How to Climb the Corporate Ladder and be Healthy at the Same Time   

You know that exercise is essential to a healthy mind and body.  In fact, studies have shown that exercise reduces anxiety, improves cognitive function and memory, and has been associated with career success.  So if you’re just sitting at a desk most days, you’re already contending with increased risks for negative health outcomes, and you definitely don’t want to compound your risks by skimping on sweat sessions.

But knowing the benefits of exercise, and finding time to do it, are two different things.  Here are five tips for fitting exercise into even the busiest schedule:

Get Up Early
Maybe you’ve admired Michelle Obama’s toned arms and wondered how someone with her packed schedule still manages to find time for strength training.  The First Lady has shared one of her secrets to staying fit as a busy mom with all-day, back-to-back appointments: early morning workouts.  Ms. Obama gets up as early as 4:30 a.m. in order to ensure that she gets in a fitness routine.  Early exercisers know that working out first thing in the morning can make it much easier to avoid common exercise distractions: getting active before your day has a chance to go off the rails means you still won’t miss out on staying in shape if you have to stay late to get your boss that surprise memo.

Action Item: Take some fitspiration from our gorgeous first lady and set your alarm forty-five minutes early.  Once you start a morning exercise habit, you may never go back to later workouts.

Use Your Lunch Hour
If you happen to be one of the lucky ones has the option of taking an actual break at lunch, why not use your lunch hour to get moving?  Physical activity at midday can give you energy to push through that 3 p.m. slump.  Possible obstacles: working out on your lunch break may not feel realistic if you don’t have a gym nearby or if you don’t get much time off for lunch.

Action Item: Even a brisk fifteen-minute walk every day translates into 75 minutes of activity a week.  So much better than not doing anything! 

Exercise in Short Bursts
On days that you have a packed schedule and you know you can’t dedicate a thirty-minute block to exercise, throw in a few short spurts of exercise between meetings.  Short bursts of exercise throughout the day may be as effective as one continuous workout, and those little breaks can be incredibly energizing!  By the end of the day, those short bursts add up to a respectable workout.

Action Item: Doing thirty jumping jacks not only takes less than a minute, but will invigorate you and get your blood flowing. And taking a five-minute walk around the block will get you some fresh air on a day when you would otherwise be basking only in artificial office light.  Lastly, a two-minute stretch break will help alleviate the aches and pains associated with sitting in one spot during a marathon meeting.

Make Your Office your Gym
You don’t even have to leave your office to get meaningful exercise during the workday.  There are a wealth of apps that suggest exercises you can do right in your office.  New apps are coming out all the time, many of them free, so browse around and see what appeals to you.  Even without technology, you can create your own office workout by combining several moves into a ten or fifteen minute sequence.

Action Item: Check out this Washington Post article for suggested exercises that are both office-friendly and effective. Or if your building has an accessible staircase, there’s nothing easier than walking or running up and down the stairs for an incredible cardio and glute workout.

Bottom Line: Squeeze In What you Can, When you Can

As you may have gathered from the suggestions above, you have to get creative and sneak in exercise here and there so you can get moving when your schedule is crazy.  That’s okay!  Whatever exercise you are able to do, whenever you are able to do it, is the best kind of workout for you. Instead of ditching exercise altogether because you can’t keep up your old daily five-mile run, make peace with the type of  physical activity you can accomplish in this phase of your life — and give yourself credit for managing to do it at all.

Need more motivation?  Just ten minutes of exercise each day translates to more than sixty hours of exercise a year.  That’s sixty hours of movement that you wouldn’t have done…if you had decided that ten minutes just wasn’t worth it.

With these tips, you’ll be able to translate your motivation and desire to exercise into reality, no matter how busy you are.  Now stop reading, and get moving!