Beat These Top Exercise Excuses

The two main excuses people have for not training or eating properly are lack of time time and lack of money (cost).

These excuses for not exercising regularly are certainly understandable – everyone is busy, what with the 9 to 5 hours (or beyond), extra work to do at home, a hectic social life and enough family commitments to keep you going for a month of Sundays. It is easy to become overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work you have to do and for healthy eating and the gym to take a back seat.

Likewise with cost. Bills, food, meals out, travel expenses, insurance, and life’s “unexpected occurrences” all add up and money is tight. With rising gym fees, more and more people are giving up on their health and fitness to stay home and sit on the couch, watching TV or surfing the web.

It doesn’t have to be this way though. There are plenty of quick, cost effective ways you can still get your workout in and make your way towards the body of your dreams.

Beating the Cost of Exercise

First things first, get rid of your gym membership.

This may sound counterproductive, but you’re potentially paying for something completely useless. Unless you’re a competitive powerlifter, weightlifter or bodybuilder, do you really need all that fancy gym equipment that you’re shelling out for month on month?

You read that right. The majority of people who pay for gym memberships NEVER use them – it's not that they only go to the gym once or twice per month, but never even set foot in the gym. The money leaves their account on the same day every month and they get nothing for it, except for the illusion that they are doing something to get fit. If you say that half of the other 33 percent are regular users, training two or more times per week, that still only means that 16.5 percent of gym members actually get what they pay for on a regular basis.

Now you’re starting to see why the gym may be a false economy.

If you’re a runner, forget the treadmill and hit the roads instead. Running alongside the freeway may not be as enticing as running on a treadmill in a cozy gym with air conditioning cooling you down, football on the giant TVs in front of you and your headphones it, but it’s a great deal cheaper. You basically just need good running shoes, which can be expensive but last a long time.

Don’t forget you can go off-roading too. Hit the local park, find some woods or a trail and run that for a change of scenery. You could even switch your sneakers for a bike and get your cycling workout done as well.

A decent pair of running shoes will cost you $80-$150 and will last around a year. Bikes start anywhere from $100 and will last you indefinitely.

Don’t forget body-weight training either. Why do you need a gym for pushups, crunches, chin-ups and burpees?

Finally if you’re a weightlifting gym rat, you will need to look at spending slightly more if you’re ditching your health club, but you can still make an awesome home gym on a budget.

A kettlebell set is a great starting point at $100-$200 dollars, or if you’re a little more serious, go for a power rack, bench, barbell and weight plates or adjustable dumbbells. This will cost around $1,000, but if you look at it as two year’s gym membership, it’s worth the investment. You could always share the cost with a friend too.

Time Saving Exercise Tips

The second conundrum – time.

There are only 24 hours a day. Take off 10 for work plus commuting, eight for sleep, three for chores and life’s mundane tasks, a bit more for sorting out the unplanned things that come up and you’re left with about 38 seconds.

First thing’s first – can you organize your time better? Perhaps there are things you do in the day that simply waste time?

Picking up groceries each day rather than doing a big weekly shop could save you at least two hours a week. And while sitting down to watch TV every evening may be relaxing, it’s not getting you any fitter.

If something’s important to you, you can always make time for it. By getting your head into that mentality, you’re in the perfect place to start.

Even if that only gives you an extra 90 minutes a week to play with, that really is all you need. Implement these time saving tips to make sure that a lack of time is never an excuse for not exercising again:

- Forget long, moderate-paced cardio sessions and start doing high intensity interval training instead. A steady run probably doesn’t take you out of your comfort zone and really, you probably need to be running for a good 45 minutes to break a sweat and get your heart rate up.

Change your jogging to a sprint session however and you can burn the same amount of calories and create a far bigger impact on your fitness levels and metabolism in around a third of the time.

- Train in a circuit style.

Instead of always resting between your exercise sets, pair exercise together or group a few back to back to save time. A set of squats, kettlebell swings or pushups might take a lot out of you, but there’s no reason why you can’t throw in a plank, some side bends or jump rope in the 30 seconds you’d usually just sit down, talk with a friend or check your phone.

- Pick exercises that give you the most “Bang for your Buck.”

Big, multi-joint movements work more muscle groups and burn more calories, so should be the foundation of your routine.

If you decided to keep your gym membership, that means back or front squats, deadlifts, bench presses, clean and presses or barbell rows. If you’ve opted for the home training route, then lunges, body-weight squats, pushups, chin-ups and burpees are your new best friends.

- Add in exercise where you can.

Still think you haven’t got time to train? Try adding in sets of body-weight exercises while you’re cooking dinner, cleaning your teeth, waiting for the kettle to boil or talking on the phone. Even a few stretches in the office is better than nothing. You’d be amazed at how many chances you get to exercise every day.

Excuses needn’t be an issue any more.