Time is our most valuable asset. It’s the one thing we can’t get more of. Money will come and go, but time only goes. How we spend our time shows what we value and what we’re going to get out of life. I think you know that doing some sort of physical training is important. Regardless if it’s hiking, swimming, going for a run, lifting weights, playing a sport, or doing a combat sport, physical training is important for not just physical health but mental and I’d even say spiritual health as well.
But we are all strapped for time and sometimes training falls by the wayside. Training might be easy to keep up with when you’re young and single but as the days go by and responsibilities pick up, it can get harder and harder, even when you love it. Add in building a business, working a full time job, going back to school, getting married, having kids, or a million other things and soon you can find yourself going longer and longer without training.
Then one day you realize it’s been over a year since you last trained and you’ve been confused this whole time why you’ve felt more and more unhappy. Men need to train. You need to train, I need to train. It’s a natural part of our lives and when we don’t get it done then bad things start to pile up.
So how do we balance all of our commitments with making time to train?
You’ll Never Find Time You Have To…
Make time. But you already know this. The question is, how do you make time? I remember a long time ago, when I was still in high school I had the opportunity to go to a leadership summit through school. I took it up because the subject of leadership interested me. Anyways one of the speakers there must have read Brian Tracy because one thing he talked on and on about was “eating the biggest frog first”. Now what does that mean?
Essentially the speaker explained it like this. Imagine that every morning you have a plate of frogs that you have to eat. The frogs representing tasks that you don’t want to complete but know that you must if you want to accomplish your goals. What the speaker recommended was to eat the biggest frog first. Meaning take on the biggest task first thing, when you have the most energy to take it on. Otherwise all the little things will eat up your energy and you’ll never get the big things accomplished.
It works the same with time. Look at what are priorities for you. If making time to train is a priority for you then I’d recommend doing it first thing in the morning. This may mean getting up an hour earlier to do your morning workout. I never considered myself a morning person but have found that by slow adjustment I can make this work.
Do the thing that matters most to you first. Get it out of the way and then go to work on about your day. For others maybe this will work better at night. Though you should give morning a try. I think most people being honest with themselves, morning is going to work better. It’s just easier to stay up later than get up earlier. But working out can put energy through your whole day.
Forget The 2 Hour Long Workouts
Not only are they not effective but you’re not going to have time for them. Look to pare down your workout to the bare essentials. Apply Pareto’s Principle and use the twenty percent of lifts that give you eighty percent of results. You know the ones that I’m talking about. Over head presses, snatches, cleans, deadlifts, rows, dips, front, back, and overhead squats, lunges, jumps, sprints, and the like. Stuff that gets a lot of muscle working in short order. Not that you can’t add on some accessory work but a bodybuilding routine isn’t going to be what’s best for you.
Focus on 3-5 exercises for 3-5 sets. Complexes work great for this. Dan John has some good stuff on complexes as does Istvan Javorek. Google them both and you’ll find plenty to keep you busy. That’s what I’ve been doing more and more just to save time while still getting the majority of results that I want. But even if you don’t have dumbbells or barbells handy you can do these with bodyweight exercises as well. Sprint to pushups and squats, jumps to sprints, there thousands of ways to mix things up and get a good workout in.
You Don’t Need A Gym
Anything is better than nothing. Even going for a walk everyday has huge benefits. You don’t need to get in a balls to the wall workout each and every day. Do what you can with what you have. Get one of those door pullup things and do a few every time you pass by. I bought some parallel bars for pretty cheap and have been able to do a lot with them. You don’t need a lot of room, you can use them at an apartment or places where barbells might not work.
For road trips threw a kettlebell in the back at times. Probably wasn’t great for gas but I was able to use it many different places. Again, something is better than nothing. Doing pushups or running on a hotel treadmill is better than not working out at all. Many people think to workout they have to have a big setup or spend lots of time doing it. But that’s not true. Even a quick 15 minute routine can keep you in pretty decent shape.
Make the time.
Prioritize What You Will…
Know that how you spend your time is what you value in life and what you value in life is what you’ll get out of life. Working out should be something that’s a constant part of your life but unfortunately is often the first thing to get cut when life gets busy. Don’t let that be you. Trust me whatever time invested will more than come back to you in the form of increased energy, happiness, and productivity. Not to mention general health and mental benefits.
If anything I said here interests you I’d highly recommend you check out The Ultimate Alpha Collection which is a compilation of 16 of my books for the price of 5. It covers everything from being a man to making money to getting the right mindset to getting girls to fighting and more and is a resource no man should be without. Pick up your copy today!
-Charles Sledge
