Energy leeches are everywhere. Lack of energy is such a common reason for not training by many busy professionals.
You get to mid afternoon and you are running on empty already and it has only been a few hours since lunch and your are tired, irritable and frustrated at your lack of productivity. Going for a workout? Yeah right, your going home to crash on the couch!
Procrastination is the number one reason cited by people for not working out, your low energy levels contribute even more to your procrastination.
Your common energy leeches include, your computer monitor, the constant barrage of phone calls, or your boss giving you stress on the latest deadlines. This sucks you dry leaving you empty and ready for a night in doing nothing but feeling sorry for yourself. When you don’t go and do your workout, you’ll feel even more deflated lowering your energy levels yet further.
But going to do a workout can actually give you energy! “yeah right Tim, now you really are talking rubbish!” Seriously, despite the physical exertion of the workout, or participating in your sport, the
outcome can be a serious injection of positive energy. The body responds very well to physical activity, at certain intensities your body will stimulate the production of endorphins which give you that feel good glow after a particularly tough workout. This in itself becomes addictive.
Also by blocking out the energy drains, reducing the time spent answering the phone, or staring at your computer monitor, AND, promoting the energy boosts, eating the right foods, drinking water regularly and never missing a workout, you’ll quickly be full of energy again.
Jon, a very busy executive from a key multinational firm hated his workouts, at first it was a real struggle to get him in for our appointments. After a few particularly tough workouts I started to see Jon in the gym outside of our pre-arranged sessions. This then developed to almost every day in the gym. When questioned about this, he simply said with a smile “I still hate my workouts, I just love the feeling of finishing!”
This endorphin rush is quite real and can be brought about easily with workouts at high enough intensities. Many workouts I see being performed in the gym are just too slow and ineffective, whats more the low intensity will not give even a hint of the endorphin hit we are looking for, instead we are usually bored, demotivated and are desperately hanging on till the end of your workout.
Doing resistance based workouts with heavy weights for short repetition ranges are the opposite, and for guys gives a testosterone boost as well as the endorphin rush. A workout that utilises large muscle groups, such as squats, deadlift, push ups, rows and lunges will kick off an endorphin rush for both male and female exercisers.
Females fear not the bulky muscles, you don’t have the chemical makeup to achieve this, guys work hard and you’ll lose the gut as well as boost your sporting performances too!
Start today, by getting down to the gym and getting the advice of a trained fitness professional to show you the correct form for these fundamental exercises. I promise you you’ll view your workouts with more energy than ever before!
For a highly effective resistance workout and other time saving exercises, claim your free e-report “How to lose weight even when you are really busy” at http://www.corporateathletehandbook.com/. Tim Goodwin is author of The Corporate Athlete Conditioning Handbook and a fitness professional from Luxembourg, training the busiest individuals to achieve amateur sporting success and a healthier body. Feel free to duplicate this article with the bio and link intact.
What No Gym Train Any Where Any Time
04.06.08Excuses, I have heard them all…
Everything from “my wife didn’t wash my workout clothes” to “my dog ate my trainers”. All used to avoid doing a workout or even starting an exercise plan in the first place. But the one I here the most from the busy professional relates to lack of facilities…
“I travel a lot, so I cannot always get to a gym to do a workout”
My clients know better than to pull this one on me! Yes, lack of facilities does present limitations to your “normal” exercise program. Your travel schedule and location mean access to good quality gym facilities are often limited. Your training will lack consistency and your progress will be slow, especially when you travel every third week, or
a month away at a time!
“There is no gym close to my home or work place”
Most new office buildings are actually making provisions for fitness facilities, even if they are somewhat limited in some cases. As it happens the gym i spend the majority of my time in is based in the basement of a new office complex. A perfect place to fit in a fast workout during lunch, just before or just after work too.
Lack of facilities is not the legitimate excuse you may think it is. You can achieve as good a workout if not a more advanced workout WITHOUT any equipment than if you had a huge gym with every machine you can think of. There are many exercises that can be done outside of the gym environment. In fact you’ll find the use of those fancy, expensive looking machines in the gym is fairly limited, and whilst they are great for those not knowing what to do, they may not be the best use of your training time.
Bodyweight training however is massively underrated as a method of training, yet it is possible to get a superior workout using just your body weight as the resistance. In many situations most gym goers are using external resistance unnecessarily.
For example performing the perfect bodyweight squat, lunge, push up or chin up will give you much more of a workout than any machine you’ll find in the gym. Add some small, inexpensive pieces of equipment such as a stability ball, exercise mat and set of small dumbbells for exercises to be done at home, then your exercise choices are multiplied almost infinitely!
One particularly well travelled client was adamant that it was not possible to get a sweat from bodyweight exercises! 15 minutes in to our first routine she was racing for her water bottle and towel, and we hadn’t even touched a dumbbell…
Packing a simple exercise band, basically a long wide elasticated strip of rubber, into your luggage is a cheap, portable and very effective training tool. You can easily get a full body weight workout done in 30-40 minutes with just this piece of equipment. Squats, Lateral Raises, Rows, pulldowns etc etc can all be performed with the band to increase the resistance. Most of the items i have mentioned here can be picked up for very little money at most good fitness stores.
As you can see the lack of facilities should not be limiting your training program. A little bit of planning and investigating the right exercise for you and you’ll keep you training on track.
For a highly effective resistance workout and other time saving exercises, claim your free e-report “How to lose weight even when you are really busy” at http://www.corporateathletehandbook.com/. Tim Goodwin is author of The Corporate Athlete Conditioning Handbook and a fitness professional from Luxembourg, training the busiest individuals to achieve amateur sporting success and a healthier body. Feel free to duplicate this article with the bio and link intact.
