I’ve had a number of clients tell me that there isn’t enough time to complete a full workout or something came up that they couldn’t do their full workout. Lack of time can also be used as an excuse to not exercise at all. Clients will always find creative ways to come up with to avoid physical activity. In actuality, it’s less of not having the time and more a matter of priorities. How much of a priority is your health? Your fitness? Reducing your risk of all major diseases and conditions? I’m included in those thoughts when “I don’t have time to do my full training run” but I do have the time to either complete a run or do some core work and stretch. Life can get pretty hectic, I’m aware. I always tell my clients that some exercise is definitely better then no exercise.
Part of the Problem
Part of the problem with being physical active is our environment. There are quite a number of devices, services, etc. that create activity deficits. These are areas that you once were active but now that someone has created “a solution” to make that activity easier, the result is less activity. Everything that has been created to enable people to be lazy has only exacerbated the need for creative ways to be more physically active.
Does it Matter What the Activity Is?
The answer is NO. The researchers said, “Walk 10,000 steps a day; do a seven-minute workout from a phone app; flip heavy tires in an arduous boot camp class. It turns out that any and all of those tactics — even when done in short bursts throughout the day.” There are so many different ways to be physically active and people should be diversified. I don’t believe that someone should ONLY take yoga classes, ONLY do resistance training or ONLY train to run 5k’s and nothing else. There needs to be balance.
Hedging Your Bet
The study found that the more physical activity someone got in a day the greater reduction in the risk of death. In the study, people who got less than 20 minutes of moderate or vigorous activity each day had the highest risk of death. Those who got 60 minutes per day cut their risk of death by more than half — 57 percent. Getting at least 100 minutes of moderate or vigorous activity per day cut risk of death by 76 percent, the data showed. (1)
Another study found that even exercising 30 minutes a day at a low intensity resulted in an 11% decrease in all-cause mortality, 24% lower risk of cardiovascular disease and 15% lower risk of cancer death. (2)
Here’s a list we compiled of creative ways to find time to get those 100 minutes of exercise a day in!
References
- Duke University Medical Center. (2018, March 22). Whether sustained or sporadic, exercise offers same reductions in premature death risk: Moderate-to-vigorous workouts reduce mortality, even in short bursts under 10 minutes. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 28, 2018 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180322103242.htm
- Exercise doesn’t have to be strenuous to be effective. (2018). IDEA Fitness Journal: 15, 5. pg. 7.
