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My problem with exercise is simply time. There are a million things I want to do and with a 10-7 work shift, I just can't do much. Staying 30 minutes longer ha

by dvcrn 9y ago

My problem with exercise is simply time. There are a million things I want to do and with a 10-7 work shift, I just can't do much. Staying 30 minutes longer happens easily so it's 7:30. Commuting to the gym would take another 20-30. 1h in the gym and it's 9 (or later). Commuting an hour home and it's 10. Go to supermarket, maybe cook something up and it could easily be 11 already. This leaves 1-2h max to do anything else, given I am not dead from the gym. Now spinning up the brain to focus on something creative also needs a bit of time. Morning gym is hard as well. All gyms around my home open from 9:30/10:00 which is when I have to be on the way to the office already. So the time slots that are free are very competitive. Pick one: Do I go to the gym? Do I watch a movie with the gf? Do I program? Do I learn the next grammar chapter? Do I work on other hobbies that I've been putting off too long? Do I meet friends and catch up on social life? To be honest, this 'problem' makes me currently think of switching into a part time job, just so I have more time for the things I actually care about. (Part time remote for optimum happiness but that might be impossible to come by)

crusso 9y ago
Some years back, I re-evaluated how I spend my free time (not working, not with the family). I knew that I mostly surfed online or watched TV. I decided to only watch TV if I could be in the midst of a workout. I spent a few hundred bucks getting some basic exercise equipment for my home and I began using it almost every day after work in the evenings. I'm very pleased with that decision. It's produced great results for me, both physically and mentally.
- brianwawok 9y ago
  There is a really good npr story on this. Basically you deny yourself a specific pleasure unless you do a chore. I use for for podcasts and indoor cycling. I could only poscast when i cycled. Worked really Well. Indoor cycling is mentally hard, but I looked forward to it so I could hear my podcasts.
Gustomaximus 9y ago
Best us to work it into your day like run at lunch and eat at your desk after. Or get off a train stop early and walk. Also I keep a dumbell under my home desk (not confident enough to do this at open plan work office) so if on the phone or having a YouTube moment type thing I do a few exercises.
ainiriand 9y ago
From 30-40 years, exercise is a priority. After that age is THE priority. It is up to you what you want to put your time into but I strongly encourage simplifying exercise by removing commute from it. I never really understood going 'somewhere' to do exercise. Do a small run of half an hour around your office, in a nearby park for example.
Quatih 9y ago
Get into body weight fitness which you can easiliy do in your own home, or maybe cycling to work.
- fahadkhan 9y ago
  with kids, cycling to work is the only way I can get enough exercise into my day.
sjogress 9y ago
What about exercising at home? If you follow a bodyweight fitness routine, for instance /r/bodyweightfitness' recommended routine[1], you'll only need a few pieces of equipment to get a good workout regimen going. 1. https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/wiki/kb/recommended_routine https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/wiki/kb/recommend...
tomp 9y ago
> My problem with exercise is simply time No, your problem with exercise is prioritising. You could spend less time at the gym. You could (probably) go running around your work or your home. You could work out or do yoga at home. You could even work out or stretch in the office during breaks!
xarope 9y ago
If you believe it's important enough, you'll find a way to make time. When I started my first job (90's, 3-letter IT company), I was doing 1.5 to 2 shifts + weekend work, so 80-90 hour weeks. I made do with 20-30 minutes of callisthenics in my (tragically small) living room. 7x a week, that adds up to 3-4 hours a week, not insignificant. Also, find friends who want to be active, not just to go the pub and drink and watch sports (instead of taking part). Get your GF interested in (doing) sports too, and it's a win-win situation. Please don't take this to be insulting, just trying to explain that once you find a compelling factor, you'll be able to make it work. And once you make it a lifestyle, you will find it uncomfortable to NOT be active. You'd also be surprised at some of the people from varied walks of life you'll meet; rock climbing in the 90s was festooned with mathematicians and engineers as a progression from mental to physical chess; today it's the domain of the teens, but I'm fine with that as a natural evolution of the consumerism and commodization of most sports. And triathlons, adventure races and ultras have a lot of high-wealth folks participating nowadays, in the current culture of shifting from collecting assets to collecting experiences.
