28 Mar 5 Fitness Tips For Busy Working Professionals

Part 1: YOU

I get it. I know who you are without even looking at you.

You’re a dedicated professional, you work hard at your job, and you’re proud of it.

Heck, you should be.

But you’re beginning to realize (or maybe the “beginning” part was a while back) that your health has been gradually deteriorating over the years, and you’re less than thrilled about it.

You’re also a realist.

Your schedule is jam-packed and you barely have time to think about health and fitness– much less do anything about it.

Believe me, I get it.

Part 2: ME

I’m a nationally certified personal trainer and fitness nutrition specialist. My clientele used to consist of NCAA athletes, police officers, and models.

It was exciting work, but as my exercise and nutrition science knowledge developed, I had a shift of perspective.

Instead of focusing solely on performance and aesthetics, I started becoming fascinated with fitness as a means of enhancing quality of life.

I found that exercise and nutrition could not only yield speed and biceps, they could literally change a person’s daily experience of the world. They could change the feelings in his body, the emotions in his mind, and his overall sense of well-being.

I thought about the undeniable effect this would have on his personality. He’d be more confident, positive, charismatic, focused, driven…

I thought about how it would improve his career, love life, personal development, friendships…

So why on earth were most people not capitalizing on these tools? How were 66% of adults in our country overweight?

I studied this question. A lot.

Turns out, it wasn’t that people didn’t want these benefits. Obviously. Who doesn’t want to be happier and more successful?

It wasn’t that they were lazy either. Most of them had tried the fitness game multiple times.

The problem was that every fitness plan they had tried couldn’t last with their hechtic schedules.

In other words, they hadn’t found a way to make fitness practical for their busy lives.

Part 3: You and I Collide

Fast forward a few years, and I founded Fit2Go Personal Training in Baltimore.

It’s a team of nationally certified personal trainers that helps busy working professionals make fitness practical.

We don’t work with pro athletes, bodybuilders, models, or people whose lives revolve around fitness.

We work exclusively with busy working professionals — people with tight schedules who want to enhance their quality of life. 

Sometimes that means losing 50 lbs to restore a sense of energy and passion.

Sometimes that means improving health to boost performance at the office.

Sometimes that means building lean muscle to maximize social confidence.

Sometimes that means strengthening the core to alleviate nagging lower back pain.

We first determine the goal (i.e. what really matters to the client), and then reverse engineer a customized fitness plan to make it happen.

But like you, I’m a realist. You’re busy. You don’t have time to waste going to and from a gym every day.

So in order for your fitness program to be effective, it needs to be personalized in two ways:

1) Physiologically

Your nutrition and exercise plan needs to reflect your body’s individual needs, as well as your goals. You can’t afford to shoot in the dark. You need to assess where you are now, where you want to be, and then reverse engineer a plan to make it happen.

2) Practically

This is the part that’s almost always overlooked. You don’t need “the best fitness program” — it’s useless to you if you can’t stick to it. You need to figure out the best fitness program for you. You need to look over your schedule, priorities, and commitments, and then design a plan that meshes with your reality, instead of clashing with it.

That’s why our trainers go to our clients homes.

Solving for time is key, so we meet our clients at their home, office, local park; anywhere in Baltimore City or County. Our team provides exercise equipment, nutrition coaching, 24/7 trainer support — everything necessary for the client to realistically hit their goals.

But enough about me. I promised you 5 tips that you can start using today to get in great shape, and I intend to deliver. If you’re interested in finding out more about Fit2Go, go here to learn more and get in touch with us.

Otherwise, let’s get to these 5 long-awaited fitness tips for the busy professional.

Tip #1: Don’t Follow a Diet

I’m going to cut right to the chase with this one — diets don’t work.

Going on a diet implies that you will eventually be coming off said diet, which means that you will likely regain all the weight that you lost (or more). So don’t worry about low-fat, low-carb, ketosis, gluten-free, or whatever the current fad is (I honestly stopped keeping track).

Most people don’t need more information — they need less.

They need to ignore every fad diet and “latest trick” they’ve heard, so they can focus on the basics that actually matter.

If your goal is general health, get the fundamentals down. Eat well balanced-meals that provide a protein source (such as meat, fish, poultry, or eggs), a carb source (preferably a complex carb, such as brown rice, whole wheat, etc.), and try not to lather it in fat (limit the oils, dressings, and condiments).

You’ll see better progress with these simple guidelines than you will with most fad diets.

Don’t start throwing organic avocados and gluten-free olive oil on everything just because someone told you they cure cancer.

If your goal is weight loss, then you simply need to estimate how many calories you’re burning per day, and eat less than that number. If you don’t have a personal trainer to do this for you, then download a free tracker like My Fitness Pal.

So the first step is understanding how simple nutrition actually is, once you tune out all the B.S. you’ve heard from the media.

The next, and tougher, step is to ask yourself the golden question:

Rather than starting another 30-day plan, what’s an approach to nutrition that I can stick to for decades?

Tip #2: Use the Most Efficient Exercise Approaches in the World

The game isn’t planning your life around fitness; the game is planning fitness into your life. So we need to find you the workouts that give you the biggest bang for your buck.

Good news: We found them.

