Struggling with how to find time to workout on a busy schedule?
So, you’ve decided to start a muscle-building or fat loss program, and you know that nutrition and exercise go hand-in-hand.
You are also one of the very smart and goal-oriented people who understand that lifting weights is a key driver in that piece of the puzzle.
By the time you’re done reading this, you are going to know how to find time to workout on a busy schedule.
How To Find Time To Workout On A Busy Schedule
#1 Be More Efficient
Many people think that they need to spend 5,6, or even 7 days in the gym in to see results.
This is false.
“But Jeff, David Goggins told me to stay hard!?!”
David Goggins is a navy seal. Not only are these genetic freaks total outliers, but they also have the kind of discipline and sociopathic mental construct to be able to overcome mental barriers.
Your body needs time to rest, recover, and adapt to a training stimulus. If you are in the gym more than 5 days per week, chances are you just aren’t training hard enough on the days that you are going.
“How do I know if I’m training hard enough?”
Each set should be taken 1-2 reps shy of failure. This means that if someone pointed a gun at your head, you would still only have one or 2 reps left in the tank.
That’s training with efficiency.
No matter how many sets or reps you do, if you are not training with high intensity, you are not maximizing your time in the gym.
Even if you are going to the gym for more than 5 days, you could probably get the same amount of results from 3 or 4 training days with higher intensity (closer to failure).
How To Find Time To Workout On A Busy Schedule
#2 Supersets
A superset is two exercises completed back-to-back without a rest in between.
This is what it would look like on a Push Day:
1a.) DB Bench Press 4×8
1b.) DB Bicep Curl 4×10
Rest 1 minute after each superset.
In this example, you would complete one set of dumbbell bench press, followed by one set of a dumbbell bicep curl, without rest in between. You would then rest for 1 minute and then complete another set.
If you are programming a superset for yourself, you would ideally understand the layout of your gym. You don’t want to be running up and down to different floors of the gym, taking up several machines at once (don’t be that guy).
Supersets are an extremely efficient strategy when you are trying to figure out how to find time to work out on a busy schedule. I program these for ALL of my online coaching clients, and they love them.
How To Find Time To Workout On A Busy Schedule
#3 Focus
Here’s an assignment for you:
Next time you go to the gym, look around and you will see 90% of people resting way too long and scrolling through their phones.
You are not like them.
You go to the gym to put in that work. Whether your goal is to crush a PR or to maintain muscle in a calorie deficit, you are there to do a job.
Having a level of intense focus when you go to the gym is important.
If you find yourself resting too often, not pushing yourself, you are wasting your precious time.
An effective workout can be completed in 45-60 minutes as long as you keep your head in the game.
How To Find Time To Workout On A Busy Schedule
#4 Discipline
“I want to get back into the gym, things are just so busy right now!”
For 99.99% of people, this just isn’t the case.
Saying you don’t have 1 hour, 3 times per week is an excuse.
I wouldn’t be a good coach if I didn’t hold people accountable and call out the BS.
If you audited your time right now, you probably spend at least 2 hours per day glued to social media.
You spend another 1-2 hours per day watching Netflix or Hulu.
You also probably have extremely poor sleep habits and get out of bed right before you need to be out the door.
If you wanted to make time to work out, you would FIND THAT TIME.
This is my online coaching client Heather. Heather has 5 kids. She made time to train 4 times per week. She woke up early and got it done. Not once did she miss a training session our entire 12 weeks together. Her transformation reflects that.
How To Find Time To Workout On A Busy Schedule
#5 Training Splits
Here are some examples of some training splits that you can use to train fewer days per week.
3 Days
- Push-Pull-Legs
- Upper-Lower-Full Body
- 3 Day Full Body Split
2 Days
- Upper-Lower
- 2 Day Full Body Split
Even if you only have time to dedicate 1 hour, two or three times per week, you can still make an impressive transformation.