fsloth 9y ago
A message from another couch potato trying to improve oneself :) You don't need to go to the Gym. What you need to do, is to take ownership of your body and your health regimen. You don't need any complex mechanical stuff to do that. Bodyweight exercises are more than enough for regular folks and you can do them at home. Research. See what works for you. These guys have a terrific supportive attitude and great do-at-home courses to get you started https://gmb.io/ https://gmb.io/ Aerobic: Do a run per week and walks on other days around your house. If you want to compress that time and are ready for some pain, do interval runs (research Tabata exercise). You don't need the gym. Gym is marketing bullshit by an industry that attempts to monetize basic human functions. The only reason gyms are packed with exercise machines is because it's the cheapest way to offer some sort of structured conditioning without expert guidance. I.e it's the most profitable model for gym owners. It's not as good as free weight exercises (unless you are after some specific athletic goal, I think) for any sort of thing. I found buying an activity bracelet with onboard pulse meter motivated me considerably. Polar A360 was good enough for me, but I'm sure there are better alternatives.
- cpursley 9y ago
  > Gym is marketing bullshit I totally disagree. While you can absolutely get fit without a gym, it's difficult to serious build muscle mass without lifting weights.
  - Angostura 9y ago
    But we're talking about health, not muscle mass.
    - danielbln 9y ago
      Also, you don't need a gym to use weights. A few dumb-bells and a pull-up bar are cheap enough and easy to stow away at home.
      - kerbalspacepro 9y ago
        Beware of the Diderot effect once you buy those, though!
corney91 9y ago
I've started exercising over lunch, a half hour run instead of sitting in front of Hacker News and Reddit really helps clear my head for the afternoon's problems, as well as the obvious health benefits. I'd definitely recommend giving it a try.
branchless 9y ago
All that long commuting, working late to pay to live nowhere near your work. Your banker has lots of free time and won't come to visit you if you get sick.
yulaow 9y ago
If you can't find the time for the gym and don't want or don't have the space to buy and build a whole homegym, can I suggest to buy a good but simple in-home rowing machine? It is, imho, the perfect combination between aerobic and anaerobic exercises and it really works out every of your muscles in a good way, the only downside is that you have to be careful and learn the correct movements else you are just going to get pain in your whole back. A good one, with a good variety of (high) resistance and a quality rope would cost about 400/500$, double it if you want agonist-level equipment.
- dv35z 9y ago
  Agreed - if you have the space, get a Concept2 rowing machine. Do 2km on that every day (<15min), you have covered a lot of bases. I'd also say, get a door-frame pull up bar and a set of adjustable dumb bells, and you can do an extremely effective workout in minimal time.
- TickleSteve 9y ago
  Absolutely.... I do 15 minutes every morning before work on my C2.... works wonders. I also do 15 minutes at night throwing kettle bells around for my strength work. Like any exercise, you've got to work up a sweat to get benefit tho.
ptaipale 9y ago
"Any reason you give for not exercising regularly is not a reason, it's an excuse". Commuting 20-30 minutes to a gym sounds completely absurd [0]. You can use that time for exercising. Just walk or run around your home or office, or climb stairs, or do calisthenics in your living room, or whatever. What I do is cycle to work, which takes about 1 hour per day plus showering both ways (driving the same distance would take about 40 minutes two ways.) [0] https://chimaeraspeaks.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/america-fitness-s.jpg https://chimaeraspeaks.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/america-f...
JeremyNT 9y ago
You simply have to prioritize it over some of those other leisure activities. Personally, I strongly recommend getting a door frame pull up bar and a set of gymnast rings to go with it. This should provide all the equipment you need for a reasonably good body weight resistance training routine. For cardio, there are many options. Running? You just need shoes and 30 minutes. And you only need cardio once or twice a week. A little exercise is like a drug. It makes me feel stronger, smarter, more alert. You don't have to go to a gym and bulk up, you just need to start somewhere. Do not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
- voidmain0001 9y ago
  Agreed! While walking around the neighbourhood with my four year old, I found someone disposing of a skateboard. I grabbed it, and rode around for a bit. I'm hooked again! It has been 25 years since I was in to skateboarding. I bought a new board yesterday, pulled out my snowboarding wrist guards because I need my wrists to make money with a keyboard, and got to work learning my balance all over again last night for about 15 minutes. I'm bringing it to work to ride at lunch. I refuse to die with two young kids because I was too stupid to make exercise a priority.
