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How To Make Time For Workouts In Your Busy Schedule?
Madhura MohanFitting fitness into fast life is never so easy. Traffic jams, long days of work at the office, household chores, and taxing kids around can make you strapped for time and find it challenging to fit in any exercise into your daily life. Especially now, with schools starting back after the coronavirus pandemic and businesses opening again, you may be juggling priorities than ever before, and opportunities to exercise can get derailed. When priorities start piling up, fitness is the first thing that gets overlooked.
In our blog, Fitness Resolution For New Year – These Tips Will Help It Sustain, we provided tips on how to keep up on your fitness resolution. For all those conflicted by the desire to be fit and not able to find time for exercise, this blog post will offer simple measures you can take to introduce some activity into your busy life.
At the outset, you don't need to workout an hour or half an hour for an efficient body workout — instead of skipping workouts altogether, even short-duration workouts can make a great difference when it comes to fitness.
Aim For A Quick Workout
A quick, intense workout can be more effective than a non-intense, low-impact workout. Compound exercises that work multiple muscle groups at once allow you to maximize your limited workout time. Either you can opt to do a 10-minute HIIT workout, or you can split your exercise routine into small workouts throughout the day or the week. On the weekdays, you can try a short HIIT workout that lasts only a few minutes and spare your long specific workouts for individual muscle groups for less busy days. Short workouts can add up and contribute to overall health and wellbeing.
Also Read: 15 Minutes Skip Rope Workout For Fat Loss
Take The Stairs
The increased mechanization means a long sedentary phase in waking hours. Climbing stairs can be a very convenient, effective workout that uses 8–10 times the energy requirements of the resting state and helps increase overall fitness. Aim to take the stairs over the lift in your apartment, workplace, malls, or other places. Climbing stairs has aerobic benefits, can help burn fat, strengthen your lower body from your calves to your glutes, and also tone your abdominal muscles. Short bursts of stair climbing can be a practical approach to increase feelings of energy; since it is a weight-bearing workout, it helps build bone strength.
Also Read: 10 Minutes Wall Workout To Tone Your Arms, Shoulders & Legs
Workout While You Watch TV
If you have 30 minutes in the night to watch your favourite show on TV, you can fit in a few simple exercises during commercial breaks. Instead of sitting on your couch, grab a jump rope, dumbbell, or resistance band, or do some bodyweight exercises. If you have a treadmill or stationary bike that has long been kept unused, position it in front of the TV. You can do 2 sets of 10–12 reps of sit-ups, planks, pushups, lunges, leg lifts, jumping jacks, burpees, or do some strength training with dumbbells.
Also Read: 5 Easy Total Body Chair Workout You Can Do Sitting Down
Workout In The Kitchen
The kitchen is normally thought of as a place where we cook up calories — why not use that place for burning calories while cooking? When your meal simply sits in the oven for baking, or water boils on the stove, you can do some activity instead of waiting idle. Do arm rotations, toe raises, squats, bicep curls, march in place, do wall sits, or oblique twists. You can place your hands on the counter, extend your arms and feet behind, and do push-ups.
Also Read: 6 Best Hamstring Exercises For Lower Body Strength
Walk To Work / Shopping
One great way to make time to workout when you are super busy is to walk as much as possible instead of using bikes, cars, or public transport for the commute. If you stay a few miles away from your office, consider walking or biking to work. If this is not feasible, consider walking home at least two days a week. If you take public transportation, try getting off one or two stops early and walking the remaining distance. If you commute by car, park farther from the office and walk the rest of the way. Even walking for as little as 10 minutes can boost your stamina, increase lung capacity, tone your muscles, and improve your metabolism.
Also Read: Walking 30 Minutes Daily Benefits Physical & Mental Wellbeing
Be Active At The Office
While at the office, walk over to your colleagues rather than emailing them or calling over the intercom. Rather than sitting at your desk all day, consider standing for 10 minutes every hour. Stroll outdoors or on your office balcony during your lunch break. Long hours at a desk can cause strain on your back, wrists, neck, and eyes. Do simple stretches to relieve muscle tension — leg lifts, fake jump ropes, tricep dips, arm rotations, bicep curls, chair squats, wrist flexes, ab twists, chest and shoulder openers, toe raises. During coffee breaks, do a few reps of wall pushups, desk pushups, calf raises, or neck stretches.
Also Read: Stretching Exercises For Office Workers
Wake Up Early
Try going to bed 30 minutes earlier so that you could wake up 30 minutes earlier those mornings. If you kick start your day with a workout, you'll be more disciplined and cultivate consistency. As per research, those who do early morning workouts have a higher chance of making exercise a habit, since they don't let lack of time, work schedules, or other events stand in the way. Starting your day with a workout rides your endorphins high and makes you feel good about completing one task before you even start your day.
Also Read: Jumping Jacks – The Fun Way To Work Your Whole Body
Have A Plan
If you keep things organised and have a plan for the day, you'll save time. Sit down on the weekend and plan your menu for the week so you can start each day well-prepared. On the night before, keep your coffee maker and morning meal ingredients ready on the kitchen counter. If you cut down unproductive late-night activities like social media and Netflix and sleep early, you'll wake up a few minutes earlier the next morning and have time to exercise. Eliminating what holds no value in your life could mean fitting in workouts three times a week — Friday evening, Saturday morning, and Sunday evening.
Also Read: 6 Important Tips To Boost Your Metabolism
Socialize
Workout means physical activity, and physical activity need not involve fitness equipment alone. On your weekends, invite friends and neighbours for biking or swimming. Working out with people creates a high level of motivation, enhances consistency, increases duration spent working out, and is filled with encouragement. You can play group games like hiking, running, tennis, basketball, football, cricket, or badminton.
Also Read: Top Benefits Of Cycling Towards Improving Your Fitness
Frequently Asked Questions
How do busy people find time to exercise?
Schedule workouts as non-negotiable appointments. Use mornings. Reduce duration, not frequency. Stack movement onto existing routines. Prepare everything the night before. Plan the week on Sunday.
How long does a workout need to be?
20–30 min HIIT delivers comparable cardiovascular benefit to 45–60 min steady-state cardio. 20–30 min of compound strength training is adequate for maintenance and modest hypertrophy. Intensity and consistency matter more than duration.
Is 20 minutes of exercise a day enough?
Yes. 20 minutes of vigorous exercise per day meets WHO guidelines and delivers meaningful cardiovascular, metabolic, and mental health benefits. For fat loss, 20-min HIIT produces significant EPOC. For muscle, 20–30 min compound sessions 3–4 days/week is sufficient for most people.
What time of day is best for exercise?
The best time is when you'll do it consistently. Research shows a slight strength and power advantage in late afternoon, but morning exercisers tend to have better adherence because fewer schedule conflicts arise.
How do I build an exercise habit with no time?
Habit stacking: attach your workout to an existing anchor habit. Start with just 10 minutes. Focus on showing up consistently for the first 4–8 weeks. Extend duration once the habit is automatic.
Now, tell me — is it that you run short of time for exercising, or that you're not trying to use time wisely? Trust me, positive change starts with trial and error, persistence, and making little adjustments to your daily routine.
If you want to exercise, you'll make the time even in your busy schedule! Hope you found the tips in this blog useful — wishing you all a fitter and stronger year ahead.