Do you think you are busier than the president?

The benefits of exercising are well documented. Anyone whose anyone knows how important it is to do. However, one of the major reasons for lack of exercise is lack of time. It may be of interest to know, that the day after winning the US presidential election, Barrack Obama was in the gym at 5am. Now, while I appreciate you have a busy life, do you honestly think you are busier than the president?

Anyone in the know will realise that training success for busy people comes down to two things - making your health a priority and using your time effectively. This is where Steve Keywood’s Personal Training can help! Day-to-day I am used to working with clients who have stressful jobs and very little free time - sometimes less than two or three 30-minute periods per week. There is no time for pointless exercises and wasted repetitions; these people need their workouts to be short, sharp and effective. If this sounds like you here are a few tips on how to get the most bang for your buck…

Firstly, start with a productive warm-up. If you are short of time, you do not need to waste valuable minutes on a treadmill, however you must not skip the warm up all together. Spend five minutes doing dynamic mobility exercises, start slowly using similar movement patterns to the ones in which you will be using during the workout. Chances are if you are like the majority of my clients, you have spent a significant amount of time over a computer prior to exercise, therefore to mobilise joints before exercise is the best method. Shoulder rolls, shrugs, rotations, squats and lunges are all effective ways of lubricating joints. Furthermore, if you have any particularly tight muscles now would be a great time to stretch them. Particular areas my busy clients find are tight tend to be chest, hamstrings and hips. This will only take you 5 minutes.

Follow this with a combination of strength training exercises. Strength training is by far the most efficient way to maintain or achieve a desired body-shape; with the other benefits of increased stability in joints it should form the main proportion of your programme. Many of my clients are amazed at the results they get from strength training, having slaved away at the treadmill for years, they thought that lifting weights was for body builders. After just a couple of weeks of strength training they realise that a well-directed programme leads to far greater weight-loss and a preferred body composition.

When short of time it is important you stick to a whole-body routine, making sure you target big muscle groups for maximum benefits. Try to include various movement patterns such as squatting, deadlifts, lunging, pushing movements (such as a bench press or press ups) and pulling movements (such as a lat pulldowns or a bent-over rows). Repeat these in a circuit type fashion with relatively short recovery time. Don’t be afraid to use heavy weights and lower repetitions, but maintain good form throughout. This should only take 15 minutes.

Anyone who knows me will realise that I have a general dislike for the conventional approach to aerobic exercise. As a general rule aerobic exercise is long, slow and boring – if you train like this it’s about time you joined the 21st century and make better use of your time. To get the best results you could try working harder for shorter time. If you are training in a gym jump on a bike, treadmill or rowing machine and try some interval training. Try going as fast as you can for one minute and then slowing right down for one minute to recover. If you repeat this four-times you will understand why this could be described as intelligent cardio. This should only take 10 minutes.

Any time remaining should be spent doing some static stretching. Again focus on any particularly tight muscles. In 30 minutes you can have a highly effective, energising workout that will reinvigorate and inspire with both function and purpose. It has enough variables to keep you interested and when all that’s done you can get on with running the country!