DeusExMachina 9y ago
This is a very typical "extreme reach" barrier. I cannot exercise every day, therefore I am not going to do any. What about starting at once per week? You don't have start at the optimal point. Once per week is already going to create the habit, give you some health and energy benefits and you can scale up from there. Also, gym or equipment are not necessary. I do everything at home, and my only "equipment" is composed of a mat and a pull-up bar attached to a door. You can get each item for around 10$. You can do HIIT cardio exercises that last only 10-20 minutes and have been shown to be much more beneficial than long cardio sessions like running for one hour. You can also increase muscle mass doing calisthenics exercises with as little as 10 minutes of exercise no more than twice per week (total weekly time: 20 minutes). I recommend reading the 4 Hour Body from Tim Ferris for this. There are a lot of options that don't need to include going to the gym or long exercises.
Raknarg 9y ago
You can make a good workout in 15 minutes if you have time constraints. Lifting dumbbells is not the pinnacle of exercise. Do sprint-related things or other high intensity training. It's been proven to have as much of an effect as distance running, with the added benefit of increased metabolic rate and more muscle gain.
smelterdemon 9y ago
>All gyms around my home open from 9:30/10:00 I find this bizarre, both in that every gym I've belonged to opened before 6:00AM and that these gyms must be excluding a significant market of potential members.
dagw 9y ago
1h in the gym My new life changing discovery is that you don't need to spend an hour. I've long resisted going to the gym for exactly the reasons you describe, but I've recently joined a gym just round the corner from my office and realized that I can go either before work or on my lunch break, and more importantly that by having a plan before I go and being efficient about it I can be in and out in 30 minutes or less. For me the practical difference now between going and not going to the gym being at work at 8.30 and being at work at 9.00.
mkingston 9y ago
Here's a trick: find a friend who you feel you can't bail on and who won't bail on you. Pick a regular time you can both attend. Find some exercise/sport you both enjoy. Now, if it's just your one friend, you'll feel bad bailing, and so will they. Additionally, if it's a reasonably social activity, you'll combine socialising and exercise. Alternatively, do this with the gf. As long as you won't let each other off the hook, that is.. Something else that worked really well for me for a while was a small running/dinner club. We'd all get together one evening and go for a fairly social, chatty run, followed by dinner at one attendee's place. Burgers, pizza, whatever, something that's pretty quick and easy to toss together. Again, mixing socialising and exercise. The only reason this has stopped happening is because I've temporarily stopped running due to injury. One more thing: I suspect anything less than 30 minutes a day of exercise is sort of "free" time. Many people report feeling more alert and getting better sleep with regular exercise. So you may regain that 30 minutes per day with increased productivity, or possibly even less time sleeping due to better sleep. (Citation needed!).
tim333 9y ago
I've noticed Warren Buffett who is often logical about things speed walks when he goes from A to B which gives exercise and also saves time.
- kbutler 9y ago
  He also bought Bill Gates dinner with coupons at McDonald's. (A) He uses coupons. (B) He eats at McDonald's Make of it what you will. http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/17/warren-buffett-once-paid-for-bill-gates-mcdonalds-meal-with-coupons.html http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/17/warren-buffett-once-paid-for-...
  - tim333 9y ago
    Yeah he has eccentricities. Still he's doing ok for 86 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThHzIJUm-So https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThHzIJUm-So
puddlypanda123 9y ago
You could always do bodyweight exercises when you have free time at home.
CuriouslyC 9y ago
Suggestion: get some weights, and lift while watching a movie with the girlfriend. Get a used exercise bike and ride it while reading a book. Multitask your way to gains.
avtar 9y ago
Try a search for "7 minute workout". Here's one result that's longer than seven minutes but includes warmup and cool down exercises: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzZ1Zb0p-FdCgop90uImXnEpHQM6-yVts http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzZ1Zb0p-FdCgop90uImXn... You just need your bodyweight and a chair or something tall at home that you can step on to.
groby_b 9y ago
