Energise Your Day - Quick Fitness Tips for Women on the Go

Juggling a busy lifestyle doesn’t have to mean sacrificing your fitness goals. Being strapped for time simply means altering how you approach fitness. The good news is that a little exercise goes a long way.

This is true of your physical health and mental health. So, it’s not a question of having enough time to exercise, but rather whether you can afford not to. And, the answer is no.

This article explores the long-term benefits of exercise even when done in short bursts. As always, we will provide you with tips on how to conquer your fitness goals against the clock, so you can achieve your fitness goals no matter your schedule.

How exercise will improve your life

Even small amounts of exercise positively impact your life if you maintain it as a healthy habit. Here are 15 ways your hard work pays off.

1. Energy levels are boosted - Frequent exercise improves your body’s ability to use oxygen efficiently, which translates into more energy and stamina.
   
2. Improved cardiovascular health - Even moderate exercise strengthens your heart and improves your blood circulation. This not only minimises the risk of heart disease but also enhances your body’s ability to transport nutrients around your body.
   
3. Better moods and increased resilience - Exercise releases endorphins - feel-good hormones that improve and regulate your mood. They also counter stress and improve your resilience to challenging circumstances.
   
4. Better quality sleep - Exercise will help you to fall asleep faster, have deeper sleep, and potentially keep you asleep for longer - so long as you don’t exercise too close to bedtime.
   
5. Weight management - Frequent exercise impacts your metabolism, insulin sensitivity, and calorie expenditure post-exercise, all of which contribute to healthy weight management. More than this, frequent exercise regulates dietary choices, as most people tend not to binge on unhealthy snacks after a solid workout.
   
6. Stronger muscles and bones - Exercise, especially resistance training, helps build muscle mass and bone density, which protects you against conditions like osteoarthritis and keeps you mobile later in life. It has also been shown to reduce the probability of slips and falls in your senior years, which is a leading cause of reduced health span.
   
7. Reduces the risk of chronic diseases - Exercise improves most health-related biomarkers, and if done correctly, reduces inflammation. Those who exercise frequently reduce the likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and some forms of cancer.
   
8. Improved mental clarity - People who exercise regularly report having greater mental clarity, and studies show that exercise enhances cognitive function, including memory, focus, and problem-solving skills.
   
9. Increased self-esteem - Exercise boosts self-esteem and confidence, partly because of an improved self-image, but also because of a release of endorphins. More than this, developing your physical activity and meeting fitness goals feels rewarding and grounding.
   
10. Reduced stress levels - People who exercise report lower stress levels. This is partly because of less cortisol and more endorphins, both of which increase resilience. Exercising also helps manage anxiety because you burn off adrenaline and don’t feel overwhelmed by an increased heart rate, a common response to stress.
    
11. Better digestion - Regular exercise can improve digestion and prevent constipation.
    
12. Pain management - Exercise reduces and helps you manage pain from conditions like arthritis, and back and joint pain.
    
13. Increased flexibility - Exercise can improve your range of motion and mobility, which is an essential, but overlooked measure of health. This is especially important in your senior years, where mobility tends to decline.
    
14. Stronger immune system - Exercise boosts your immune system, making you less susceptible to illness and better able to recover faster.
    
15. Longer life expectancy - Studies have consistently shown that regular, moderate physical exercise increases life expectancy.

Fitting exercise into a busy routine

No matter how little time you have, there are exercise routines to accommodate your busy schedule. However, there is a catch. The less time you commit, the higher the intensity of the exercise. Fortunately, you can make a meaningful impact on your health in as little as 3 - 10 minutes.

Here are different workout methods for your fitness arsenal.

High-intensity interval training (HIIT)

More of an approach to exercise than an exercise itself, HIIT allows you to reap the same benefits from short, intense bursts of exercise, as those who perform longer bouts of endurance activities, and in some cases even more so.

What is HIIT?

High-intensity interval training - HIIT, is when you perform at your maximum capacity for a short period of time in any given exercise, before resting for a short period and then repeating the process.

An example could be sprinting on a treadmill as fast as you can for 30 seconds, resting or walking for 30 seconds, and repeating the process 3-5 times. You can do the same with cycling, burpees, and even swimming. HIIT allows you to be creative and cram a lot of the benefits of longer-term exercise into very short sets.

HIIT has been shown to improve cardiovascular health more effectively than exercise at a moderate pace. It also speeds up your metabolism more effectively because your body has to work harder to replace the oxygen expended from your bloodstream, a process called EPOC (excessive post-exercise consumption). Additionally, HIIT improves insulin sensitivity, protecting you from conditions like metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes.

Overall HIIT is great for weight loss and improving fitness. It might be the best tool for those strapped for time.

Combine fitness with commuting

You can use your daily commute as an opportunity to get into shape. If you live within a manageable distance to your work or university, try a commute run or cycle. If the idea of running or cycling to work doesn’t sound appealing because you want to avoid being sweaty, consider travelling by public transport and using the way back as an opportunity to get into shape.

Government initiatives have made communal bicycles accessible using apps. This makes it easy for you to plan your exercise days, so you can travel lighter. Running and cycling home from work a few times a week can increase your calorie expenditure, improve your cardiovascular health, and build stronger bones and muscles.

Finding small ways to increase your energy expenditure like a simple jog to the supermarket or post office can make all the difference.

Circuit training

High-level circuit training involves performing a series of exercises in close concession for a specified amount of time. This can be done with or without weights and allows you to compound exercises to target different muscle groups and even your cardiovascular system in each subsequent set. Examples include doing a set of burpees, followed by press-ups, followed by sprints, followed by abdominal crunches, etc.

The idea is to give one muscle group a break while working another, so you maintain a high heart rate. This approach saves time, increases productivity, and is a great way to build strength and fitness.

You can follow programs like ‘'insanity”, which are renowned for their success in improving fitness. Equally, there are countless free options available on YouTube. The great thing about circuit training is that you can do it in a small room without any equipment and it is just as effective, if not more, than going to the gym

High Energy activities

The best types of workout are those that don’t feel like exercise. They increase your heart rate and get your muscles working, but you hardly notice because you’re having so much fun.

There are so many activities to be found like these and you won’t have to look much further than your local community centres, gyms, and parks. Here are some good examples:

• Ice skating and roller skating
• Mountain biking
• Indoor or outdoor climbing
• Indoor swimming and lake swimming
• Dancing
• Martial arts classes
• Fencing
• Rowing, kayaking or canoeing
• Hiking
• Taking up a sport like football, tennis, squash, or netball.
• Dog Walking
• Playing with kids

You will be pleasantly surprised how many calories you can expend and how toned you can become just by taking up a hobby. It won’t feel like work and you won’t ever find yourself talking yourself out of it.

Final thoughts

So much emphasis is put on committing hours each day to working out. Social media is full of videos of women who centre their lives around their fitness regimes, and it can leave busy mums and career women feeling like they are not making enough of an effort but fear not. You actually don’t need as much time as you think to get into shape and improve your health.

Armed with modern science, you now know that you can achieve the same result in a fraction of the time, so it’s more productive to increase the intensity and reduce the time. It’s better for your joints, and cardiovascular health, and much better for your schedule.

Let go of the guilt, find a workout buddy or an accountability partner and make it fun. There is no time like the present to take up a hobby, join a class, and find a quiet corner where you can go all out with some circuits.

Being fit and healthy benefits every area of your life, leaving you feeling positive and vital. As they say, a healthy body leads to a healthy mind, so get moving and restore harmony the Biobalance way.