INTRODUCTION
There are many people out there that work full-time jobs and go to the gym and have fitness goals, yet find it hard work to make the two work together. One of the other always seems to take a back seat, and as you get paid for doing your job, this means the gym always takes the back seat. Luckily for you, this blog is all about how to make the two things get along, 5 Tips to help balance your work and fitness life!
We are going to go over a few tips to help you get the most out of both your job and your fitness goals. This post is going to be aimed at office workers, and those that have jobs that you tend to sit down for. We have 5 top tips for you to help you maintain your fitness goals while working an office job or a sit down a job.
MEAL PREP
This is a big one! I would say the most important one! The one tip everyone should start with! If you want to keep your goals in sight but also keep stress about your goals to a minimum then meal prepping is a must. How you meal prep is up to you, if you want to meal prep the week or just a few days, it doesn’t matter. Cook up your meals (Lunch and Dinner), then no matter what happens throughout your day you know that cooking is something you don’t need to worry about.
Had to work late one day? Well, you know that you have dinner all prepared and ready, so no need to worry about it. Not only is this going to help you keep on track with your fitness goals, but it is also going to help you keep de-stressed and calm. Taking away having to worry about meals.
PLAN YOUR DAY
Always good to have a plan! Plan your day. We aren’t talking about your workout, we are talking about you actual day! What time you plan to wake up, get to work, have lunch etc. This will help you visuals your day and what you have planned. I find it stops me stressing about how much I might have to do, or how I am going to fit it all in. You can make it as detailed as you want or just make it vague. It depends on how you work and what you have planned for that day, but can help you balance your work and fitness.
Remember, this isn’t a set in stone plan. This isn’t a plan you have to stick to and not move. It is your plan, you planned it so you can move stuff around. What main aim of having a daily plan is so that you are aware of what you have to do and a rough time of when you are going to do them.
MAKE SURE YOU MOVE!
Obviously, working in an office means, naturally, you won’t be moving much! Make sure you take time out from your day to go for a walk and get your steps in. We are talking about outside of the gym. Be aware of how much you are moving outside of the gym. Working at a desk for 7-9 hours a day can bring your activity down a lot. So whether it is on your lunch or in the mornings or evenings, find time to get a few thousand steps in.
Being more active has so many benefits, Obviously, there is the extra calorie output, which is useful if cutting or dieting. However, it is also good for helping you sleep, makes you less stress and helps reduce your risk of heart disease and a stroke.
I have found that investing in fitness tracker (I have purchased the Apple Watch, Check out our review here) has helped me keep active. Setting goals and making sure I hit them every day. Found that my daily steps have gone up and so have my daily calorie output.
FOAM ROLLING AND STRETCHING
Make sure that a few times a week you are foam rolling and also stretching. Working in an office and sitting in a chair can affect your posture and mobility. So make sure you take time to stretch out your muscles and also foam roll to get any knots out.
I like to take this one stage further and go to get a sports massage once or twice a month. I find that combining Heavy lifting and sitting in an office chair can effect my lower back, shoulders and legs. So I like to go get these worked on. I have found that since I have, I have felt more “lose” and “flexible”. However, for most people, foam rolling and stretching will be perfect.
You can purchase a foam roller from most sports shops or any online shop. I think it is the best investment you can make in not only your fitness journey but your personal health overall. Worth every penny! You don’t have to get a super expensive one. They all do the same jobs.
GET A COACH
This last one is weird. Because we don’t mean get a coach for the reasons you think. Getting a coach is amazing for helping your hit your goals, learning exercises, giving you accountability and tightening up on your form. However, this isn’t why we are recommending a coach. We think you should get a coach to help keep the stress off, and help balance your work and fitness.
Fitness, when taken seriously, can be fairly stressful. How much can you eat, planning your workouts and meals? It is all something we have to plan and worry about. However, getting a coach can take this all away from you. That is a massive load of your shoulders. Meaning you can spend your day focusing on what is important, knowing that your workout has already been planned. You just need to follow it. We aren’t going to go into much detail about coaches in this post, but before hiring one, make sure you do your research and make sure you are getting the right coach for you.
CONCLUSION
Hopefully, these few tips will help you balance your work and fitness. Hopefully, some of you find these tips helpful and I expect some of you are already doing these tips without even knowing. If you have any other tips that you do please let us know over on our Instagram. We would love to hear how you all balance your work and fitness.
We do have more tips but they are focussed more on everything outside the gym. So we will create another blog post, a part two with all the other tips in. These tips will be focussed more on the lifestyle side of things. Little and large things you can do to improve your daily routine and make work and gym play nicely together.
Written by Kieran Blacker
Kieran is the CEO and Founder of Sets & Reps. He decided to make an application that helped people get a gym workout when not at the gym. He designed, Coded and built the application himself.