Do you really need an hour to Exercise ?

September always seems to have that “back to school” feeling. The holidays are coming to an end, routines start returning and many of us start thinking about getting back into healthier habits.

One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that people seem to think that exercise needs to take an hour to be worthwhile. And especially if you’re training at home or you’re time bound, finding an hour can sometimes feel impossible. So you end up doing nothing.

But you really don’t need an hour.  It is far better to do a couple of  20 -30 minute workouts each week than plan to do an hour and never quite manage to fit it in. The most important thing is consistency.

And it doesn’t need to be complicated.  The best exercises are those that keep it simple. 

If you’re exercising at home ( or the gym), you want to make sure you work the main muscle groups and movements. Squats, press ups, deadlifts, some form of pulling exercise (with a resistance band or weights), an overhead press and some core work can give you a very balanced workout in a relatively short amount of time.

You don’t need super heavy weights either. It’s about doing what is right for you, whether that’s using your own body weight or lifting a weight that challenges you while still allowing you to exercise with good technique.

And there is more and more research highlighting just how important maintaining muscle is as we get older ( especially for women) . It isn’t simply about being stronger. Maintaining our muscle and strength helps us continue to function well, stay active and independent and keep doing all those everyday things we probably don’t even think about until they become difficult.

So perhaps September is the perfect time to get back into a routine.

Don’t worry about finding an hour. Don’t make it complicated.

Just start.

Twenty minutes is better than nothing, and doing something consistently will always be better than the workout you keep planning to do but never quite get round to.

And if you dont know where to start then get in touch whether we work together in person or online, we can come up with the perfect program for you that fit into your life and enables consistency .