Are you short on time? Here’s how to modify your workout.

We’re officially in that time of year where it feels like someone pushed the chaos button: work deadlines, school events, vacation trips…all happening at once.

And in the midst of all this, trying to stick to a “normal” workout routine can seem impossible.

Fortunately, you don’t need it!

Here are three strategies we use with busy coaching clients to get great results without workouts taking over their lives.

Pick one up and plug it in whenever your schedule gets tight. 💪

Strategy 1: Focus on “big rocks”

Choose the exercises that benefit you the most:

• A lower body exercise (squats, deadlifts, lunges)
• An upper body “push” exercise (push-ups, bench press, bench press)
• An upper body “pulling” exercise (rows, pulldowns, assisted pull-ups)

This little “push-pull-legs” triangle works with ​dumbbells​machines, body weight, you name it.

Take our ​Bodyweight training for beginners​For example.

You can eliminate lunges, planks and jumping jacks and focus on squats, push-ups and rows and boom! You’ve cut your workout time in half while still getting a great workout.

Three movements. Whole body. Excellent value for money.

Strategy 2: Fewer rounds, more effort

I hear a lot of people say, “If I don’t do the complete training doesn’t really matter.

Not true.

Even a solid ride always gives your muscles enough stimulation to maintain their strength – and often to build it.

Here’s an approach we use all the time with busy clients.

Matching sets

1. Choose a weight or difficult version of the exercise.
2. After a warm-up, do as many good reps as possible with solid form.
3. Rest briefly.
4. Do one more set and try to reach that number, even if you need a few mini-breaks to get there.

Two sets requiring a lot of effort and you’re done in minutes.

Strategy 3: the 10-minute time box

Sometimes life is so disrupted that it feels like you only have 5 or 10 minutes to work out.

So let’s build a workout that you know will last EXACTLY that long!

Here’s how to do it:

1. Set a timer for your allotted time slot. (5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, etc.)
2. Choose 2 to 4 exercises.
3. Go through them one after the other, resting if necessary.
4. Get as many total reps as possible before the timer hits zero.

If you get a ride: great.

If you get four rounds, that’s also good.

You worked hard in the window you had, that’s what matters.

One last thing

Even if none of these strategies are implemented and the day is a whirlwind… a two-minute walk, a quick stretch, or a single set of squats still counts.

It keeps the “practice space” open in your life.

This reinforces your identity as a person who moves.

And that brings you back to routine in January so much easier.

You don’t need a perfect plan.

You just need a plan that works Todaywith the time and energy you actually have. ❤️

-Mast

PS If you want help developing a plan that fits your lifeas well as the accountability and support needed to implement it, which is exactly what we do in our ​Training program​.