Exercise: Fitting it into your busy schedule

We all know the importance of exercise. If you don’t know the importance of exercise, here is a quick refresher: Exercise gives us…
Increased energy, improved mood, decreased risk of incidents such as heart attack or stroke, decreased risk of conditions such as depression, diabetes and hypertension, increased life expectancy, overall, improvement of physical, mental and emotional health.

In other words, exercise keeps the body functioning properly. It is clear that we need it. What isn’t always as clear is how we get it. Many of us struggle with health because exercise just isn’t part of our routine. Let’s discuss ways to make it part of your routine so that you can enjoy the benefits of good health.

First let’s take a look back in time. If we go back 100 years, it will bring us to the year 1910. Things are a little different here in the United States. The difference we will focus on is the typical work day. If we were around 100 years ago, we would all have a job that involved physical labor. Some of us would be farmers and have to work the land all day every day in order to produce food for ourselves and others. The rest of us would be in construction or manufacturing jobs that required us to use our bodies to lift and move all day in order to build products.

So what did we do for exercise? That is a trick question, because we didn’t actually do anything for “exercise” until it was invented later in the century. That’s right, 100 years ago; exercise was not something we did because we wanted to be healthy. Exercise was simply part of our lives. We had to move in order to make a living. Now we have to make time in order to get enough exercise for moderate health.

It is no wonder exercise is difficult to fit in. Our careers keep us indoors, seated for much of the day and those days we work are typically longer than what the average worker put in 100 years ago. We have progressed with technology, allowing us to accomplish more with less physical effort. This is great for industry, but it is not so great for our bodies.

So what can you do? Great question, there are many ways to get more active despite your busy schedule. The list below should help you make exercise more realistic and help you get more active:

Make time

While it is easier said than done, you can do it if you focus on the words used here. Making time is completely different from finding time. By finding time or looking for time what we are doing is thinking about exercise. We are saying that it is a good idea, but we don’t have time…at least we don’t have enough time to set any aside.

Make an appointment

What do you do when something is important? You write it down. What do you do when have an important meeting at work? You put in on your calendar. This works to keep us all on track in our careers and it can keep us on track with our health as well. Think about it, you wouldn’t be too busy to go to a meeting with your boss or to an appointment with a client. If you put this type of priority on exercise, you would stick to it the very same way. It may not seem as important in the short term, but when you consider what exercise does for you, it really should be on your calendar.

Make it easy

Making it easy is possible. By doing some little things, you can make your routine easy. For example: putting your gym bag in the car you can eliminate a trip home and make an after work workout much more realistic. Or, by keeping a pair of shoes at your desk, going for a quick walk during lunch is now less of a challenge.

Make it happen

If you have time set aside to do something, do you do it? When you have an important appointment, do you keep it? If exercise was easy, what would stop you from doing it? All of these steps can make exercise more realistic for you. Think of the reasons that you don’t get enough or that make it more difficult to stick with exercise. Once you have looked at the challenges you can begin to devise a plan. Now think of the reasons that you do or want to exercise. When you are setting goals, it is important to think about why you are setting the goal. The more you want something, the more likely you are to achieve it. Think of the importance of your health and all of the good things that come along with getting more exercise. With those things in mind and the above steps in place, getting and keeping a good routine going is well within your reach.