…Yes you do. Sorry to be so blunt, but you do have time. You’re currently reading the blog of a person who works 84 hours in a 7 day period. I don’t have the luxury of leaving work or working out in the middle of my day and I still MAKE time to work out. Just like a smoker who is not quite ready to quit, you have to truly be ready to change your lifestyle if you’re going to make it work. You have to remember why you are doing this. Even if it’s not your primary motivator, those who are healthy and fit tend to live longer. My father’s untimely death in his early fifties was my primary motivator for getting into fitness.
You can view working out even just a few minutes a few days a week like a 401k where God is matching your time invested with more time on this earth to spend with your family/friends.
– ME-
When we are younger (20s or younger) I have noticed people have more success working out in the evening, whereas after our twenties (or once we start our careers and families) I have noticed people tend to have more success by working out in the morning. I feel like adults tend to do better working out in the morning because you don’t have a huge chip on your shoulder like you do in the evening. You don’t have all the baggage or stress from what has happened throughout the day weighing you down. You aren’t as physically, emotionally or mentally exhausted to the point where you just say “I just can’t today”. Plus it gives you a sense of accomplishment early on in the day and that can lead to a more positive experience for the rest of the day (sort of a snowball effect). You’re going to need to find what works best for you and your family as far as squeezing a workout in. Remember you are investing in yourself.
“But AJ, I have kids and I want to be with them before/after work!” As a soon-to-be father I totally understand this, but you have to think about the long game here. See the 401k analogy in the quote above. In the medical field we see obesity and issues/diseases related to poor fitness and nutrition all the time across a huge range of ages. These diseases/issues tend to invite a host of other diseases and issues to join them. You don’t want to be the parent stuck in the hospital all the time when you could be with your kids/family. Work something out with your spouse so that you each can have your time to workout or find a gym that has cheap daycare maybe. I have a friend who doesn’t have a lot of time to go to the gym so he does small things and stays active, but he also comes home and challenges his two toddler boys to pushup contests and then they jump on his back and he does his pushups. They also wrestle and goof around as a family after the pushups. This may not be the optimal way to workout or gain muscle, but the guy finds time to stay fit and spends time with his family at the same time. He also enjoys running outside when weather agrees. Feel free to involve your family, hell, if your kids are old enough, get them to go to the gym too! It’s never too late to start teaching your kids the habits you wished you picked up much younger.
I have another friend on the other end of the spectrum who gets up super early (like 3am) and hits the gym for a few hours before his kids even wake up…EVERY DAY. He sticks to a strict and healthy diet and has a whole different level of motivation. The guy is a dedicated, motivated beast-man (he’s seriously jacked). When I asked him how he does it he told me, “I just want to be the best husband and father I can be and set good examples for my kids.” He goes to bed at a decent time (pretty much as soon as the kids do) to accommodate this schedule. The key point here is that you don’t HAVE to be this dedicated or serious, nor spend this much time in the gym, but you DO have to MAKE time to make it work. This guy is also a PA in practice and he finds time to make it work.
How much time do you really need? Well it really depends on your goals, which need to be realistic (we will discuss this in a separate post). If you are trying to lose weight you technically don’t even need to go to a gym or “workout”, but it helps significantly. All you need to do is put yourself into a caloric deficit (more calories burned (TDEE) than calories consumed) and you will lose weight. But be aware, the more significant the caloric deficit, the greater the “side effects” of your weight loss (we will discuss this in another post as well). The more you workout (cardio or resistance training) the more freedom you have to add some calories to your daily diet, or the faster you will lose weight if you don’t add to your diet. My suggestion would be to use a TDEE calculator as mentioned in my “The Basics of Nutrition” post under the Nutrition/Diets menu and get yourself a watch or another device (such as a Fitbit) that helps you keep track of calories burned. If you can’t afford one or just don’t want to spend money on it, that’s fine too, you can get along without one as I have found that most TDEE calculators are pretty close to numbers I was getting on my Fitbit.
If you are trying to gain muscle you will need to workout with resistance training AND put yourself in a caloric surplus. You WILL gain some fat while in a caloric surplus, but by minimizing your caloric surplus you can minimize this fat gain (I will write a post about gaining lean mass soon). Realistically you don’t need to spend 2 hours in the gym every day of the week in order to gain muscle. I would say that 45 minutes 4-5 times per week is enough to gain muscle. The more volume/time you add to the gym the more muscle you will gain (to a certain point at which you are overtraining and this will be detrimental). You need to realize that depending on your age, your workout age (how long you have been working out/lifting) and your current level of fitness you will realistically only be able to add 2-5 pounds of lean muscle per year (assuming you were in a caloric surplus that whole year and protein intake was sufficient). The numbers above are for someone who has already been working out for over 2 years and no longer has the metabolism of a 20 year old. The younger you are, the more potential you have to put on muscle because hormones are working in your favor. The newer you are to working out, the more likely you are to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time (body recomposition) as long as you are doing it right. The leaner you are naturally, you will tend to end up on the lower end of the lean muscle gains spectrum. This is all without the use of testosterone or other “enhancing” substances/steroids (which I have never, nor will never use by the way).
Well guys and girls, I think I have answered a basic comment with a sufficiently long post. As usual, please leave any comments you feel could help me delve deeper into the subject or for new post ideas. I’ll catch you soon.
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