One of the biggest barriers to exercise is finding time. 

Unless you are a full-time athlete, you must work, look after family and generally multi- task. Exercise to often takes a back seat as it doesn’t pay the bills or help get the kids to school on time. 

At the same time, you want to exercise. Taking the stairs feels tough and you worry that you won’t be able to keep up on the cycle rides with your kids.

With so much going on in life, how can you become more physically active?

Good news, you don’t need a gym, workout an hour a day or loads of equipment, to be able to run the stairs with ease or sprint the last 50m on the family cycle.

Here are some steps to help hurdle the time barrier.

Step 1: Do what you enjoy

If you enjoy doing something you are more likely to make time for it and be consistent with it.

Do what you enjoy.

Step 2: Plan for disruption

You get those weeks where all your best laid plans go wrong. You take on extra shifts at work, kids get sick and then your dog eats a whole in your door.

That hour workout just isn’t happening, but you do have 15mins to get some activity in.

Set expectations low, when it comes to time available for exercise. If you have more time that’s a bonus.

Plan for those 15min only days, so when they arrive (which they will) you are ready, with a do anything mindset. Except that some days will be better than others.

Step 3: Look at what’s around you

If you have no gym, no equipment and no time to travel, then explore outside your front door. Walk around your neighbourhood, your back yard, even your stairs are a workout wanting to be explored.

Rucksack’s can be filled with books or tin cans for a resistance workout. Dust off your old bike in the garage! View places and everyday objects as potential exercise opportunities.

Step 4: Get Professional Help

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Even professional athletes have coaches and need accountability and structure too. The advantage of hiring a coach is the combination of accountability, getting solid feedback to ensure you are doing it correctly and having a solid plan so you can focus your precious time on execution.

Find me at http://www.laurawoodley.com and on Facebook

Sometimes life enjoys throwing a curve ball at you and this week has been one of those times. When you get one of those “I wasn’t expecting that” moments, you tend to feel a bit overwhelmed. I know I certainly did!

This is why I think we could actually learn from our gadgets. For example, my watch went into “Power Reserve mode” to preserve battery life. It would show the time (its primary function) but it wouldn’t do anything else and it wouldn’t let me access other features.

To get through the week I switched on my own “Power reserve mode”. To do this I had to decide what were the most important things I needed to focus on, what was my own “Primary function”. On this occasion it was my family routine, other areas would be powered down to conserve energy.

If life throws you a curve ball, you might want to consider hitting “Power reserve mode”. Take a moment to think about what is most important to you at that time and turn off the noise from other areas. You might even find that some things you turn off are not worth turning back on.

Once you feel “Fully charged” you can always turn some things back on in your life, but make sure they aren’t the ones that were draining your battery.