Consistency is the key!

Let me describe a scenario to you;

Tuesday:
An 11am 30 minute meeting turns into a 2 hour marathon. No time
for the planned lunch time swim, but you manage a quick break for lunch.
The afternoon is a nightmare catching up on the backlog of work from the
morning. You get out of work at 7.30pm. You have had a tiring day you need
to get home to try and say a quick hello to the kids before they go to bed.
There will be no swimming today.

Thursday:
It has been a long week; the weekend is now in sight. You feel a bit
sleepy as you travel to work. On arriving at work you realise you have the work
notes you needed to read over last night but have forgotten your workout gear.
“Not to worry” you tell yourself, “it is almost the end of the week, I can sleep in
Saturday morning and then make up for the workouts I have missed during the
week”

Saturday: You sleep in, have a family breakfast and then head
to the gym, you complete 30 minutes of strength training, followed by
a one mile swim. You feel terrific, it is great to finally get a good workout
and you don’t have to rush it. You feel so great in fact you even do a 45
minute bike ride to finish up.

Sunday: You wake up feeling pretty sore, the body
aches. No training today! Back into the training on Monday for sure!

I bet there are many of you out there for who the above fictional
scenario rings true. We start out the week with all the best of intentions but
the clamour of everyday life destroys any semblance of routine for your fitness
program. The problem is although the Saturday morning exercise might be fun
and provide good stress relief you won’t get much more benefit. The body will
see it as a one off event. It will help you recover but any adaption, or increased
fitness, will be minimal.

A different way to approach the week would be to have a plan of
when, where and how much exercise you want to do, and then modify
the plan as work and family commitments eat into your workout time.
Consistency is the key. You are far better getting in four 30 minute
workouts during the week than a single 2 hour session on Saturday morning.

I will explain it using an analogy; sleep. We all have a certain amount
of hours of sleep we like to get in a night. When life gets busy we miss
out on that sleep, but we still make sure we get at least some each night.
You can easily imagine if you put off sleep each night and planned to make
it all up on the weekend – you would be in serious trouble. The good thing
about exercise is you need far less of it than you do sleep which makes it
easier to be flexible.

Keep in mind this philosophy; ‘some is better than none at all’.
I am saying even 15 minutes of cardiovascular exercise is better than
missing the workout entirely. By working hard to get at least 30 minutes of
exercise, 3 to 4 times a week you can make enormous improvements in your
well-being, physical composition, your energy levels and general health.

Don’t be the one to fall into the trap of leaving it all to the weekend.
Consistency is the key!

Dan