I've been in the same spot. It turns out we tell ourselves stories. > Staying 30 minutes longer happens easily so it's 7:30 Set an alarm to 6:50. Get out on time. > Commuting to the gym would take another 20-30 You don't need a gym. > Go to supermarket, maybe cook something up Shop once a week. Cook ahead & freeze. >Now spinning up the brain to focus on something creative also needs a bit of time. Move that to the morning, if you need the evening for social activities. > Do I work on other hobbies that I've been putting off too long? Trust me: You want to work out. There are always more hobbies than you have time for. There's only one healthy body. And you're not (easily) getting it back if you let it go.
Angostura 9y ago
How do you travel to work? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39641122 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39641122
Taylor_OD 9y ago
http://www.simplefit.org/workout.html http://www.simplefit.org/workout.html Check this out. I workout three times a week for 20ish minutes or less. I modify this method a bit. Curls instead of pull ups and kettle bell swings instead of squats. I bought everything so I've got it all at home. Kettle bell and two dumbbells take up very little space. If you actually want to exercise there is always a way. I'm not in the same shape I was in when I was working out at the gym 6 days a week but I don't need to be anymore.
munin 9y ago
I started exercising when I was working full time and going to school part time. It was a lot of work and it was very stressful because neither work or school knew (or cared) about the different demands they would place on my time, so I spent most of my time putting out a fire in one part of my life knowing that another was building somewhere else. I contrasted two semesters, one where I would tell myself "I don't have time to go to the gym, I need to stay at home and do this problem set" and another where I would tell myself basically the opposite, "I don't have time to NOT go to the gym." What I noticed was that the semesters where I made more of an effort (3-4 times a week) to go to the gym, my grades were better. Over the years I've found that exercise sharpens the time you have left over. So sure, you spend an extra hour a day exercising but the other 23 hours are just better - you're more alert, you think better, you have more energy, you sleep better, you're less irritable. You do you, but what I found works for me is working out in the morning. On good days, I get to the pool at 0630 and swim for 40 minutes, then go to work. As a bonus life hack, I've discovered that this combines your post-workout stupor with your early-morning-coffee stupor so you get all the stupor out of the way in the morning while you're checking e-mail and no one else is doing anything anyway. Do this 3-4 times a week for a few months and see how you feel at the end of it.
pmoriarty 9y ago
"Commuting to the gym would take another 20-30. 1h in the gym and it's 9 (or later). Commuting an hour home and it's 10." You don't have to go to the gym to exercise. You could exercise at home, using bodyweight exercise and isometrics.[1][2] For aerobic exercise, you can (for example) run or jump rope. Neither of those requires a commute or gym membership. One good way to get started is the r/bodyweightfitness Recommended Routine.[3] [1] - https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/ https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/ [2] - https://www.reddit.com/r/Isometrics/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Isometrics/ [3] - https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/wiki/kb/recommended_routine https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/wiki/kb/recommend...
pc86 9y ago
> All gyms around my home open from 9:30/10:00 This is absolutely bizarre to me. The gyms in my area all open between 4am and 6am. The busiest times are the first hour or two after opening and early evening (after 5 or so).
arkh 9y ago
Get a rower at home. Put a screen near it and enjoy some shows your gf does not want to watch while exercising. Start with short sessions and lengthen them a little each week.
sn9 9y ago
Put a treadmill in front of your TV and do all your media consumption from it. Get some kettlebells and a pull up bar.
steve_adams_86 9y ago
I know you've had a heap of responses already, but regarding eating after you get home: Prep something in advance. Make dinner the night before, but double it. The next day after the gym just warm it up, eat, and relax. You'll spend ~10m extra the day before preparing extra and save yourself tons of energy and time the next day. It'll make working out seem a lot less daunting. Try to fit a bunch of these in and eventually you'll have quite a lot more time. Prep food in advance, work out at home, you're saving well over an hour already. I feel your pain regarding wanting to go part time so you have time for what you care about. I have many weeks where things pile up until the weekend, then it's all errands and chores all weekend. Such a drag.

