How to fit exercise into a busy week
"I haven't got time"
If that's what you said when you read the title, fair enough. You probably haven't. Not in the way the fitness world seems to think you should.
There's a version of exercise out there that assumes you've got an hour and a half a day, a gym on the way home and nobody waiting for their tea. Most of us don't live like that. I certainly don't. I've got a wife, three teenage daughters, a business to run and a calendar that fills up faster than I'd like.
Here's the thing though. I've trained for marathons around all of that. Not perfectly, and not every week. But I've learned that "no time" usually means "no time for the version I had in my head". Change the version and the time often turns up.
So let's talk about how much time you actually need, and where to find it.
How much time it actually takes
Less than you think. Honestly.
If you're starting from nothing, two or three sessions of 20 to 30 minutes a week is a brilliant place to begin. That could be a brisk walk, a run-walk, or a short strength session on the living room floor. That's an hour or so, spread across seven days.
The NHS guidance for adults is 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, plus strength work on two days. That sounds like a lot until you break it down. It's about 20 minutes a day. And you don't have to hit it on week one. You build towards it.
The reality is, short sessions you actually do beat long sessions you keep putting off. A 20-minute walk on a Tuesday counts. Ten minutes of strength work while the pasta boils counts. I've had marathon blocks where some of my most useful sessions were the boring 30-minute easy runs squeezed in before everyone else was up.
What matters far more than the length of any one session is that you keep turning up, week after week. Consistency is what changes you. Not heroics.
Where the time comes from
You don't find time for exercise. You take it from somewhere. Here's where I'd look first.
Put it in the diary. If it's not written down, it's a nice idea. If it's in the calendar like a meeting, it's a plan. Pick your days on a Sunday or Monday and decide when, not just whether.
Pair it with something you already do. After the school drop-off. Straight after work, before you sit down. During your lunch break. New habits stick much better when they hang off an old one.
Go early, if you can. I'm not going to pretend early mornings are fun. But nobody books a meeting at 6.30am, and the day can't get in the way of something you've already done.
Lower the bar. On a rubbish day, the plan isn't 30 minutes. It's 10. Put your trainers on and walk to the end of the road. Most days you'll keep going. Some days you won't, and that's fine too.
Do it at home. No driving to the gym, no changing rooms, no waiting for kit. A bodyweight strength session in the living room takes exactly as long as the session.
Make it count twice. Walk to the shops instead of driving. Run part of the way home from work. Get off the bus a stop early. Take the call on your phone and walk while you're on it.
Bring people with you. A walk with your partner, a bike ride with the kids, a run with a mate. It's exercise and time together, and it's much harder to cancel on someone else than on yourself.
What a busy week can look like
Here's how that can look for someone with a full-time job and a family, in three steps. Pick roughly how much you're doing now and it'll show you where to start.
Roughly how much do you do in a normal week right now?
Starting out
| Day | What | Mins |
|---|
Give each step about four weeks, or until it feels normal. Not easy, just normal. By step 3 you've ticked off the NHS guidance in under half an hour a day, and some of that is walking you'd half be doing anyway.
It's not glamorous. It doesn't need to be.
And if Tuesday goes wrong, it doesn't matter. Move it to Wednesday. The plan works for you, not the other way round.
When the week falls apart anyway
It will. Someone gets ill, work explodes, the car breaks down, you sleep badly three nights in a row. I've had whole training blocks go sideways because life turned up and got in the way.
The mistake isn't missing a session. It's deciding that because you missed one, the week is ruined, so you might as well start again next month. That's how a week off turns into a year off (I’ve been here too).
So when it goes wrong, shrink it rather than skip it. Ten minutes instead of thirty. A walk instead of a run. And whatever happens, don't miss twice. One missed session is just life. Two in a row is the start of a new habit, and not the one you want.
Where the Club fits in
The PKS Training Club is built for people with busy lives, because that's what I've got too.
It takes about ten minutes a day. On Monday you make your promise for the week. During the week you log what you did, however small. On Saturday you share your highs and lows. Your actual training is whatever fits your week, whether that's two sessions or six.
The Strength Library has follow-along sessions of 10 to 20 minutes, no kit needed. Press play, copy me, done. And when the week does fall apart, there's a group of ordinary people who'll notice you've gone quiet and help you get going again.
I'm opening 15 founding places at £20 a month, yours for as long as you stay a member. Get on the list and you'll be the first to hear when the doors open.
Now go and put three sessions in your diary. Pen, not pencil.
Have a great week, folks.
Paul
The information in this post is general guidance. If you have pain, an injury or a medical concern, speak to your GP or a physio before starting something new.
