How busy people can get fit fast and boost productivity
Less than two hours a week of exercise can deliver high energy, a sharp mind and sustainable productivity.
I get it. You’re busy; you’re hustling; you don’t have time for exercise.
But you’re looking at it the wrong way.
In the medium-to-long-term, the time you put into exercise will pay you back many times over.
Richard Branson, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg all exercise regularly.
If they can find the time, so can you.
Exercise regularly and you’ll have more productive hours in your working day.
You’ll sleep better, wake up alert and have a clearer mind and better mood throughout the day.
You’ll have the energy and stamina to push yourself harder — and a healthy outlet for your stress and adrenaline.
How to 80/20 your exercise regime
Yeah, I know — you can’t spend hours every week in the gym.
The good news is you don’t have to.
You can take a smart minimalist approach to exercise, stay healthy and build a solid foundation for long-term success.
I recently changed jobs at roughly the same time my gym membership expired.
Because I exercised on my lunch break, I decided to find a new gym to use.
But there was plenty to do at my new job and a lot to learn. I put off joining a new gym, and before I knew it six weeks had passed.
The funny thing was that once I had broken the habit of the gym, I also dropped the habit of my long weekend walk. Everything fell by the wayside.
Initially, I didn’t notice any change, but after a couple of weeks I realized I wasn’t sleeping as well, I was feeling less alert and I had less energy.
I resolved to get back to the gym, but I also decided I wanted to make my workouts more time-efficient.
The human body evolved for frequent slow moving with occasional bursts of intense exercise. I decided my training should reflect this.
Different forms of exercise offer different benefits. If was going to do the 20 percent that delivers 80 percent of the results, I needed to do a mix of different types of exercise.
The minimum needed is three solid sessions a week.
1. A strength-training session (30–60 minutes)
2. A high-intensity interval training (HIIT) session (10–30 minutes)
3. A low-intensity aerobic session (30–60 minutes).
We need all these types of training. They work different energy systems in the body (anaerobic and aerobic).
The strength and HIIT sessions provide big benefits in just a little time, while the low-intensity exercise helps us recover from the two high-intensity sessions and has a calming effect on the nervous system.
Strength training
We’re doing this 80/20 style, right?
We’re aiming for efficiency: that means high-intensity and low volume.
Do only two work sets per exercise (plus warm-ups), but go hard on each set, going near failure or to failure.
For most exercises, do a reverse pyramid — one heavy set 5-6 repetitions) and one moderate set (9–10 reps). For calves and shoulders/rotator cuff, do two sets of 8–12 reps. For abdominals do two sets of 15–20 reps.
High-intensity interval training (HIIT)
HIIT mixes short bursts of very intense anaerobic exercise with recovery periods of rest or slow-paced exercise.
Research shows that HIIT training is superior to traditional endurance training in improving cardiovascular fitness, as well as blood sugar regulation and insulin resistance .
The Tabata system is the most famous form of HIIT. It uses eight 30-second cycles. Each cycle is a 20 second burst of ultra-intense exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest.
Tabata was developed in 1996. Research since then has shown that it is probably unnecessarily demanding — less intense systems can deliver equivalent results.
University of Stirling health and exercise science lecturer Dr Niels Vollaard developed a routine in which two or three 20-second ‘all-out’ cycling sprints are embedded within 10 minutes of easy pedalling.
HIIT is often done on exercise bikes, but you can also sprint in your local park (run 100 metres, walk back to your starting point and repeat two or three times). You can also use weights, kettlebells or bodyweight exercises.
Optional: cool downs for strength and HIIT workouts
If you have time, you can also do an extended low-intensity cool-down (walking or slow cycling) for your strength and/or HIIT workouts, which will add some aerobic benefits.
Don’t push the cool-down too hard — it should be part of your recovery from the workout.
Low-intensity cardio
Your aerobic exercise should be low-intensity.
If you work hard and only do intense exercise, you’ll over-stimulate your sympathetic nervous system and under-stimulate your parasympathetic nervous system. Having some low-intensity exercise in your mix is calming and balancing.
Can you manage to do a long walk on the weekend, preferably somewhere scenic to lift your spirits?
Other possibilities include swimming laps for at least 30 minutes (you may need to build up to this) or taking a long, low-intensity bike ride.
Putting it together
If you are only going to exercise three times a week, it’s best to space the sessions apart.
Take at least a day of rest between sessions. There will be one point in the week where you are talking a three-day break — place this between your two hardest sessions, the strength-training and the HIIT. Here’s how your week might look:
- Tuesday — Strength training
- Friday — HIIT
- Sunday — Long walk, cycle or swim.
Bonus points
Walk whenever it makes sense to do so. If possible, build it into your commute. A few extra minutes here and there during the week adds up and will help your health. Take the stairs when you can.
If you can fit in a fourth workout each week, or on any given week, there are a few possible approaches.
- Do whatever makes you most enthusiastic.
- Do the low-intensity aerobic exercise, as this takes the least toll on your body and adrenals, and it is the most calming form of exercise.
- Consider something entirely different, such as Pilates, yoga or tai chi.
Will this routine make you fit?
You won’t be as fit as our hunter-gatherer and farm labourer ancestors, but you’ll be much fitter than the average modern Westerner.
This is an 80/20 regime. It won’t produce the best possible results, but it will deliver measurably positive results in a very time-efficient manner.
Now that I’m training again, I’m healthier, happier and more energetic. My brain is clearer and I’m more productive.
And I’m building a strong foundation for sustainable success and a better life.
The article is published in Struggling Forward. We are a community of people that are helping each other through the struggle on the way towards our dreams.
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