by dvcrn 9y ago

crusso 9y ago

Some years back, I re-evaluated how I spend my free time (not working, not with the family). I knew that I mostly surfed online or watched TV. I decided to only watch TV if I could be in the midst of a workout. I spent a few hundred bucks getting some basic exercise equipment for my home and I began using it almost every day after work in the evenings. I'm very pleased with that decision. It's produced great results for me, both physically and mentally.

brianwawok 9y ago
There is a really good npr story on this. Basically you deny yourself a specific pleasure unless you do a chore. I use for for podcasts and indoor cycling. I could only poscast when i cycled. Worked really Well. Indoor cycling is mentally hard, but I looked forward to it so I could hear my podcasts.

Gustomaximus 9y ago

Best us to work it into your day like run at lunch and eat at your desk after. Or get off a train stop early and walk. Also I keep a dumbell under my home desk (not confident enough to do this at open plan work office) so if on the phone or having a YouTube moment type thing I do a few exercises.

ainiriand 9y ago

From 30-40 years, exercise is a priority. After that age is THE priority. It is up to you what you want to put your time into but I strongly encourage simplifying exercise by removing commute from it. I never really understood going 'somewhere' to do exercise. Do a small run of half an hour around your office, in a nearby park for example.

Quatih 9y ago

Get into body weight fitness which you can easiliy do in your own home, or maybe cycling to work.

fahadkhan 9y ago
with kids, cycling to work is the only way I can get enough exercise into my day.

sjogress 9y ago

What about exercising at home? If you follow a bodyweight fitness routine, for instance /r/bodyweightfitness' recommended routine[1], you'll only need a few pieces of equipment to get a good workout regimen going. 1. https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/wiki/kb/recommended_routine https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/wiki/kb/recommend...

tomp 9y ago

> My problem with exercise is simply time No, your problem with exercise is prioritising. You could spend less time at the gym. You could (probably) go running around your work or your home. You could work out or do yoga at home. You could even work out or stretch in the office during breaks!

xarope 9y ago

If you believe it's important enough, you'll find a way to make time. When I started my first job (90's, 3-letter IT company), I was doing 1.5 to 2 shifts + weekend work, so 80-90 hour weeks. I made do with 20-30 minutes of callisthenics in my (tragically small) living room. 7x a week, that adds up to 3-4 hours a week, not insignificant. Also, find friends who want to be active, not just to go the pub and drink and watch sports (instead of taking part). Get your GF interested in (doing) sports too, and it's a win-win situation. Please don't take this to be insulting, just trying to explain that once you find a compelling factor, you'll be able to make it work. And once you make it a lifestyle, you will find it uncomfortable to NOT be active. You'd also be surprised at some of the people from varied walks of life you'll meet; rock climbing in the 90s was festooned with mathematicians and engineers as a progression from mental to physical chess; today it's the domain of the teens, but I'm fine with that as a natural evolution of the consumerism and commodization of most sports. And triathlons, adventure races and ultras have a lot of high-wealth folks participating nowadays, in the current culture of shifting from collecting assets to collecting experiences.