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

When it comes to cardio, you can replace jogging on the treadmill and dancing on the elliptical with a much more time-friendly approach. HIIT can burn more calories in less time. The idea is that rather than moving at the same pace for 40 minutes, you can alternate between periods of maximum exertion (e.g. a sprint) and recovery (e.g. a slow paced walk) to maximize your oxygen deficit and ultimately burn more calories both during your workout and throughout the rest of the day.

For more info on HIIT and how to do it properly, read “What Is The Best Cardio Workout For Weight Loss?”.

High Intensity Training (HIT)

HIT sort of applies the same principles to strength training. Here’s how it works:

Step 1: For each strength exercise, do 1 intense set.

Step 2: Shower and go about your day.

See, there’s this belief that every exercise you do must include 3 sets of 10 reps to be effective. Yet research shows that that’s simply not the case. The truth is that if you go all out with one set for each exercise, you can still get about 70% of the results. So doing 3 sets is definitely better than doing 1, but it’s far from a necessity.

A full body HIT workout might look something like this:

1 set of Squats (Legs)

1 set of Push Ups (Chest and triceps)

1 Set of Resistance Band Rows (Back)

1 Set of Resistance Band Overhead Press (Shoulders)

1 set of Leg Lifts (Abs)

1 set of inconspicuously checking your biceps in the mirror (Ego)

By learning and applying the science behind effective short workouts, you’ll give yourself an unfair edge in the fitness game.

Tip #3: Plan EXACT Days and Times for your Workouts

Sometime in summer of 2012…

Dani: “So you’ll repeat this workout on your own this week, Sam?”

Sam: “Yeah, you got it Dani!”

Sam didn’t get his workout in that week.

Sam also doesn’t exist, but c’mon, isn’t there a little Sam in all of us?

This is a tip that I picked up on as I transitioned into training the busy folk. There is a HUGE difference between saying “I’m going to workout at some point this week” and “I’m scheduling a workout for Tuesday at 7am before I leave for work”.

As you get more and more specific with your plan, your chances of following through increase exponentially.

So rather than being reactive, be proactive.

Don’t wait until Wednesday and try to throw in a workout “when I have time”. (Hint: You won’t.)

Look ahead at your weekly calendar, and literally schedule your workouts.

Once your workouts are on your calendar, take them seriously — treat them as you would a meeting with your most important client.

This will be an adjustment, but once you nail down this habit, your workouts will become part of your routine.

You’ll stop needing any effort or willpower to get them in. They’ll become almost automated.

That’s the power of habit.

Tip #4: Plan for Controlled Spontaneity

“If you fail to plan then plan to fail.” Right?

No. Well, not entirely. This is something that needs very precise clarification.

You don’t need to plan out that you’re going to eat 100g of apple slices and 13.5 almond slivers at 3pm every day.

You should plan ahead and have a rough idea of what you’re going to eat before meal time hits, though.

For example, I just set a goal with a client this week to eat a piece of fruit for breakfast every morning.

See the difference?

We didn’t plan for her to eat 100g of apple slices every morning. We didn’t even plan for her to eat an apple. All we specified was that she was going to eat fruit for breakfast. Now when she goes food shopping on Sunday night, she knows to pick up at least 7 pieces of fruit so that she can grab and go each morning.

But it’s important to have that balance. You need to be specific enough so that you’re not choosing between kale and McDonalds last minute, and general enough so that you can go with the flow and still eat what you’re in the mood for.

Tip #5: Don’t Think You Need a Gym in Order to Get in Amazing Shape

A gym has its time and place, but like gogo music — it’s just not for everyone.

There are some people who actually prefer a loud, crowded and sweaty environment. They have expendable time to drive to/from a gym, and don’t mind spending it.

But for most busy professionals, every second counts. They just need to nail their workout and move on the next task in their busy schedule.

So home workouts are a game changer. 

But you might have this notion that you’ll need a big gym and/or fancy equipment to get in shape.

You don’t.

In fact, all you’ll need is your own bodyweight and 10 minutes.

Not sure how to get started?

I’ve got you covered.

That’s why I created “The P.A.U.L. Method” — the most effective 10-minute workout formula for busy professionals (featured on Fox Morning Show and Reader’s Digest).

–> Get “The P.A.U.L. Method” here for free.

Once you learn how simple and effective exercise can be, you’ll stop relying on gyms for your fitness.

In fact, if planned correctly, your fitness should stop relying on anything.

When we work with Fit2Go clients, our long-term goal is to literally make even ourselves obsolete (how’s that for a business model?). And that’s important.

Your plan should be designed so that whether you’re home, at a friend’s house, in a hotel —  wherever you are — your fitness sticks.

Look, judging by your busy schedule, I’m going to guess that your life is somewhat unpredictable too.

And that’s the piece that most people overlook with their fitness plan.

You don’t want to start a plan that only works when life is “controllable” — that’s useless. It’ll fall apart as soon as life takes an unexpected turn.

You want to develop habits that stick when life gets crazy. If implemented correctly, these habits will not only keep you fit through chaos — they’ll keep you sane.

With fitness comes confidence, and with confidence comes enhanced performance in every area of your life.

What will improve in your life when you take control of your own body and health?