Beat the exercise excuses
It’s cold, raining and you are just completely exhausted so you decide to give the exercise a miss again. Sound familiar? No time, no money, no motivation are other excuses I used to make. Anything to get out of doing some exercise.
So how did I turn it around and stop making excuses? Here are some of the things I did.
Time-saving exercise strategies
- Introduce exercise in to your commute
If you don’t have time before work, exercise on the way to work! Try walking, running or cycling to work or to the train station. What about a Boris Bike if you work in London?
- Getting commuter fit
I get up at 6am instead of 7am. Suddenly I had a full hour extra to do a workout before having to get ready to go to work. Mind you, I go to bed an hour earlier to ensure I still get my eight hours beauty sleep.
- Replace watching TV with exercise
These days we can miss everything on TV and still get to watch what we want. Replace your TV viewing, iphone surfing or tablet touching with a brisk walk around the block, a 20 minute bike ride or even an energetic swim. Hoovering, Gardening or DIY if you want to take things a bit easier.
- Work out at home
The living room, garage or garden is a great place to workout and they’re all free. You can skip, pump iron, squat and lunge in the comfort of your own home. I’ve turned my garage into a multi gym of sorts and my 65kg punch bag, exercise mat and free weights are always available to use unlike in a gym.
- Exercise at the local park
The same can be said of the local park. It’s free to use. An open-air gym if you like. You can walk, jog, run or even do some bodyweight exercises. For a small fee you could join in a boot camp class that many personal trainers offer at the local park.
- Take the bike out
If you have a bike, this is a cheap form of exercise that improves your cardiovascular fitness and builds your leg strength. Less impact on the joints too! I did RideLondon 100 in 2014, a 100-mile cycling event starting at London’s Olympic stadium and finishing along the Mall. What an experience.
- Pay-as-you-go gyms
These have become very popular in recent times. With no monthly payments or membership-joining fee, a good exercise class gives you a great all-over workout and are frequently available at very little cost. Buy a book of PAYE tickets and the cost gets even cheaper.
- Budget and low cost gyms
Budget gyms have been popping up everywhere. The Gym Group and Pure Gym are leading the way. They are open 24/7 and cost near to nothing each month. The days of paying £80 a month gym membership are long gone.
- Swimming – the complete workout
Swimming is boring if you want it to be. I mix up my sessions by doing lengths one session, switching to a drill (faster, shorter) session the following week. The drill may include a float to build your leg strength, use an alternate strokes, timed lengths or use a float to work your upper body muscles. It is great for core stability too. For under a tenner, swimming is up there as a really affordable type of exercise.