fsloth 9y ago

A message from another couch potato trying to improve oneself :) You don't need to go to the Gym. What you need to do, is to take ownership of your body and your health regimen. You don't need any complex mechanical stuff to do that. Bodyweight exercises are more than enough for regular folks and you can do them at home. Research. See what works for you. These guys have a terrific supportive attitude and great do-at-home courses to get you started https://gmb.io/ https://gmb.io/ Aerobic: Do a run per week and walks on other days around your house. If you want to compress that time and are ready for some pain, do interval runs (research Tabata exercise). You don't need the gym. Gym is marketing bullshit by an industry that attempts to monetize basic human functions. The only reason gyms are packed with exercise machines is because it's the cheapest way to offer some sort of structured conditioning without expert guidance. I.e it's the most profitable model for gym owners. It's not as good as free weight exercises (unless you are after some specific athletic goal, I think) for any sort of thing. I found buying an activity bracelet with onboard pulse meter motivated me considerably. Polar A360 was good enough for me, but I'm sure there are better alternatives.

cpursley 9y ago
> Gym is marketing bullshit I totally disagree. While you can absolutely get fit without a gym, it's difficult to serious build muscle mass without lifting weights.
- Angostura 9y ago
  But we're talking about health, not muscle mass.
  - danielbln 9y ago
    Also, you don't need a gym to use weights. A few dumb-bells and a pull-up bar are cheap enough and easy to stow away at home.
    - kerbalspacepro 9y ago
      Beware of the Diderot effect once you buy those, though!

corney91 9y ago

I've started exercising over lunch, a half hour run instead of sitting in front of Hacker News and Reddit really helps clear my head for the afternoon's problems, as well as the obvious health benefits. I'd definitely recommend giving it a try.

branchless 9y ago

All that long commuting, working late to pay to live nowhere near your work. Your banker has lots of free time and won't come to visit you if you get sick.

yulaow 9y ago

If you can't find the time for the gym and don't want or don't have the space to buy and build a whole homegym, can I suggest to buy a good but simple in-home rowing machine? It is, imho, the perfect combination between aerobic and anaerobic exercises and it really works out every of your muscles in a good way, the only downside is that you have to be careful and learn the correct movements else you are just going to get pain in your whole back. A good one, with a good variety of (high) resistance and a quality rope would cost about 400/500$, double it if you want agonist-level equipment.

dv35z 9y ago
Agreed - if you have the space, get a Concept2 rowing machine. Do 2km on that every day (<15min), you have covered a lot of bases. I'd also say, get a door-frame pull up bar and a set of adjustable dumb bells, and you can do an extremely effective workout in minimal time.
TickleSteve 9y ago
Absolutely.... I do 15 minutes every morning before work on my C2.... works wonders. I also do 15 minutes at night throwing kettle bells around for my strength work. Like any exercise, you've got to work up a sweat to get benefit tho.

ptaipale 9y ago

"Any reason you give for not exercising regularly is not a reason, it's an excuse". Commuting 20-30 minutes to a gym sounds completely absurd [0]. You can use that time for exercising. Just walk or run around your home or office, or climb stairs, or do calisthenics in your living room, or whatever. What I do is cycle to work, which takes about 1 hour per day plus showering both ways (driving the same distance would take about 40 minutes two ways.) [0] https://chimaeraspeaks.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/america-fitness-s.jpg https://chimaeraspeaks.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/america-f...

JeremyNT 9y ago

You simply have to prioritize it over some of those other leisure activities. Personally, I strongly recommend getting a door frame pull up bar and a set of gymnast rings to go with it. This should provide all the equipment you need for a reasonably good body weight resistance training routine. For cardio, there are many options. Running? You just need shoes and 30 minutes. And you only need cardio once or twice a week. A little exercise is like a drug. It makes me feel stronger, smarter, more alert. You don't have to go to a gym and bulk up, you just need to start somewhere. Do not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

voidmain0001 9y ago
Agreed! While walking around the neighbourhood with my four year old, I found someone disposing of a skateboard. I grabbed it, and rode around for a bit. I'm hooked again! It has been 25 years since I was in to skateboarding. I bought a new board yesterday, pulled out my snowboarding wrist guards because I need my wrists to make money with a keyboard, and got to work learning my balance all over again last night for about 15 minutes. I'm bringing it to work to ride at lunch. I refuse to die with two young kids because I was too stupid to make exercise a priority.

