"Sprinkle" your Exercises into your Day

"No time" or in many cases, our perceived lack of time, holds us back from creating the health habits that we truly WANT. We can take this point and look at it from two sides...

1) We can instead, practice saying "No" to some things to balance our schedules to work FOR us rather than burn ourselves out with loading every bit of free time with "scheduled stuff"

~OR~

2) We can practice HOW we approach our exercises, activities and chosen routines

(*Notice how BOTH of these sides have more to do with our mind than our physical abilities or which program/plan we choose to work with?... 🤔)

In this Zen Quickie, I want to briefly explore option #2. 👇

"Sprinkle" exercises into your day

If we can move away from the All or Nothing mentality and allow ourselves FREEDOM in our chosen exercises and routines, we can eliminate the stress of trying to fit a 30min, 45min, 60min (or longer) routine into our day, by "sprinkling" exercises and activities throughout our day.

For example, let's say you have a strength routine that comprises a handful of exercises for 2-3 sets each. Rather than doing it all at once before work, on your lunch break or after work (especially if it's stressful to do that and inconsistent for you), try spreading those exercises out over the course of the whole day.

Do your sets of squats and pushups in morning.

At lunch time do your plank exercise sets before you eat.

After work, finish your routine of ab wheel, farmers walks and chinups.

In this example, the body "counts" what it does over the course of the day. The body isn't biased to "a certain way". It responds to movement regardless. There's no "rules" for your body to "count it". We can even argue if we're going for strength, you then don't have to stress as much about recovery time between sets this way because they're scattered throughout the day!

*This also opens opportunities for mental breaks in your work day and easily gets you moving.

The "Sprinkling" Works

Exercise benefits for general health and wellbeing are accumulative. Think like building a snowman; You start with a small bit of snow in a ball and you roll it to slowly create a bigger ball as the snow accumulates. Same idea. Accumulating movements and exercise throughout your days, weeks and months will equate to positive health benefits. It doesn't have to be a daily 1-hour marathon session in the gym to "count".

Looking at it from a different angle; 3-days per week of your "sprinkled" strength exercises, done consistently, ends up being MORE at the end of the week and/or month, than the 2 or 3 times you found to fit in your 40min strength routine during your busy days. And less complaining about "not having the time" to fit it in. 😉

*Please note, we're speaking for MOST of us who are seeking general lifestyle and healthy benefits. If you're training for a competition, race, specific sport etc then yes, doing things together will be more important and that would be a totally different conversation.

Start NOW!

If you "have no time" you're the PERFECT candidate to begin to practice this approach to your health routines. Most likely you've either never considered trying it this way OR you've brushed it aside thinking "that won't do much". Once again - YOU are the PERFECT candidate to implement this practice in that case!

If equipment is an issue and you don't have access to weights, a kettlebell etc during the day, try some body weight work or utilize household or work items (eg: water jug) as resistance. That more consistent movement over the weeks/months will ADD up to positive benefits even without the fancy equipment.

Just start NOW. Think about it; Spreading your 50 pushups per day goal into 10 sets of 5 reps OR 5 sets of 10 reps throughout the day, will allow you to WAY MORE EASILY create consistency while building the benefits of all those pushups. We can also argue the impact on good technique since you'll be going into your sets more fresh and recovered since they are spread throughout your day.

---

This overlooked and under-utilized approach connects to our EGO. Ironically however, I feel it's PLENTY you can feed your EGO with if you wish! 50 reps of an exercise (for example) EVERY DAY or CONSISTENTLY is WAY better to feed your ego (and muscles) than doing 50 reps TOTAL over a 6-week period (because "you didn't have time").

If this Zen Quickie connected with you, why not connect with 'Coach D' to chat about these sorts of "roadblocks" and cognitive distortions that are holding you back from creating the energy and lifestyle you're looking for?