The most important thing to remember is to pick a split that you can be consistent with. If you tell your coach that you want to train 5 days per week, and you constantly miss training sessions, you should start with 2 or 3 and then work your way up.
Remember, it’s not about how many days you train, but how effective those training sessions are.
Some questions to ask yourself:
- Do they have enough volume? (Total Reps and Sets combined)
- Do they train each muscle effectively? (Specificity of movements)
- Are you training with enough intensity? (1-2 reps shy of failure)
If the answer is yes to all 3 questions, then you can get away with training less frequently and still make impressive progress.
How To Find Time To Workout On A Busy Schedule
FAQ
How many sets and reps should I be doing per exercise?
That depends. If you have been training for 3+ years consistently, you are going to need more volume. However, if you are relatively new to lifting, or at least new to being consistent with lifting, you can get away with 6-9 hard sets per major muscle group.
For those of you who don’t know what that looks like, for the chest that would mean:
- DB BENCH PRESS- 4 sets
- CABLE CHEST FLYES- 3 sets
This would be your total volume for chest for the week.
As for reps, if you are a beginner, I would probably stay within the 6-12 rep range. This will ensure that you are training both hypertrophy (muscle growth), and strength. You could stick with fewer reps for compound movements like the dumbbell bench press (6-8), and then more reps for single-joint movements like a bicep curl (10-12). Obviously, this would depend on the program and what your goals were.
What if I don’t have access to a full gym?
I am calling BS on this one. If you are not willing to pay $10/month to go to a gym like Planet Fitness, you are not willing to put in the hard work to see results. It’s not going to be a walk in the park, and you are going to have to invest in your health.
That being said, if you are not able to hit the gym due to traffic, time restraints, and public health reasons, I would recommend picking up some adjustable dumbbells, resistance bands, and a bench. Make sure that your dumbbells go up to at least 50 pounds, that way you can get creative and apply progressive overload. I would also recommend grabbing a pull-up bar as well. You are going to have to get more creative with your training. I would still recommend investing in a gym membership when you can.
How do I find the motivation to workout if I am tired after work?
Motivation does not just come out of thin air. You are not going to feel motivated all of the time. I think in today’s day and age, we assume that anyone who is in shape or eats well is motivated 24/7. It’s just not true. The difference is discipline. When you create a discipline or a habit, it becomes a routine that represents structure and sanity in your daily or weekly routine.
ACTION leads to MOMENTUM.
MOMENTUM is the day-to-day grind.
That grind leads to consistency.
Consistency leads to RESULTS over time.
RESULTS lead to motivation to keep that MOMENTUM going.
If I am in a fat loss phase, how many times should I be training per week?
It depends.
As long as your weekly volume is the same, it really doesn’t matter much whether you train 2, 3, or 4 times per week.
Therefore, if you are doing 9 sets of chest exercises, it doesn’t matter whether you split that up into two workouts, or do it all in one push day.
However, there are some advantages to splitting up the volume over more days–you may not want to do 9 sets of glutes, 9 sets of quads, and 9 sets of hamstrings all in one day. Nevertheless, splitting that up over the course of two days may be ideal for most people.
CONCLUSION- How To Find Time To Workout On A Busy Schedule
There you have it. If you have been wondering how to find time to work out on a busy schedule, now you have all of the answers.
Here’s the thing—most of that is just excuses.
Also, remember that training is only a small piece of the puzzle. The other piece is nutrition.
Especially if your goal is fat loss, a HUGE majority of your results are going to come from your eating plan.
As a matter of fact, you already eat 3-5 times per day. It’s just a matter of making better food choices and a little planning and preparing.
I fully understand that your life is hectic, but if you want to put down the excuses and make it happen, you can do this.
One last key point: Eating healthier and exercising regularly will give you more energy and less mental fatigue. This means that it will translate to performing other tasks outside of health and fitness more efficiently. This means more time, a better mood, better physical health, and a better life.
If you found this helpful, make sure you check out my free calorie calculator as a great starting place on your fitness journey.