I have heard many reasons for people not making time to exercise over the last 20 plus years in they gym. Believe me, many. One of the reasons is I think that people work hard to complicate their lives even further.

Every one of us, when you think about it, lives within constraints – of time, of politics, of budget, of growing legislation and so on. It is hard to make time for ‘you’ even if you wanted to. It can be difficult to make time to exercise. We are never perfectly free.

Life is complex. True.

We are constrained by its complexity in all its forms. In today’s world where work can be done remotely, almost anywhere and any time, the line between individual’s work life and private time is blurred. Very blurred, sometimes. With a click of a button, you can be doing work for the organization you work for in an instant, anywhere, anytime. Advances in technology does not free us, it just adds another constraint to our lives. “How can I go to the gym, when I am on call 24/7 … I take my work home with me?” some may say.

There are many other constraints people say stop them from going to a gym, some of which are project deadlines; peoples’ moods which can be frequently bad or individual’s confidence which could be frequently low. There are the children screaming and all the other much more urgent things in life to be done and so forth.

But there in lies the answer – that is life. Real life!

Maybe, change your philosophy a little and accept that life comes with constraints. These are just the constraints within which one must try to make time for his or her health and strength training and make it a priority and accept that these are the circumstances in which we live.

We should all be trying to make the complex things in life simple – not the other way round. If you do make the courageous decision to step in to a gym, ask for help from a fitness professional and make sure your training program include these 4 simple things:

1. Do a general warm up – spend 5 minutes on a low-impact piece of cardio equipment. Aim here: to raise your body’s core temperature a little.
2. Weights work (strength training)
3. Stretching (during and after weights work)
4. Cardio work (15 – 20 minutes)

Don’t let real life be an excuse for failing to make time for your strength, health and vitality.

Good health, strength and vitality are not negotiable.

Until next time,