Training During Busy Times

Training During Busy Times

Well, it’s been a little bit since the last article posted, but it’s time to get back at it after the thanksgiving holiday and life taking over. But there is a lesson in all of this. There are times in life when things get really busy and training gets pushed aside. I just want to get out and say it. That is not always a bad thing. The key is to realize your priorities and make your priorities your priority. Family, friends, relationships, big events, projects, all of these things are important too and if they need to take priority for a minute that is ok. But don’t just completely forget your training or workouts. When it comes to these things, work to fit them into your priorities as well.  When they do you, start to find ways to work them into your day. At times they won’t and my lesson here is to not beat yourself up with this but instead to not ditch them completely. Find ways to adapt, adjust, work with it, to make your training happen.

Especially this time of year with holidays and events and year end coming, it can be so easy for training to take a backseat. There can be many things competing for your time during this season. This means that if training is a priority for you, it is critical to find ways to fit it into the schedule that you do have. Too often people try to completely re-haul their whole schedule to made time for workouts but in the end, this fails because they try to fit too much into one day and it becomes unrealistic. Instead, take a look at the calendar and see what time you do you have. This is your time to train.

More often than not this means that you will have to make some adjustments to your training to accommodate this season’s schedule. What does this mean? How does this look? Well, first off, it’s all about finding ways to get something in. Even if its short or not as frequent, just keep it in the schedule as best you can. One way to do this is to shorten your workouts. You may not have time for that hour and 45-minute workout but instead shorten it down. Even if it’s down to 30-45 minutes, that’s ok. You are still training and that is step number one. When you shorten a workout, focus on the main lifts. Make sure you get those exercise in then move on to those auxiliary lifts. Quality work a shorter amount of time can still be a great training session. A way to help make this happen is to write down your workout before hand that way you don’t waste anytime figuring out what to do next. Another thing that you can do is to make sure of supersets, stacking exercises into groups means less time in between lifts.

Another option when it comes getting training in, is to train less days per week. In many cases when people are pressed for time, they still try to get everyone one of their normal workouts in. To make more time in a week, lower that number of workouts per week down and make those workouts the highest quality possible. Remember, quality over quantity. Always. Get high quality training in say 2-3 times a week not 4-5 and make the other days about what they need to be about.  In this case, instead of doing split workouts move to total body workouts. This way you can get all of the movements and exercises that you want to in while not taking up too much time.

The thing to remember is quality work over quantity during a busy season in life. When you need to, adjust your training so that you can not just drop it all together. Working out is all about being adaptable. Being able to adjust and adapt while still getting in the work that you want but not taking up too much time when life’s events are pressing. Don’t beat yourself up over a short period of missed work but instead find ways to work that training back into your life.

-Tyler Grisdale, MS, CSCS, RSCC, CES, TPI