The usual excuse: “I don’t have time”. We know that you are a person with a very busy life, between work, family, etc., it is almost impossible that you do not have space to exercise … Pretexts, you should always make a space for yourself.
Richard Dorment, editorial director Men’s Health US, give you great advice on this. Read below:
Just set an alarm for 6:00 a.m., head down to your home gym where your coach will wait for you and push yourself before the kids wake up and your wife or personal chef cook you breakfast. Wait to? Do you have to be at work at 6:00 am? Aren’t you a well-functioning morning person, your kids wake up early, and you don’t have money for a home gym, let alone a personal trainer? Devils. I can see why you would have trouble finding the time.
For most of us, it really is hard. There are men who get up at 6:00 am, but for guys like me, who struggle to balance “work, family, etc.,” and for whom rest is a difficult thing to find, it usually doesn’t work.
What may work is a little mind trick that I sometimes use: I don’t think of exercise as an obligation, but as an opportunity.
Start by thinking about what is missing from your life. Do you think you’re not having fun like before? Find a night or weekend basketball league.
Do you need some peace and quiet? Try yoga. Haven’t you seen your friends often enough lately? Schedule a group race or a ride with them. This brings up a topic that you can frequently see in Men’s Health, something we should all do a little more time for creating and preserving friendships.
A little story: last year, I moved to a new city, and I didn’t know anyone. I had a lot of friends from my old neighborhood that I talked to via DM, but close to home, I had roughly zero friends, unless you count the 7:42 train driver. I felt … and this is a difficult thing to write … alone. But I did something about it.
I joined a basketball team. I met a group of men who play tennis every week. I signed up for a HIIT class with other local parents. Each of my new friendships was forged through sweat.
There’s been a lot of talks lately about the fact that men don’t have friends, and how this damages our health and self-esteem. And there is some truth in that (like everything related to men and women, it is somewhat complicated, but it is true, most of us could use some connection in our lives).
It is also true that most of us could benefit from sweating a little more, especially if we feel overwhelmed by work and family. Perhaps by focusing more on both priorities, you will find the time to exercise. And you could make one or two new friends in the process.
I know that is more than you asked for, but there is a lot at stake in this matter. The question is as much about priorities as it is about time.