Home » Blog » You Are Exercising How Long?

You Are Exercising How Long?

If there was ever an excuse that I loathe for someone not exercising, it is the dreaded, “I don’t have time.”

Seriously?

Do you know what my typical retort is to that excuse?

“I know. Every single one of us is busy 24 hours a day. It’s what we fill in those 24 hours that makes all the difference.”

Exercising will give you many health and fitness benefitsI get it that we live in a go, go, go culture. There are demands on our time and well-being every single day. For those of us with kids, we are also time-pressed because not only do we have to worry about our schedules, we have to worry about their schedules as well.

We also live under the prevailing thought that more is ALWAYS better.

I’m here to tell you that more is not always better when it comes to exercise.

When I first started as a personal trainer, I did hour sessions with my clients just like every other trainer. I guess there is always an assumption that in order to get in the best shape of your life, you have to do at least an hour of exercise.

Phooey!

In our time-crunched world, there are some who can afford to go exercise one or two hours a day (and if you are exercising two hours, then we need to talk). It’s great if you have the time to exercise for at least an hour. I’m not saying exercising for an hour is a bad thing.

But for those people who say they don’t have time to exercise, I humbly submit that you DO have time to exercise.

It’s what you do with your time when you exercise that makes all the difference.

99% of my clients and my trainers’ clients do half-hour personal training sessions. That’s right. One-half hour. They are busy, we are busy and we need to get in and out so everyone can get on with their lives.

But I guarantee you that we get more done in a half-hour than most trainers get done in an hour with their clients.

It goes back to the cliche, “Work smarter, not harder.”

If you make your exercise routines efficient, then you will burn the same, if not more, calories in an hour. You just need to fit it in. One way that we teach our clients to get an efficient cardio workout is to do interval training. The days of thinking that you need to get out and run for 45 minutes to an hour are over. Unless you are running marathons. Then have at it. 🙂

The same goes with strength training. The days of three sets of one exercise and then moving to another exercise for another three sets is soooooo 1980’s.

And let’s not forget that you can go for a walk! Thirty to 45 minutes of walking will always help you reach your health and fitness goals. Walking is always such a simple yet forgotten way of getting healthy that we always neglect it. Have to work eight hours a day? Get outside and walk for 10-15 minutes. Your work isn’t going anywhere. Everyone needs to take a break!

We can all find at least a half-hour in our day to do something. It’s only a half-hour. If you tell me that you can’t find a half-hour in your day to exercise, then I will tell you that you really just don’t want to exercise.

So what are you going to do? Are you going to keep making excuses? If so, just remember thirty minutes is all you need.