In a perfect world we’d all have enough time to lay in, cook a delicious breakfast, meet our friends for lunch, loved ones for dinner, work on our fitness and still catch up with our favourite car crash TV shows whilst getting a full day of work completed. However, it’s not that easy which is my reason for this post. Here you’ll find 8 easy ways to find time to exercise, proving there’s always a way to sneak an epic workout into your busy schedule.

1. Wake up early

I’ll admit it, when my alarm goes off I still shudder! Especially on a cold January morning when its pitch black outside and there’s still owls flying around. I have to talk myself into getting up and into my workout gear, however I never regret it. Once it’s done I can’t help but feel a little smug at the thought that I have the rest of the day to do as I please. Did you know that It has been proven that those of us that wake up and get it done in the morning, eat better for the rest of the day, whereas those of us who train in the evening tend to eat according to how much they plan on doing at the gym later. An extra biscuit at 3pm in the office ‘won’t hurt’, because you’re going to the gym later. Sound familiar? It does to me!

2. Commuting

As someone who has always worked around 40 miles away from where they live via a train (1 hour 30 minutes each way door to door), I have always been a little envious of those who can walk to work or have 10-15 minute commutes in the comfort of their own car.

However there are ways to sneak in a workout on your way to work. For those of you who live close enough walk, run or bike. It can even be as simple as swapping the lift for the stairs in your building, adding some weight to your backpack like a healthy packed lunch or perhaps even by choosing to grab your coffee from a cafe a little further afield. You’d be surprised how many extra calories you’ll burn. Especially if you’re panic walking because you’re late!

3. Lunch Life

If you sit in a office, do yourself a favour and give your legs a stretch on your lunch break. Plan a ten minute walk to a place where you can enjoy your lunch and then a ten minute walk back, if you have a little more time then how about trying a lunchtime gym class? If you work in London, you have zero excuse because there’s so many about or create your own workout using various apps on your phone such as; Sworkit, RomWod, 8Fit and Lifesum. These are great apps if you want to move your body without having to move far from your workplace.

4. Enjoy It

Most people don’t actually like the gym and that can be a big barrier when it comes to exercising! I used to be the number one culprit of this, however now it’s something I always try to include at the bottom of my blog and Instagram posts, “what do you LIKE to do?”. The idea being that it if you do something you enjoy, you will create a routine that is enjoyable, after all, fitness is just about moving, you can move in anyway you like. For example; free-weights, yoga, dancing, climbing, walking, swimming…The list goes on…

5. Schedule

Don’t over commit. There is a reason why people mock ‘January joiners’. It’s not that they’re stupid. It’s purely because they over commit. To much too fast. There’s nothing worse than promising yourself that you’re going to work out six times a week for an hour a day only to fail in the first few weeks by realising you’re out of town, have a friends birthday, a late night meeting and a doctors appointment, dammit.

Before you start a new schedule actually take a look at your diary and work out an average of how often you can commit to exercise, then plan around that, it’ll leave you feeling less overwhelmed and more in control of your own schedule. Remember Rome wasn’t built in a day!

6. Diary

Wow! So before Kristy came along my diary was non existent! Thank god that mess is all in the past because now I treat my workouts like you would a date. I always plan my workouts in advance in my diary and actually write ‘Chest’, ‘back & bis’ etc to block it out. It lets Kristy know when I plan on working out and stops me from avoiding it or even missing a body part. Lets face it, you don’t want tiny legs now do you guys?

7. Efficiency

This point is key to keeping a lot of the points I’ve raised above. Gone are the days of having to work out for hours at a time on the treadmill, aim to incorporate HIIT or circuit based sessions into your day to maximise effort and decrease time out of your day.

8. Home

You don’t need to leave your house to workout, you just need the time. Think about this one. How many reps of an exercise or how far into a routine could you get during the adverts of your favourite TV show or while the dinner is cooking? While scrolling the internet? It’s all dead time that you could use to complete your goals. So why not give it a go?

Have you got any easy ways to find time to exercise?