Time is one of the greatest limiting factors when it comes to maintaining or improving our health. We only have so much of it each day, and it can feel daunting to spend it on exercise. It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that in order for exercise to count, we must spend hours each day in the gym. This can lead to an all-or-nothing mindset, where we either do it perfectly or not at all. 

There are many ways we can approach exercise, with different methods having different benefits, costs, and tradeoffs. Time is a very real factor that we must take into consideration when choosing and planning our workouts, as every moment we spend on exercise is a moment we don’t get to spend elsewhere. 

This can be especially challenging when thinking about losing time with loved ones. Thankfully, spending hours a day in the gym is only one way to approach improving our health. 

I like to approach exercise with time as one of the main decision-making factors. Spending more than an hour on my workout is not something I enjoy doing often, so it’s important I make other decisions regarding how I exercise around this. 

Strength training is one of the main forms of exercise that can take up a lot of time, so it’s important we decide how much of it we’d like to allot to this type of training. 

There are different ways we can approach strength training to have our workouts be not only effective, but also efficient. Some of my favorite strategies to improve efficiency of my workouts include doing full-body workouts, setting them up either with supersets or circuits, and minimizing rest time. 

Doing full-body workouts allows me to ensure I work all of my muscle groups multiple times per week, without having to dedicate more than three days a week to training if I don’t want to. 

Having a superset or circuit format allows me to work different muscle groups back-to-back, which allows me to do more work in less time. This set-up also decreases the amount of rest time needed, because I’m able to rest one muscle group while working another. 

These strategies give just as much effectiveness to the workout as working only one muscle group per session, while saving time in the process. 

Another strategy that helps decrease the amount of time needed for exercise is planning ahead. Trying to figure out what to do in the moment is not only stressful, but takes up more of our precious time. Having our workouts planned ahead of time allows us to not only move through them more quickly, but gives us more confidence during our workouts, whether we are in an environment we are very comfortable in, or one we are not as familiar with. 

Taking a few minutes to decide what you’re going to do before you get there will save you time, energy, and frustration in the long run. 

The trade-off of time will look different for each person, in different seasons of life. There are times when I don’t mind allocating more time for exercise each day, and there are times when I want my workouts to take up as little time as possible. 

Be flexible with yourself, recognize that not every workout will be perfect, and remember that doing something is always better than doing nothing.