DeusExMachina 9y ago

This is a very typical "extreme reach" barrier. I cannot exercise every day, therefore I am not going to do any. What about starting at once per week? You don't have start at the optimal point. Once per week is already going to create the habit, give you some health and energy benefits and you can scale up from there. Also, gym or equipment are not necessary. I do everything at home, and my only "equipment" is composed of a mat and a pull-up bar attached to a door. You can get each item for around 10$. You can do HIIT cardio exercises that last only 10-20 minutes and have been shown to be much more beneficial than long cardio sessions like running for one hour. You can also increase muscle mass doing calisthenics exercises with as little as 10 minutes of exercise no more than twice per week (total weekly time: 20 minutes). I recommend reading the 4 Hour Body from Tim Ferris for this. There are a lot of options that don't need to include going to the gym or long exercises.

Raknarg 9y ago

You can make a good workout in 15 minutes if you have time constraints. Lifting dumbbells is not the pinnacle of exercise. Do sprint-related things or other high intensity training. It's been proven to have as much of an effect as distance running, with the added benefit of increased metabolic rate and more muscle gain.

smelterdemon 9y ago

>All gyms around my home open from 9:30/10:00 I find this bizarre, both in that every gym I've belonged to opened before 6:00AM and that these gyms must be excluding a significant market of potential members.

dagw 9y ago

1h in the gym My new life changing discovery is that you don't need to spend an hour. I've long resisted going to the gym for exactly the reasons you describe, but I've recently joined a gym just round the corner from my office and realized that I can go either before work or on my lunch break, and more importantly that by having a plan before I go and being efficient about it I can be in and out in 30 minutes or less. For me the practical difference now between going and not going to the gym being at work at 8.30 and being at work at 9.00.

mkingston 9y ago

Here's a trick: find a friend who you feel you can't bail on and who won't bail on you. Pick a regular time you can both attend. Find some exercise/sport you both enjoy. Now, if it's just your one friend, you'll feel bad bailing, and so will they. Additionally, if it's a reasonably social activity, you'll combine socialising and exercise. Alternatively, do this with the gf. As long as you won't let each other off the hook, that is.. Something else that worked really well for me for a while was a small running/dinner club. We'd all get together one evening and go for a fairly social, chatty run, followed by dinner at one attendee's place. Burgers, pizza, whatever, something that's pretty quick and easy to toss together. Again, mixing socialising and exercise. The only reason this has stopped happening is because I've temporarily stopped running due to injury. One more thing: I suspect anything less than 30 minutes a day of exercise is sort of "free" time. Many people report feeling more alert and getting better sleep with regular exercise. So you may regain that 30 minutes per day with increased productivity, or possibly even less time sleeping due to better sleep. (Citation needed!).

tim333 9y ago

I've noticed Warren Buffett who is often logical about things speed walks when he goes from A to B which gives exercise and also saves time.

kbutler 9y ago
He also bought Bill Gates dinner with coupons at McDonald's. (A) He uses coupons. (B) He eats at McDonald's Make of it what you will. http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/17/warren-buffett-once-paid-for-bill-gates-mcdonalds-meal-with-coupons.html http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/17/warren-buffett-once-paid-for-...
- tim333 9y ago
  Yeah he has eccentricities. Still he's doing ok for 86 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThHzIJUm-So https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThHzIJUm-So

puddlypanda123 9y ago

You could always do bodyweight exercises when you have free time at home.

