This is the total amount of energy utilized by us and stands for Total Energy Expenditure.

BMR: By just existing our bodies are constantly working to keep us alive, otherwise known as BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate), which consists of about 60% of calories burned in people with mainly sedentary occupations. (3)

TEF: When we eat, our bodies use immense amounts of energy to digest, absorb and store those calories. The additional calories burned to do this is referred to as the Thermic Effect of Food and consists of about 8 to 15 % of total calories burned in a day.

NEAT: All other calories that aren’t burned from just existing (BMR) or eating food (TEF) are falling into the category of NEAT which account for about 15 to 30 % of calories burned on any given day.

Exercise?: Since we’re not counting in exercise for this example (because we’re looking at people who are too busy to get in a workout for the day) we won’t count intentional fitness into this but you can imagine it would have an effect of calories burned. And for people that intentionally workout no more than 2 hours a week, physical exercise is believed to only count for 1 to 2 % anyways! (3)

In the scientific article The Role of Non-exercise Activity Thermogenesis in Human Obesity by Christian von Loeffelholz, M.D. and Andreas Birkenfeld, they look at the numbers and show that, everything else equal (BMI, age..etc), individuals that are mainly sedentary have 6 to 10 % of calories burned counted as NEAT and in more active subjects it can count for 50%! WOW!

That’s insane, that means just by walking around more throughout the day, pacing back and forth when on a call, fidgeting, bouncing your leg while sitting, standing/sitting actively as a form of exercise, maybe getting a short workout in and more can burn you an extra 800+ calories in a day. (4)

For me, an easy way I do this is by counting my steps throughout the day on my Apple watch to shoot for 10,000+ daily. I know not everyone wants, or can get, an Apple watch but if you can it’s a great way to track steps and even if you can’t get one you can still be sure to get in plenty of movement throughout the day to burn those fries and beers from the weekend!

 

4. Turn It To A Group

Let’s hang out and burn! Burn calories of course.

If you’re too busy to come up with a workout routine, plan your exercise and commit to going before work, lunch or after work then a good accountability system for you may be to join a group fitness program.

Group fitness classes have only been getting more and more popular over the decades. Fitness classes like bootcamps, spin, zumba, rowing, kickboxing, yoga, barre and so much more are classes held by organizations that last anywhere from a couple minutes to over an hour.

They have a community around them, people that are beyond passionate (Crossfit is a good example) about the training and each style has it’s own person they appeal to. So if you’ve tried one before and didn’t like it I encourage you to test out several to find that right fit for you.

This is a great option to create massive accountability for you because they’re typically not cheap (ranging from $40 to $150 / month), have social pressure, some of them you have to RSVP for class a few days before because of the demand, and they might lead to finding acquaintances or friends that will help keep you on target with workouts.

I’ve been working out since I was 17 and I first tried a group class when I was about 20. I remember being hesitant to give it a shot because of my ego, “I know what I’m doing I don’t need some instructor telling me.”

But my roommate back then worked as a personal trainer and encouraged me to come out to a group class he taught at the time; I finally gave it a shot. And I loved it! It was a local bootcamp in Gainesville, FL that had a group of passionate fitness enthusiasts and trainers.

It was nice to not have to think about what workout I needed to do but the biggest area it helped me was having someone else push me beyond what I thought I was capable of and the group held me accountable to go. If you’ve never done a bootcamp, they’re not easy but are well worth it.

 

5. Early Morning Workouts

I was hesitant to put this on here because it’s the most obvious and everyone who teaches fitness to busy people talks about this. But it’s such an effective tool I didn’t want to exclude it.

Yes, most people don’t like waking up early. Heck, I have to get up at 4:15am sometimes to work at the gym and hate it but know that sometimes we have to do things we don’t always like to get the results we desire.

If none of the other recommendations here work for you, then this may be a strong go to option. You don’t have to spend an hour and a half in the gym either, a short 25 minute bodyweight workout HIIT style at home will be fine!

The point is, you can wake up 45 minutes earlier to get in a little workout several times a week to help on your weight loss journey. It adds up.

 

Summary

If you’re a busy professional then finding time to get a workout in seems like a nice to have for other people but not you. Well that’s not always true, hopefully you see that you can still get in exercise and movement throughout the day to burn extra calories even if you’re schedule doesn’t have much wiggle room.

It’s important because your health is important. Without our health there’s not much else we can do to be effective in life. I remember when I was going through cancer treatment how much I was limited in what I could do. If debilitating headaches weren’t bad enough then the fatigue, aches or overall energy suck of fear at the time would drag me down.

That’s when I realized how important health is and what we must sacrifice (lazy time, Netflix watching, video games) to achieve the best health we possibly can. My mission to help others get healthy so they don’t have to go through what I did.

Now, you may just want to shed a few extra pounds to look better or maybe your doctor has told you that you need to lose weight for your health. Either way, you CAN do this. It won’t be easy but it will be worth it. And remember, to really succeed you’ll need to be changing your behavior, habits and lifestyle not just trying to lose weight. Having the mentality of change versus “fitting in a workout” will help give you the long term vision you need to hit your goals.

The 5 ways to exercise on a busy schedule summarized

  1. Short and intense workouts
  2. Exercise on lunch breaks
  3. Use movement throughout the day
  4. Turn It To The Group
  5. Early morning workouts

I hope you got a lot out of this post my friend and please leave a comment below to let me know your thoughts on which of these you’ve tried, want to try or don’t like. Also, feel free to contact me if you’d like more help with anything.

Disclaimers

I am not a doctor and do not recommend anything on this site, or blog post, for anyone without consulting with their doctor first. Please read the privacy policy for more information.