How to Find Time to Workout This Summer: 8 Helpful Tips
The American Heart Association recommends you get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise or 75 minutes of high-intensity exercise each week. But as your schedule gets busier and busier with summer plans you’re often left wondering: when and how can I fit a workout into my routine?
To help you reap the many benefits of exercise, check out these eight helpful tips for fitting a workout into your busy summer schedule:
1. Set a Goal at the Start of the Summer (And Keep Track of Your Progress)
It’s easier to prioritize a workout when you have something you’re working toward. By setting a fitness or health goal at the start of the summer, your workout becomes more than just another round of boxing in the ring. It’s a step forward in achieving your health and wellness goals.
That way when things get busy, you have that goal as a reminder of why it’s important to squeeze a workout into your day. Start by identifying your motivation for working out. Are you looking to build confidence, strength, endurance, or some combination of all three?
Then think about how you want to feel or what you want to achieve by the end of this summer. Is there a fitness or health goal that’s meaningful for you? And how can a regular workout routine help you achieve it?
Once you have a goal in mind, use our performance tracking and results right in the Liteboxer app to monitor and celebrate your progress. Knowing you’re close to hitting a goal could be that push you need to get back in the ring for another sweat-inducing workout.
2. Schedule Your Workouts
If you struggle fitting exercise into your busy routine one of the best strategies is to schedule your workouts. Determine where you have time in your day and pencil it in.
Then, treat this calendar hold like you would any other meeting or event. When you have an important meeting on your calendar, you plan around it. And if something comes up, you reschedule to a better time. Treat your workouts the exact same way.
Think of it as an important one-on-one meeting between you and your health goals. This gets you into the habit of viewing your workout just like any other hold on your calendar. So when the reminder pops up, you’re automatically transitioning to workout mode.
3. Take Advantage of Small Pockets of Time in Your Schedule
When you go to schedule your workout and discover you have zero time in your schedule keep in mind that you don’t need a full hour to get in a great workout. Use that 5 or 10-minute window to schedule a short, but effective, Punch Track or Express Trainer Class.
After all, a 10 or 15-minute workout is better than no workout at all. You’re still experiencing the health benefits of exercise, even if you’re breaking out that exercise into smaller chunks. Whether you’re doing five 15-minute workouts or two hour-long workouts each week, you’re still hitting the goal of 75 minutes of high-intensity exercise.
4. Workout On-The-Go
But sometimes those small pockets of time in your schedule occur when you’re on the go, like at your daughter’s soccer game or in your hotel room during a business trip.
Liteboxer Go is an anywhere, anytime fitness technology that lets you shadowbox to Liteboxer content anywhere you go. It’s about the size of an AirPods case, allowing for easy transportation and portability. That means it’s small enough to slip into a purse or beach bag and light enough to pack in your checked bag.
So with Liteboxer Go, you can fit fitness into those in-between moments, wherever you are. All you need is a tablet or smartphone and you can box to the beat at the beach, the park, your friend’s place, on vacation, or anywhere or anytime you want to get in a quick workout.
Learn more about Liteboxer Go and join today.
5. Embrace the Early-Morning Workout
And if you’re still struggling to squeeze in a workout, it might be time to embrace the morning workout routine. Set your alarm a little earlier than usual, grab a quick bite to eat, and get your workout in before your day even starts.
It’ll feel tough to get yourself out of bed at first. But over time you might find that you enjoy the routine. For many early morning risers, it’s the best part of their day. Before the kids wake up or your to-do list starts calling your name, it’s built-in “you time” to kickstart your day on a positive note.
But don’t sacrifice sleep to make this work! Make sure you’re getting your full eight hours of sleep by going to bed a bit earlier the night before.
6. Change Into Workout Clothes
When you don’t have a whole lot of time in your day, sometimes a workout needs to happen on a whim. Like when something gets canceled or you have an unexpected 20 minutes of extra time between meetings.
If you’re already in your workout clothes this makes it that much easier to glove up and press play on a Punch Track or 10-minute Express workout. Even if it’s not realistic for you to wear workout clothes all day long, you can still apply this simple trick.
For example, bring workout clothes with you to work. At the end of your day, before you head home, change into your workout clothes right at the office. That way when you get home you’re ready to start your workout and less likely to get derailed by your bed or couch.
Or, if you’re trying to start an early-morning workout routine, wear your workout clothes to bed. This tactic also works if you find yourself procrastinating or debating whether you’re going to work out. Even something as simple as changing into your workout clothes can get you in the right frame of mind to go through with your workout.
7. Get Your Friends Involved
It’s a lot easier to schedule and stick to your workouts when you have a workout buddy or a motivating community cheering you on. Tell friends or family members about your summer fitness goals or invite them to join you.
It helps to have that extra layer of accountability to hold you to the goals you set for yourself at the start of the summer. Plus, it’s a lot more fun to work out with friends.
Challenge your friends to beat your high score in a Liteboxer Match or take bets to see who can finish the latest Community Challenge first. A little bit of healthy competition can go a long way in making exercise part of the routine.
You can also join our Liteboxer Facebook community for support, motivation, and guidance along the way. It’s a lot easier to find motivation as a member of a community than on your own.
8. Make It Fun
You understand the importance of a regular workout routine and the role it plays in your physical and mental health. But no matter how important it is for your health, you’re not going to make time for a workout you dread doing. If you enjoy your workout, you’re going to have a much easier time prioritizing your fitness routine.
Having fun while getting in a great workout is a big reason why we started Liteboxer. Shadowboxing or facing off against a stationary heavy bag can be a very isolating, boring, and repetitive exercise.
At Liteboxer, we combine hardware, game dynamics, hit music, and expert training all into one high-intensity workout. The result is an at-home workout experience that’s just as fun as playing a video game. Only in this video game, you’re building cardio, strength, and mental acuity while you play.
If you’re leaving a workout with a sweaty smile—like Trainer GW in his workout below—you’re more likely to schedule another workout again soon.
The Liteboxer community is here to support you as you schedule your workouts and make progress toward your summer goals. Join our Liteboxer Facebook group today to get access to accountability coaching, boxing form basics, fitness challenges, motivational tips, and more.