Fitness For Busy Professionals

Many of us out there are super busy and live hectic lifestyles and fitness can sometimes fall back on our priority list.
With long hours, high levels of stress and lack of time to prepare it can feel like climbing an uphill battle to stick to some sort of sustainable routine.
Being someone who has worked with clients that lead this sort of lifestyle, I can tell you that it's 100% possible to stay on point with training and nutrition whilst balancing a professional occupation.
Good health and a great business are excellent running partners. Clocking the time for fitness, however, is a real scheduling challenge. Fortunately, there is evidence that even a minimal amount of exercise improves cardiovascular fitness. You simply have to sign up for the race.

In the fast-paced life of business-savvy go-getters, health and fitness can often be put on the back burner of priorities. Just as a car without routine maintenance doesn’t ride as efficiently, professionals without routine health practices don’t think as clearly and creatively. As employees, business owners, business executives and CEOs, we need our bodies and minds to run as efficiently and effectively as possible. Million dollar ideas aren’t fed with dollar menu diets.

A study reported in the Journal of American Medicine found that as little as 10 or 15 minutes of exercise each day produced beneficial results. Participants in the study were overweight or obese women or women with a sedentary lifestyle. Even when exercising only 72 minutes a week, the participants experienced a significant improvement in fitness.

Busy as we may be, we have less trouble finding time for television, social networking or even dull household tasks, Rodriguez observes, because there simply aren’t the same steep psychological barriers to those activities.

If you want to exercise, you’ll make the time. We interviewed psychologists, exercise scientists, celebrity trainers, authors and busy everyday people to get a handle on the 8 strategies :-

1. Make a Plan.

“The best way to make time for exercise is to have a written plan,” says Chris Evert, 18-time Grand Slam tennis champion. “Decide on the best time for exercise in your schedule and actually enter it into your computer or cell-phone calendar as a repeat event. This way it shows up daily and there’s less chance of you scheduling something during that time. Also, when you check your schedule in the morning, you’ll see it there and form a mental picture of when and how you’ll be exercising that day, which helps you stay motivated.”

   

2. Get your workout done first thing in the morning.

This way, nothing important has a chance to “come  .”  Starting your day with a workout also gives you energy and produces ‘feel good’ hormones called endorphins that will carry you through your busy day.

3. Workout in your lunch break 
A great way to fit exercise in during a busy day is to use your hour lunch break to workout. A 30-40 minute training session at a nearby gym or run around the park whilst everyone is out at a restaurant can be a highly effective way to fit exercise in.Workout, eat lunch at your desk and free your time up in the evening.

4.Set goals

. As the saying goes, those who fail to plan, plan to fail. Make sure your goals are S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound). Try writing some of the more immediate goals into your computer passwords so you’re constantly reminded of them.

5. Think positive.

Psychologists suggest that actively editing your negative self-talk patterns is a powerful way to support healthier lifestyle choices. For example, anytime you catch yourself thinking, “I am too busy to work out,” rephrase the thought in more positive, empowering terms, such as, “I choose to make myself a priority.” Or, “I do have time to be healthy.” Or, “I am willing to do something active today.” Over time, those positive thought patterns will elbow out the negative ones, helping you to see your available choices more clearly.



6. Get enough sleep
Getting enough sleep is another key step to ensuring you manage your fitness plans around busy and stressful times.
“Several studies show that sleep deprivation elevates cortisol and makes it more likely that you can gain fat.”
Aim for around 8 hours sleep per night and try not to compromise this. Not only will sufficient sleep help prevent the elevation of cortisol but It will help your muscles recover, raise your mood, improve your training intensity and make you more productive on your days at work.

7. Work while you wait.

Katy Gaenicke, mother of two boys, found a creative solution to her “no time” dilemma. She spends a lot of time on the sidelines of football practices and games near their home in Boston. “I started bringing my bike with me and riding around near the fields while my son practices,” she says. Evert has used this technique, too: “Instead of cramming in one more errand while your kids are at their activities, put on your sneakers and
take a walk for the hour.”

8. Be yourself.

Part of the reason you can’t make time for exercise may be because you’re not focusing on the right workout for your personality, says Marta Montenegro, MS, CSCS, CPT, celebrity trainer and exercise physiology professor at Florida International University. For example, don’t assume you’re a runner just because your best friend loves to run, she says. “Instead, analyze your lifestyle and personality to find a routine that suits you.” Once you understand your fitness personality, you’ll be able to identify activities you actually enjoy, and squeezing them into your schedule won’t be nearly as hard. (For more, see “Your Fitness Personality.”)

I hope you will stay healthy after cover on these point.

Thanks for reading