Finding the time to train.

I haven't updated the blog in a few days as I'm currently transitioning between locations, going from my rehabilitative training job back to athletic training and regular personal training and am working 12+ hour days. While this will normalize to something a little more reasonable within the next week or so, it got me thinking about finding the time to work out.

I constantly hear from people that they have no time to get themselves to the gym to work out to achieve their fitness goals. There's just no time to dedicate 4-5 hours a week to take care of yourself. Yet in many instances there ARE 20 hours a week to watch TV. I guess you have to have your priorities...

In any case, what also happens is that when they enter the fitness industry for the first time, many new trainers focus so much on training their clients and building up their business that they stop training themselves. There is no need to get into the nitty-gritty details of why this happens, but as an industry we should strive to keep up with our own workouts and physical conditioning and nutrition.

'Cause, really, what excuse are we gonna use? Can't get to the gym?

Despite working for 12 hours today and having 9 training hours, I managed to squeeze in 2 workouts. Admittedly this is unusual as I virtually never train more than once a day. However, working with the schedule that I had, I did 2 workouts, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, 20-25 minutes each. I also had 6 meals.

What quality of workout can you have in 25 minutes? A pretty damn good one, thank you very much. I've done 15 minute workouts to great effect in the past. It's just a matter of your imagination.

Today was nothing fancy and I did a pretty straight forward shoulder workout in the morning, with standing barbell shoulder presses, dumbbell lateral raises, and a special type of bent over row that I designed to specifically hit the posterior deltoid heads.

The afternoon workout was a little more intense as I did 120 non-stop snatches with a 16kg (35lb) kettlebell, followed by 3 sets of walking lunges, 20 steps each, 20 one arm swings, and a set of deep squats followed by two hand swings, of unknown repetition count. I didn't care to count at the end.

Both of these workouts were pretty intense and are sufficient to not only keep one in shape, but to also keep making progress.

All of us have a few times a week when we can squeeze in a workout. While scheduling breaks for yourself to train and have lunch at is important, you can always get something done before, after, or in between clients.