Exercise: How to Find Time to Workout

by Jacki Hayes on April 11th, 2019 | 2 Comments »

The hectic schedule of a mother rarely has a free moment and often leaves little room for exercise. Finding 30 minutes to an hour during the day to squeeze in exercise can leave some mothers laughing hard enough they can check core work off their to-do list.

In order for a mother to make it through the day with her sanity intact, she needs the energy and physical fitness provided by a regular exercise routine. That’s just another nasty Catch-22. But there is a solution; a more efficient way to get it all in.

How to Find Time for Fitness

With the use of High-Intensity, High-Interval Training (or HIIT), moms can easily squeeze in a regular exercise routine that provides all the health benefits they are craving and helps them whittle that waist line at the same time.

HIIT Workouts

HIIT workouts require short bursts of intense exercise with short recovery periods between each. A typical HIIT workout might consist of completing six to 10 rounds of 45-second exercise at maximum effort, with 60-90 seconds of rest and recovery, ending with 5 minutes of warm and cool-down.

Notice the word "maximum." If you want to achieve the same results as the traditional hour-long workout, you will need to work HARD during each exercise. Do you still have a few spider pushups in you after those 50 seconds? Then you likely didn’t push hard enough. Can you still chat away after one minute of burpees? You didn’t work hard enough.

The benefits of HIIT come from pushing past the upper end of your aerobic zone and allowing your body to replenish the anaerobic system during the recovery period. Unlike traditional slow cardio sessions, HIIT also has the benefit of not burning muscle mass. In fact, if done correctly, HIIT can help you gain muscle. The more muscles you have, the more calories you burn all day long.

HIIT workouts can include sprinting, biking, box jumps, or jumping rope. You can also throw a medicine ball as high as you can, do spider pushups, or drag a tire across your yard. Just make sure you do it with high intensity and break it up with recovery periods.

For ideas on workouts, a quick search on Youtube will provide you with countless videos. My favorites include routines by Blogilates, FitnessBlender, and ZuzkaLight. I created one of my favorite routines by utilizing moves from Nike Training Club.

With HIIT the possibilities are endless and the excuse of no time will never again be an option.

Do you like to workout? How do you find time for fitness during the day?

Feature image courtesy of Flickr.

Jacki Hayes is a book-obsessed, maniacally efficient, logically creative, feminist in a conservative façade. She blogs at dare 2 Dream dare 2 Do, where she takes her readers through the journey of becoming what they might have been. Knowing that being an athlete was once an important aspect of herself (before she got too busy raising a family), she has recently included running and strength training in her journey of growth, leading to an almost insane need to schedule races every month of the year. Check her out on Facebook, or find her on Twitter.