186: 7 Ways To Fit Health & Fitness Into Your Routine—No Matter How Busy You Are with Ted Ryce

My Story

Hi. My name is Ted and I’m a recovering fitness junkie.

If you’ve been listening to Legendary Life for a while, then you know that fitness is how I overcame some terrible personal tragedies and got my life back.

It also gave me an opportunity to help others to change their health, body and life.
I was so passionate about it that I spent hours in the gym almost everyday. Sure, some of that time was spent training clients. But before and after training my clients, I would workout myself. Sometimes 2 time per day.

I even did this ridiculous workout 9-hour workout in the gym trying to increase the size of my arms in one day. (By the way, it didn’t work but I wanted to link to it so you know I’m not bullshitting you.)

That was the freedom I had in those days.

I was in my early 20s and my biggest concern was whether I was eating enough protein and whether I was getting the attention of the beautiful women I saw around Miami Beach.
However, I started to realize that spending all my time working out (and chasing women in the clubs) wasn’t leading to the type of career success I wanted. That’s when I knew I had to take a different approach.

New Job And New Responsibilities

You’ve probably heard me say that I train CEOs of multimillion-dollar companies and other busy professionals. And it’s true.

What is also true is that I’ve learned as much from them about what creates a successful business as they have from me about health & fitness. The talks I’ve had with my clients in between sets have been priceless.

One of the biggest lessons I learned was that it takes as much time and effort to build a successful business as it take to build a successful physique.

That’s when I started to restructure my workouts to be more efficient with my time. After all, there is an opportunity cost for everything we do. Make sure that cost is worth it!

It also helped that I wasn’t allowed to workout in my client’s gym anymore because of an argument that another trainer got into with a resident. They banned all trainers from working out there.

Not too long after that, I was in a car accident and herniated 3 cervical discs in my neck. So heavy deadlifts and squats were now out of the question as they aggravated my radiculopathy (i.e. that numbness and tingling you feel when you have compression on your nerve from a disc).

That’s when I decided to only do workouts at home.

I was determined to find the best methods for boosting strength, building muscle and burning fat—all in the comfort of my own home.

Since then, I’ve been able to build back my strength and muscle (with the help of about a year of physical therapy on my neck) after being banned from the gym and suffering a massive neck injury.

Today, I want to share with you how I coach people who don’t have the time to drive to and from the gym but still want to get in great shape.

In fact, this is what I do with my Online Fitness Coaching Program. I have member fill out a questionnaire and I match (or modify) a workout to fit their goals and time frame for exercise.

Check out a few testimonials…

Lisa is down 6lbs:

Goyo is noticing his that his muscles are beginning to show:

Not bad for only 5 weeks into the program, huh?!

You’re about to learn my 7 top strategies to get fit in 30 minutes a day (or less) even if you’re super busy.

1-Workout At Home

There’s no need to drive 30 minutes to the gym, workout for an hour, then spend 30 minutes driving back. That’s 2 hours of your time just to get an hour-long workout.

(And that’s not even including the time it takes to eat, shower and get dressed.)

Of course, you’ll have to learn effective bodyweight exercises and you’ll have to invest in some equipment for optimal results. But that’s a small price to pay for the time you’ll get back in return. And you’ll be on the road less often. If you live in a city with a lot of congested traffic like I do, then you’ll appreciate the reduction in stress as well.

Working out at home is my single most effective tip I can give you for cutting out your workout time to a minimum.

2-Keep Workouts to 30 Minutes or Less

You will most likely get better and faster results with a longer (45-90 minutes) workout, but it’s not necessary. Especially if you just don’t have an hour or more to workout because of your busy schedule.

By keeping your workouts to 30 minutes or less, you’ll be more likely to stick with them—especially if you’re one of those time-conscious people.

The question becomes: what should I do to get an effective workout in a 30-minute time frame?

Next, we’ll discuss two very effective methods for getting the most bang for your buck with short workouts. You’ll have two methods to choose from and a sample workout for each.

3-Use Time-Efficient Workout Methods

In this section, we’ll go over two of my favorite methods for getting in shape in 30 minutes or less. I’ve even modified these workouts to fit the home-based, bodyweight model I’ve proposed to you. The only piece of equipment you’ll need is a pair of gymnastic rings and a place to hang them. (I also recommend a pull up bar, dip station and a weight vest to spice up your home bodyweight workouts.)

Circuit Training

Circuit training is just simply putting together a series exercises and performing them without rest until you get to the end.