CuriouslyC 9y ago

Suggestion: get some weights, and lift while watching a movie with the girlfriend. Get a used exercise bike and ride it while reading a book. Multitask your way to gains.

avtar 9y ago

Try a search for "7 minute workout". Here's one result that's longer than seven minutes but includes warmup and cool down exercises: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzZ1Zb0p-FdCgop90uImXnEpHQM6-yVts http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzZ1Zb0p-FdCgop90uImXn... You just need your bodyweight and a chair or something tall at home that you can step on to.

groby_b 9y ago

I've been in the same spot. It turns out we tell ourselves stories. > Staying 30 minutes longer happens easily so it's 7:30 Set an alarm to 6:50. Get out on time. > Commuting to the gym would take another 20-30 You don't need a gym. > Go to supermarket, maybe cook something up Shop once a week. Cook ahead & freeze. >Now spinning up the brain to focus on something creative also needs a bit of time. Move that to the morning, if you need the evening for social activities. > Do I work on other hobbies that I've been putting off too long? Trust me: You want to work out. There are always more hobbies than you have time for. There's only one healthy body. And you're not (easily) getting it back if you let it go.

Angostura 9y ago

How do you travel to work? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39641122 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39641122

Taylor_OD 9y ago

http://www.simplefit.org/workout.html http://www.simplefit.org/workout.html Check this out. I workout three times a week for 20ish minutes or less. I modify this method a bit. Curls instead of pull ups and kettle bell swings instead of squats. I bought everything so I've got it all at home. Kettle bell and two dumbbells take up very little space. If you actually want to exercise there is always a way. I'm not in the same shape I was in when I was working out at the gym 6 days a week but I don't need to be anymore.

munin 9y ago

I started exercising when I was working full time and going to school part time. It was a lot of work and it was very stressful because neither work or school knew (or cared) about the different demands they would place on my time, so I spent most of my time putting out a fire in one part of my life knowing that another was building somewhere else. I contrasted two semesters, one where I would tell myself "I don't have time to go to the gym, I need to stay at home and do this problem set" and another where I would tell myself basically the opposite, "I don't have time to NOT go to the gym." What I noticed was that the semesters where I made more of an effort (3-4 times a week) to go to the gym, my grades were better. Over the years I've found that exercise sharpens the time you have left over. So sure, you spend an extra hour a day exercising but the other 23 hours are just better - you're more alert, you think better, you have more energy, you sleep better, you're less irritable. You do you, but what I found works for me is working out in the morning. On good days, I get to the pool at 0630 and swim for 40 minutes, then go to work. As a bonus life hack, I've discovered that this combines your post-workout stupor with your early-morning-coffee stupor so you get all the stupor out of the way in the morning while you're checking e-mail and no one else is doing anything anyway. Do this 3-4 times a week for a few months and see how you feel at the end of it.

pmoriarty 9y ago

"Commuting to the gym would take another 20-30. 1h in the gym and it's 9 (or later). Commuting an hour home and it's 10." You don't have to go to the gym to exercise. You could exercise at home, using bodyweight exercise and isometrics.[1][2] For aerobic exercise, you can (for example) run or jump rope. Neither of those requires a commute or gym membership. One good way to get started is the r/bodyweightfitness Recommended Routine.[3] [1] - https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/ https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/ [2] - https://www.reddit.com/r/Isometrics/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Isometrics/ [3] - https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/wiki/kb/recommended_routine https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/wiki/kb/recommend...

pc86 9y ago

> All gyms around my home open from 9:30/10:00 This is absolutely bizarre to me. The gyms in my area all open between 4am and 6am. The busiest times are the first hour or two after opening and early evening (after 5 or so).

arkh 9y ago

Get a rower at home. Put a screen near it and enjoy some shows your gf does not want to watch while exercising. Start with short sessions and lengthen them a little each week.

sn9 9y ago

Put a treadmill in front of your TV and do all your media consumption from it. Get some kettlebells and a pull up bar.

steve_adams_86 9y ago

I know you've had a heap of responses already, but regarding eating after you get home: Prep something in advance. Make dinner the night before, but double it. The next day after the gym just warm it up, eat, and relax. You'll spend ~10m extra the day before preparing extra and save yourself tons of energy and time the next day. It'll make working out seem a lot less daunting. Try to fit a bunch of these in and eventually you'll have quite a lot more time. Prep food in advance, work out at home, you're saving well over an hour already. I feel your pain regarding wanting to go part time so you have time for what you care about. I have many weeks where things pile up until the weekend, then it's all errands and chores all weekend. Such a drag.