You should never be too busy to prioritise your health and wellbeing…

Life is pretty hectic. Actually, scrap that. Life is crazy hectic. There’s work (urgh), chores (double urgh), family commitments, social get-togethers, big food shops, trying to cook healthy meals, getting 8-hours of sleep a night, sharing your highlights on the ‘gram and everything else in between, so it’s probably not a plot twist to say: making time for exercise can be tough AF, especially if you have a demanding job with a gruelling work schedule.

But even if your life is next-level hectic, it’s mega-important to fit fitness into your daily routine. After all, you deserve the best. Your body craves it, your mind needs it and, at the end of the day, without making your health n’ wellbeing the priority, everything else comes tumbling down.

So to help you figure out a way to stay fit, no matter how busy your day-to-day life is, here are seven simple solutions that put your fitness first. Translation: it’s time to get your sweat on and make room for exercise in your hectic routine.

No1: Make Your Exercise Efficient

When time is against you, you need to make time work for you. And one of the best ways to achieve that is to pick the right workout, one that you can do almost anywhere. One that doesn’t require much preparation or equipment or space. But it’s also about finding a workout that makes the most of your limited time so that you can maximise your gains in the shortest time.

We’re talking about things like boxing (or boxercise), interval runs, bodyweight workouts, CrossFit, speedy ab sessions, weight skipping ropes, resistance band routines or High Intensity Interval Training (aka HIIT).

All of these workouts guarantee to give you a serious amount of bang for your buck, but if we had to choose one, HIIT would have to be the winner. It’s a sweat-maker that is known to increase strength, increase aerobic endurance, boost your fitness, upgrade your oxygen intake and burn visceral fat. Basically, it’s awesome.

No2: Do What Makes You Smile

When it comes to keeping a fitness routine, the biggest muscle you need to flex is your self-discipline. You need to want to workout, and that kind of motivation tends to come from doing things that make you smile, not things you hate. So if you can’t stand lacing up and pounding the pavement, then don’t choose running. Find a workout you actually get excited about and you’ll find yourself sticking to it.

That might be running. Or it might be boxing or climbing, spinning or dancing or hiking. The trick is to make things easier for yourself by choosing an exercise that slots into your lifestyle, personality and time so that you’re more motivated to make it a big part of your life. And if you’re not sure what you’re into, then start experimenting. Try new things, explore different forms of exercise and find what works for you.

No3: Create Some Competition

Remember when you were at school and the gym class would be set up for a game of dodgeball? That was peak fitness goals. Not only was it fun and sweat-soaked, but it had a sense of friendly competition that you should try to replicate with your workouts. Why? Well, according to a study done by people in white lab coats, adding a form of competition to your exercise can be a major motivator, especially if you involve rewards too.

You might be a total newbie, a seasoned pro or somewhere in the middle. Whatever the case, there’s always ways to create this sense of mild competition. Sign up for a fun run, try your hand at a CrossFit competition, line-up at the start of a (half or full) marathon, start a tally with your workout buddy where the winner buys the post-workout coffee or simply set your sights on a new PB. Go on. Sign up for that challenge, set yourself a goal and just go for it. You might find it’s exactly what you need to stay committed to your fitness game.

No4: Pop it in Your Calendar

Meetings, doctor’s appointments, birthdays, get-togethers, anything important automatically gets added to your calendar so that you don’t forget. Maybe it’s time to start prioritising exercise in the same way so that you treat it with the same importance. Add ‘morning run’ into your weekly schedule, or ‘gym session’ or whatever workout you have decided to focus on and you’ll find yourself sticking to these commitments with the same fervour as your other calendar entries.

The psychology as to why this works is simple: when you commit to a plan – any plan – you are much more likely to stick to it. Besides, we all have the ability to do the things we really want to. So, add your workouts to your schedule and stick to them. You deserve this kind of you time.

No5: Keep Track of Your Progress

Breaking news: progress doesn’t happen overnight. It takes a combination of time, effort and commitment to see results, which is what makes tracking your progress such a great fitness motivator. There’s something about seeing your progress as you head toward your goals that encourages you to keep at it.

Keep a fitness journal, use a fitness app, take mirror selfies of you in the gym, take notice of how your clothes fit, hop on the scale, take measurements of your body to see the incremental changes, count your active minutes, anything that will show you just how far you’ve come and the progress you’ve made. Trust us: that kind of motivation will help you stay on track (and shine the spotlight on any slips in progress before you’ve completely lost the habit).

No6: Attend a Bootcamp or Fitness Retreat

Whether you’re just starting out or trying to get back into fitness, starting out can be daunting. The progress can be slow, the effort overwhelming and your motivation dwindling. That’s where our fitness retreats are a game-changer. Not only will you see incredible results in a short space of time (which is uber-motivating), but everything we do is tailored to you. Everything.

The bespoke diets, personalised fitness plan, removal of temptations, nutritious meals and, of course, the sessions laid out by our world-class coaching team, our fitness retreats are designed to build healthy habits and make your goals a reality. Whether you're in the market to lose weight, build strength, change your lifestyle or simply get hooked on those post-workout endorphins, attending a fitness retreat is an epic way to make fitness a major part of your life.

No7: Something is Better Than Nothing

You don’t need to block out an entire hour (or even half-an-hour) everytime you exercise to enjoy an effective workout. So change that mindset and embrace the fact that doing some form of exercise is always better than none. After all, consistency is key when it comes to building your fitness. That’s the approach you want to commit to; an approach that will see you spending your spare minutes doing short and speedy workouts that boost your fitness and improve your mental health.

But here’s the best part: squeezing in a small dollop of fitness is doable wherever you are, no matter how little time you have. Try taking the stairs instead of the lift, use your lunch break to take a fast-paced walk, get off the tube two stops earlier than you need, park further away from your office than you need to, do squats while you brush your teeth or jumping jacks while the kettle boils, or simply set your alarm 15-minutes earlier so that you can start your day with a blood-pumping mini-circuit.

The Key Takeaway

Exercise is one of the best investments you can ever make in your health and wellbeing, both mental and physical, so try and find time to prioritise this push. Will it be easy? No, probably not. Will it be worth it? More than we could ever explain in just words.

That said, there are lots of easy ways you can fit fitness into your hectic schedule. It’s just about choosing workouts that give you the most bang for your buck, finding a form of exercise that keeps you motivated and prioritising this part of your lifestyle, whether that starts with a bootcamp or your own true grit.

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