Tag: health & fitness

The “I’ve Got No Time” Workout

Fit By Fred

I have a buddy of mine who literally is busy 14+ hours a day, Monday through Friday. He is looking to get stronger and in better overall health and doesn’t have the time to get to a gym. Respecting that he doesn’t want to take the easy way out and use his constrained schedule as an excuse, I am advising the following for him or anyone else with limited time.

Every day he will perform 5 minutes of one specific exercise. I recommendbodyweight squats he perform these exercises in the morning so he isn’t too tired or distracted at the end of the day, this way he is assured to have gotten in his workout.  His goal is to be progressive each work out, i.e., looking to do better than last time. The approach is simple: he will do as many reps as he can in good form, rest long enough to “almost recover” and then do more reps. He will repeat this process until 5 minutes has transpired. He will total up all his reps (or time) and notate his performance.  Notation: A goal can be to perform more reps/time for the first set compared to that of the previous workout OR shoot for a higher total number of reps/time for the 5 minute period.  Either way,  progression and accurate record keeping are important. To reiterate, 1 exercise per day for 5 minutes.  He will rotate through these exercises every 4 days. These are the 4 movements, done in this order:

Pushups:
Jumping Jacks:
Plank Holds:
Body Weight Squats:
All exercises will be performed using whatever modification necessary to allow for safe execution and always, using good form.  Hard Work, Smart Training and Consistency are key in having this program work effectively.
Attached is a spreadsheet to assist in keeping track: 5 Minutes

The Most Underrated Activity?

Fit By Fred

In my opinion, one of the most underrated activities a person can do is walk. A lot of people don’t find value in walking, and that’s unfortunate because there are many benefits that can come from taking a stroll.

Fitness-WalkingWalking contributes in several ways to your health and well-being. It can help you reduce weight, lower stress, improve flexibility and mobility, increase cardio-respiratory fitness, exposure to vitamin D, improve lung capacity, provide an opportunity to clear your mind or give you time to think, have alone time or spend time with a friend, reduce muscle soreness and arthritis pain, increase leg and core strength, etc., etc.