Finding Time to Exercise

It's not to say that most students' are too lazy to go exercise, however, the problem may be that they don't have enough time to make it to the gym and workout. The benefits of exercising has much more meaning than avoiding the freshmen-15.  I plan to go into greater detail in future blog posts on the benefits exercising can have on one's psychological well-being, academic life, and even social life. Before we go into those details, we must first discuss how to manage your time in order to hit the gym.....

If you aren't an NCAA athlete there is no reason for you to waste your time lifting. At this point in our lives it's most important to maintain our cardiovascular fitness. Lifting is a great way to initiate muscle hypertrophy but it's more time consuming. So if you don't have enough time to workout one hour a day, then choose cardio over lifting. 

If you do enjoy lifting, shorten up your rest intervals. Lifting tends to take up more time because while you are resting in between sets, you are more inclined to talk to people.   

For cardiovascular fitness, all you need is 30 minutes a day for five days a week at a moderate intensity. If you do that, then and you are already doing better than most college students. 

When you sort out your college schedule the first thing you should do is find the perfect time-frames to exercise. Here are a few ways that I have been able to save time......

1) Wear gym clothes to class: It might not be the most preferable attire, but the amount of time it saves by going straight from the class to the track, instead of heading back to your dorm to change, can be equivalent to the time it takes to get one homework assignment done. Also, when you head back to your dorm there can be too many distractions such as friends, napping, food etc that can stall you from reaching the gym. 

2) Treat your commute as a workout: Walking to class is the most underrated way to maintain your cardio fitness, and most people don't even realize it. If you are on a large university campus with an average course-load, you are already walking several miles a day. If you even want to run with your backpack on, nobody is judging you.....

3) Be the Weekend Warrior: Usually the Weekend Warrior is frowned upon by most workout guru's because they want people to workout consistently. However, when you are in college, anything goes. If you are free to workout only on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, take advantage of it! Make those days your masterpiece of a workout and hopefully you can find enough time on Monday-Thursday to get at least a bit of fitness in.

4) Don't socialize at the gym: You shouldn't be at the gym to talk to people. Just be on a mission to optimize your workout in the shortest amount of time.

Sure there are many ways to optimize your time at the gym. Try some of these tips and but you should also find something that fits you best and matches your goals and desires when it comes to exercising.

Stay tuned for next weeks blog regarding the benefits exercise can have on college students.....