Learning to pivot: 3 Ways we can keep fitness goals when life gets busy!

​In our fast-paced world where we idolize Herculean efforts in many aspects of life, it’s easy to applaud the  “all or nothing, bigger is better approach”. I’ve even written several times about the importance of doing hard things, being disciplined, mentally tough, and focused.That being said, what happens when the ideal isn’t possible, and we need to pivot? If we are too wedded to the all or nothing approach, we can tank our progress and jeopardize our training. 

Recently, I’ve had conversations with a few different athletes we really struggled to execute on particular training sessions. As I drilled down as to why that is, many times it’s because they did not have the adequate time, energy, or ability to execute the work out perfectly- and so they either didn’t do the session at all, or they attempted the session in sub-par circumstances and it was a failure. We have all heard this saying, but forget it when it comes to fitness: “don’t let perfection be the enemy of progress”

Failing to pivot when the ideal is unattainable, can lead to discouragement, loss of motivation, and the cessation of progress. So why does this occur so often? What does it look like with endurance athletes, and in average ordinary people? Well, it’s strikingly similar in both populations.

For endurance athletes, who have to balance work, life, family, and specific training sessions every day, this might look like a long bike session that doesn’t get done at all, because we can't find four hours in the day to ride. Or maybe it’s a swim session that wasn’t completed because the travel time to the pool and back just wasn’t feasible due to tight scheduling. Or possibly it’s an easy run after work that doesn’t happen because we take a call just before heading out the door and it runs long…  Does this sound familiar?

What about the average Joe and Jill‘s out there, just trying to exercise consistently throughout the week? Maybe the goal is to just exercise for 30 minutes a day five days a week. But then we might oversleep your alarm and now can’t get to the gym on the way to work. Or the kids need to get picked up early from soccer due to weather. Or the BFF is sick and can’t make it to join you for the morning power walk, so we dilly-dally on social media and before we know it, 20 min has evaporated along with the bulk of our allotted workout time. 

In instances like these, it is all too often for us to throw hands in the air and say I just can’t get it done today. And that is the problem. I’ve written about this topic before, but it bears repeating: 

Something is always better than nothing. So, here’s what we can do when the ideal isn’t possible. Below are three simple ways we can make adjustments so that we can continue to build our fitness within our crazy lives.

Adjust the time. Sometimes it seems almost futile to do an abbreviated session instead of the planned one in a short space of time. However, that doesn’t mean that 15 or 20 minutes can’t be extremely effective. Today was a prime example for myself, as I only had 40 minutes in which to do a scheduled 90 minute ride. Instead of abandoning the ride and trying to do it later in the day, I switched it up to a shorter interval workout with a 10 minute warm-up, then 4×3 minutes very hard the VO2 max effort, followed by a short, two minute recovery and a five minute cooldown. So I spent 35 minutes on the bike, but it was very high-quality.. so, shorten the time and still make sure you have an effective outcome. Even if you’re unable to do a structured workout, 15 minutes of just riding the bike will keep you in the habit. Consistency is key both in endurance sports and certainly in the crazy world of working parents just trying to stay on top of their fitness.

Up the intensity. I alluded to this in the above example but when time is short, we can pivot from a steady state effort into a high intensity one. For example, if one of my soccer moms or dads out there is just trying to squeeze out a 45 minute lower body day at the gym, but due to work deadline, only end up having 25 minutes, maybe we convert that lower body day into a high intensity interval day, (HIIT) where the focus is still on lower body yet exercises are structured in a circuit.  With a 3 to 4 minute warm-up and a 2 to 3 minute cool down, even a 10 or 15 minute HIIT session can really maximize the time by burning calories, elevating heart rate, and increasing metabolism. Changing the intensity of workouts not only can yield big benefits in a short amount of time, but allow you to continue the right trajectory toward your goals by being consistent over time. 

Change the workout altogether. The best laid plans go awry all the time: mother nature cancels our bike ride or pool session, or sick kids require us to stay home instead of heading to the gym. This could be a perfect time to catch up on some bodyweight strength training, core strengthening, or mobility work that is so necessary both in endurance athletes and average Joes and Jills. We can use this as an opportunity to pivot and work on another aspect of our fitness. Again, not only does this aid in improving weak areas, but it also continues our forward progress, which is arguably the most important metric of success out there, regardless of whether you are an endurance athlete or just trying to stay in shape.

So, the next time life gets in the way and workout time is short, remember that “something is always better than nothing”. Learn to pivot and continue that forward progress. Do not let that drive to have the perfect training session, inhibit your ability to stay consistent. Reduce the volume, increase your intensity, or change the workout altogether, to continue on that path forward.