Working 9-5 is a gruelling, character-building test of endurance. However, you don’t get the abs to show for it, which sucks. After sitting at a desk for 7 hours, you start to lose all feeling in your legs. “How will I walk to the station?” you say. It’s all a bit awful considering you only get that one-hour break to eat your walnuts and connect with the outside world to ensure that you don’t lose your sanity. Read on for this vivid account, Too Busy to Exercise: Work Life Balance.
On the train home, you remember that you have a strength session at the gym. You also have heaps of work to do and your manager is ready to sell your organs if she has to remind you again about deadlines. But you just want to train. When you lift those weights, you feel like the epitome of strength. But work is completely killing your mojo. When you’re at your desk, you can barely lift your coffee mug to your face. And if it’s not work, it’s your studies. Ah, life!
Of course, you can’t quit that job or drop out. Whilst you could become a professional and get paid to do what you love; you still need money to eat, have a place to sleep and pay for that gym membership to even get there. Perhaps switching around your schedule could help? If you train in the morning before work, you can sleep all you want when you get home. Commuting to work via bike or running there kills two birds with one stone.
Many workplaces are striving for a more agile working environment for staff and now have gyms and other facilities. Get to work earlier to use it and shower there. You might even save on utility bills! It might also be worth dishing out a bit more cash on the university facilities if you’re a student. If you can train and study all in one place, you’re more likely to do it. Think of how much you’re saving by actually using your membership!
If the idea of waking up an hour earlier kills you, it may be worth using your rest day as time to tackle your workload. This would allow you to physically repair and get your work done. It also ends that “I’ll do it tomorrow” procrastinative mentality faced at work and in fitness – you can’t use work as an excuse on a fitness day and you can’t use fitness as an excuse on a work day if you have a clear schedule that can’t be compromised.
