Low On Time In The Gym?
One of the most common excuses we often hear “I’m low on time”. People are always throwing this excuse around when trying to avoid working out or going to the gym. This article isn’t going to focus on making time for the gym or motivating yourself to go. We will focus on what you can do when you get to the gym and do not have a lot of time.
What Should I do?
You get to the gym you see lines of machines and workout equipment, but you are low on time. This is where you need to prioritize your workouts. Like with anything if you have a very busy day or work schedule it makes sense to tackle what is most important first. Furthermore, let’s apply this to the gym. Let’s say you are travelling and you only have one day to workout throughout that week. Your goals are general fitness, gain some muscle and lose fat. Will it make sense to burn through a quick arm workout, or 10 sets of 10 on the leg curl machine? Probably not!
It would make more sense to put together a workout where you will be hitting the major muscle groups in your body. One of the best ways to do this would be to use compound exercises that work multiple muscle groups. For example if you take squats, bench press and deadlifts it could make for a grueling workout but between those three exercises you have hit all the major muscle groups in your body!
What you really need to do is assess your goals and find out what the best combination of exercises is going to be in order to effectively help you to continue to move forward. Let’s use another example, you have 30 minutes to workout and your goal is weight loss. You could put together a circuit using compound movements and minimal rest. Take 5-10 exercises and do them one after another with 30-45 seconds rest in between. This will get you heart rate moving, and help you to burn a lot of calories in a short amount of time.
In closing
There is no perfect formula or shortcut to fitness. If you want to hit your goals you will have to make it a priority and find the time. But in cases where you are short on time you can effectively use compound movements to maximize your time spent in the gym!