Here’s a sample home-based Circuit routine that requires minimal equipment:

1. Ring Rows 15 reps
2. Push Ups 15 reps
3. Reverse Lunges 15 reps
4. V Crunches 15 reps
5. Side Plank Holds 30-second holds each side

Circuit Training Tips:

• Complete exercises 1-5 with no (or minimal) rest
• Rest 2-3 minutes after completing one full circuit
• Repeat this 3-5 times. (You can even repeat this circuit as many times as you can in your allotted workout time. For example, if you have 45 minutes to workout, then repeat this as many times as you can in 45 minutes. Of course, listen to your body and stop if you feel dizzy, light headed or pain of any type.
• Do this 3 times per week for best results.

Density Training

Density training is an effective method developed by my friend and Strength Coach Charles Staley. It’s an interesting way of structuring your workouts to get a lot done in a specific amount of time.

For example, let’s say that you have 30 minutes 3 times per week to workout. And you want to spend those 30 minutes wisely to get the most benefit from your exercise.

This is different from circuit training because you’ll have less rest between exercises. It will be a much stronger stimulus because of this reason.

Density Training is fairly straightforward—although there are many ways to do it. This variation is based on minimal equipment home workouts with a 30-minute time frame.

Here are the rules for this version:

• Each workout consists of two 10-minute time frames separated by a 3-5 minute rest period. In each 10-minute segment, you’ll perform two exercises, for a total of 4 exercises per workout.
• In each 10-minute segment, the two exercises are performed in alternating fashion, back and forth, until your 10 minutes are up.
• Take 5 minutes to warm up your body to prepare for the workout ahead.

Here’s what a sample Density Training workout would look like using the exercise from the circuit training routine and with a 20-minute time frame:

First 10 Minutes

1. Push Ups 10 reps
2. Reverse lunges 6 reps each leg

Second 10 Minutes

1. Ring Rows 10 reps
2. V crunches 10 reps

Density Training Tips:

• After your warm up, set a timer for 10 minutes.
• Start you’re your workout by alternating between each exercise
• Don’t go to failure early in the 10-minute time frame. Take your time to start getting a gauge on how much rest you need to keep up a pace for the 10 minutes.
• As you begin to fatigue, drop the number of reps in each set as necessary to continue exercising for the entire 10 minute time period.
• When your timer hits 10 minutes, stop immediately. Rest for 3-5 minutes then start the second 10-minute workout.

4-Eat Well, Sleep Well And Manage Your Stress

To get the most out of your workouts you’ll also need to focus on eating well, sleeping well and managing your stress.

To learn how to optimize your nutrition, make sure you read my article on The Ultimate Diet For Building Muscle And Improving Health.

To learn how to sleep better, check out my episode on 5 Reasons Sleep Deprivation is Killing Your Success. Also listen to my interviews with sleep expert Shawn Stevenson, former Navy SEAL turned sleep doctor Kirk Parsley and MIT neuroscientist Dr. Tara Swart to learn more about the importance of sleep and how to get the best sleep possible.

To learn how to manage your stress like a Zen Buddhist monk listen to my episode on 11 Ways To Relieve Stress That You Can start Today.

5-Make A Schedule And Commit To It

Now that you’re armed with how to get in shape in 30 minutes or less in the comfort of your own home, I want you to make a schedule and commit to it!

If you can do three days, then commit to 3 days and put it in your calendar.

If you can commit to 2 days, then do 2 days. (And also put it in your calendar.)

6-Track Your Activity Levels

It’s not enough just to hit a few workouts a week. You must move more or the risk of certain diseases like obesity, arthritis, and more goes up.

What we suggest to all our Online Fitness Coaching Group members to purchase a wearable device like a Fitbit to track their steps to make sure that they’re getting up and moving enough. I want to recommend that to you as well.

Too many people think that going to the gym a few hours a week is all the movement they need to do. It’s not. You must get up from your chair regularly and find ways to get more activity into your daily life.

Doing things like walking meetings, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, playing with your kids and more all serve to get in the activity outside the gym to make sure you’re the healthiest you can be so you can live the Legendary Life I talk about on the podcast.

7-Choose Something Over Nothing

At the end of the day, it’s not about following the perfect routine. It’s about what you can commit to doing. So many people are under the false assumption that if they don’t put on their exercise clothes and matching sneakers to hit the gym for an hour that it’s not even worth doing.

This line of thinking couldn’t be farther from the truth. You can make progress by working out for 5 minutes a day. It won’t be optimal, but it’s enough to help you build the habit. And that’s what matters most: building the habit of exercising consistently.

So make the choice to do something over nothing. You just might find that this small step will lead to monumental changes in your health, body and mindset.

Next Step: Get Started

I’ve given you several tools to get a workout in with minimal time. You can even take the workouts I’ve shared with you and do them in a 15 or 20-minute time frame. It’s up to you to decide what fits your busy schedule and life.

However, if you’d like some direction and guidance in getting started, I’m happy to help.

In fact, we’ll soon be taking a group of new clients looking for the same thing, all as part of the Legendary Life Online Fitness Coaching Group.

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