How to make time for fitness and guilt-free workouts

Making a commitment to improve your health and fitness is one of the most important things you can do. So why do we sometimes feel guilty about it? Well, because it usually comes with a few trade-offs – the most common one is time with other people or priorities. But don’t feel despair, because there are plenty of things you can do to shed the guilt and make time for your health and fitness.

Schedule ahead to ‘make’ time to your workout

The first thing you can do is set yourself a workout schedule. If you’re stuck squeezing in workouts wherever you can find the time (which is rarely), then mapping out a concrete workout schedule can really help. That’s because:

• It eliminates the need for any tricky ‘now-or-later’ type decisions
• It minimises disruptions by making your sessions easy to plan around
• It makes it easier for others to respect the me-time you have allocated for

Rather than ‘taking’ the time to head to the gym (and feeling like there’s plenty of things to be doing elsewhere), this scheduling process can help shift your mindset toward ‘making’ time.

Optimise your workouts to get more for less

For the time-pressed, maximising the time you have is everything. There are many ways to do that, but some of the most effective relate to how you choose to workout. When it comes to the maximum workout for minimum time, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) or circuit training are great options.

HIIT and circuit-style workouts combine cardio and resistance training in ways that let you maximise your workout, even a 30-minute window. We offer HIIT-styled workouts in our Grid Training classes that are perfect for building stamina, strength, and squeezing every last drop out of a 45-minute window in your day.

Set SMART fitness goals to focus your workouts

Setting a goal and using your workouts to track progress is an excellent way to make sure you can keep an eye on the big picture and the details of each session. Which is important when it comes to addressing any feelings that your time or focus should be elsewhere.

We love pointing gym-goers toward the SMART approach to goal-setting, which includes picking a goal that’s:

• specific
• measurable
• attainable
• relevant
• time-based

What does this look like in practice? Well, you might commit to improving the weight on your squat by 5kgs over 6 weeks. In practice, you might set a weekly goal of adding 1.25kgs to the bar. Smaller increments like this help avoid injury and over-exertion – and you’ll still be on target even if you don’t advance your weight in two of those six weeks.

This method offers a way to develop goals that keep you consistent in the gym, which is the best way to achieve the results you want. It also gives you a strong ‘why’, or reason to be there each session. And knowing your ‘why’ can mean everything when it comes to prioritising your health and staving off any guilt you might be feeling about the time you spend at the gym.

Reach out to the team today

Making the most of each session is something of an artform. But it’s much easier to get a handle on with the support of a Personal Trainer. To find out more about what’s possible at Virgin Active, get in touch today.