Finding the time to workout with a busy schedule.

[ibex333]

So anyway... I had a change in my work schedule, and now I work from 2pm to 9:30pm and then it takes me another hour and half to get home. Before 2pm I have college classes from 9am to 1:00pm and then I need another hour to get to work.

So basically I am "occupied" more than 13 hours every day except for Saturday, when all I want to do it just drop into bed and sleep or watch some TV half awake. Plus, I have tons of homework.

Am I just making excuses for now working out? Anyone with similar busy schedules? When do you guys find the time? It feel like I got no energy when I come home from work and when I wake up in the morning.

This is not a thread where I vent. This is a thread where I am trying to find out how you guys manage your time, so that I can maybe do somethign similar.

 

[blackdogdeek]

do you have a lunch hour at work? if so, i'd find a gym local to work and do a quick workout during that hour.

 

[SlitheryDee]

Work out in the mornings.

Technically I have time to work out in the afternoons, but I'm always beat after work, so I wake up at 5:00 AM to get to the gym by 6:00 and work out until 7:30ish. I've been going in the morning for over a year now, but I recall there being about a month long adjustment period where it was hard to get going in the morning. Now it's no problem and I have afternoons to myself. I also feel great all day knowing that I got it out of the way.

 

[ibex333]

Hm... I was thinking about the mornings, but I always allow myself an hour of TV or just mindless internet surfing before I go to sleep. Maybe I should do away with it and just go straight to bed. If that is what it takes...

 

[Pia]

How do you work out? Or is that subject to advice as well?

What I have personally done at a time when I wanted to spend minimal time for good results is a short but aggressive kettlebell routine at home. 40 minutes per exercise when starting out, 20 minutes per exercise after you know the exercise and have some tolerance for discomfort. Running through the routine thrice a week is a pretty good amount of work. Can't beat getting fit for 1 hour total time investment a week.

 

[Malfeas]

Check out Dan John and one lift per day. He has good ideas for training when you have limited time, and you can still make good progress. Its basically boils down to what the title is: do one lift per day, ie Monday do squats, Tuesday press, Wednesday Kettlebell work, Thursday deadlifts, Friday Bench Press.

You can arrange the excercises anyway you like, and emphasize whatever areas you like. But he recommends to at least every week include one squat,press, hinge, pull motion in your routine. Your time in the gym should average around 30 minutes.

 

[NAC]

Between commuting and work, I'm away from home about 6:30am to 7pm M-F. I decided what works best for me is:
1. Workout at home. I spend no time traveling. No lines, no socializing, no peer pressure when I bench 160 and the guy next to me does 300. I can just get into a zone and do it. My music, my speed. I can can also use chores as warm up / cool down: mow the back yard as a warm up, mow the front as a cool down. Another good warmup is walk/run the dog. And make use of time between sets - do small parts of home projects that I'm working on at the time (recently put sealer on tiles, or painted trim pieces for installation). And my daughters will sometimes “workout” with me between my sets.
2. I workout once on the weekend and one evening from about 8:30-9:30pm. Usually Wednesdays. I used to try to do 3 days a week: say Sat, Tue, Thur, but I can't consistently get it above about 10 workouts for every 4 weeks.
3. Be flexible. I visited my sister's family, and hadn't worked out yet that weekend. So I did 50 pullups in the park. Got a bit sweaty and needed to borrow a shirt from my brother-in-law, but saved time. Another time when riding bikes with my daughters, I did a bunch of dips, inverted rows and pushups.

For working out at home, you need a decent space, in my case my garage. Works well except it is unheated in the winter. Gloves and hat anyone? Thanks to Craigslist, and perhaps some creativity with wood, piping, cement basketball kettleballs etc, it can be very cheap and pay for itself within a year even when compared to a very cheap gym.

I've tried working out in the morning several times in the past 20 years or so. Never successful for a long period of time. I consider myself a morning person, but exercising with intensity before 6am exhausts me by noon. I prefer evenings. Although I will say that I find cardio is easier in the morning – no warmup needed, can do it on a pretty empty stomach, and can just slowly wake up. Weights are easier in the evening – need to warm up and then focus. And I can't do weights on a totally empty stomach. But I basically just do weights. And the morning / evening issue is one reason why I've had trouble consistently adding cardio during the week other short things like running the dog.

I've tried shorter workouts – either morning or evening, but don't like it. If doing heavy weights, you spend more time warming up than exercising. Also can't get into the groove of working out. Usually my evening workouts from say 8:30 to 8:50, I'm not into it. Then I hit my groove and can actually enjoy the next 40 or so minutes.

Good luck.

 

[metalfacepc]

I agree with Pia and Malfeas, working out 20-40 minutes per day is all I've needed. I used to spend 1 to 2 hours per day, which was too much. I was wasting time, valuable time, which I could have put towards my studies. Now I run 20 minutes 3 times per week, and lift 30 minutes 3 times per week (Once per week I will run and lift in the same day so I can relax on the weekends.)

 

[z1ggy]

Id suggest either waking up early to go to the gym a few days per week, or as others have said just work out at home. P90x takes about an hour a day and if you work hard I think you could get results if you are eating right, too. However, if you asked me which would be better.. if it was me I would choose the gym. P90 gets SUPER boring ( to me ) after a while. The same video for the 13th time.. ugh..type of thing. That's exaggerating a bit, but you get my point.

 

[brad310]

your schedule sounds filled enough you may not have time to do your schoolwork as it is. Your only option is to get up early and knock it out, if you can.