How to Find Time to Workout This Summer: 8 Helpful Tips
The American Heart Association recommends getting at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise or 75 minutes of high-intensity exercise each week. But as your schedule gets busier with summer plans, you’re often left wondering: When and how can I fit a workout into my routine?
To help you reap the many benefits of exercise, check out these eight helpful tips for fitting a workout into your busy summer schedule:
Set a Goal (And Keep Track of Your Progress)
It’s easier to prioritize a workout when you have something you’re working toward. By setting a fitness or health goal, your workout becomes more than just another round of boxing in the ring or lifting weights in a Strength class. It’s a step forward in achieving your health and wellness goals.
That way, when things get busy, you have that goal as a reminder of why squeezing a workout into your day is important. Start by identifying your motivation for working out. Are you looking to build confidence, strength, endurance, or some combination of all three?
Then, think about how you want to feel or what you want to achieve by the end of this summer. Is there a fitness or health goal that’s meaningful to you? How can a regular workout routine help you achieve it?
Once you have a goal in mind, use our performance tracking and results to monitor and celebrate your progress. Knowing you’re close to hitting a goal could be that push you need to get back in the ring for another sweat-inducing workout.
2. Schedule Your Workouts
If you struggle to fit exercise into your busy routine, one of the best strategies is to schedule your workouts. Determine where you have time in your day and pencil it in.
Then, treat this calendar hold like you would any other meeting or event. When you have an important meeting on your calendar, you plan around it. If something comes up, you reschedule for a better time. Treat your workouts the exact same way.
Think of it as an important one-on-one meeting between you and your health goals. This gets you into the habit of viewing your workout just like any other hold on your calendar. So when the reminder pops up, you automatically transition to workout mode.
3. Take Advantage of Small Pockets of Time in Your Schedule
When you go to schedule your workout and discover you have zero time, keep in mind that you don’t need a full hour to get in a great workout. Use that 5- or 10-minute window to schedule a short but effective Punch Track or Express Trainer Class.
After all, a ten- or fifteen-minute workout is better than no workout. You’re still experiencing the health benefits of exercise, even if you’re breaking out that exercise into smaller chunks. Whether you do five 15-minute workouts or two hour-long workouts each week, you’re still hitting the goal of 75 minutes of high-intensity exercise.
4. Take Your Workout With You
It’s hard to stick to a regular workout routine when summer is jam-packed with vacations or time visiting friends. But what if you could take your workout with you? Unlike a gym, with Litesport, all you need is your Meta headset (and maybe a set of dumbbells for your Strength workout!). The good news here: Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro, and Meta Quest 3 all weigh just over a pound, making it super easy to pack in your bag and take on the go. That way, when those small pockets of time present themselves, you can squeeze in a quick 20 or 15-minute workout.
5. Embrace the Early-Morning Workout
If you’re still struggling to fit in a workout, it might be time to embrace the morning workout routine. Set your alarm a little earlier than usual, grab a quick bite to eat, and get your workout in before your day even starts.
It might be tough to get out of bed at first, but over time, you might find that you enjoy the routine. For many early morning risers, it’s the best part of their day. Before the kids wake up or your to-do list starts calling your name, it’s built-in “you time” to kickstart your day on a positive note.
But don’t sacrifice sleep to make this work! Make sure you get your full eight hours of sleep by going to bed a bit earlier the night before.
6. Change Into Workout Clothes
When you don’t have much time in your day, sometimes a workout needs to happen on a whim, like when something gets canceled, or you have an unexpected 20 minutes of extra time between meetings. If you’re already in your workout clothes, it's much easier to throw on the headset and press play on a Punch Track, a quick Boxing class, or a Strength workout.
Even if it’s not realistic for you to wear workout clothes all day long, you can still apply this simple trick. For example, bring workout clothes with you to work. At the end of your day, before you head home, change into your workout clothes right at the office. That way, when you get home, you’ll be ready to start your workout and less likely to get derailed by your bed or couch.
Or, if you’re trying to start an early-morning workout routine, wear your workout clothes to bed. This tactic also works if you find yourself procrastinating or debating whether you will work out. Even something as simple as changing into your workout clothes can get you in the right frame of mind to go through with your workout.
7. Get Your Friends Involved
It’s much easier to schedule and stick to your workouts when you have a workout buddy or a motivating community cheering you on. Tell friends or family about your summer fitness goals or invite them to join you. It helps to have that extra layer of accountability to hold you to the goals you set for yourself at the start of the summer. Plus, it’s a lot more fun to work out with friends.
Challenge your friends to beat your high score in a Litesport Match, or motivate each other to finish our 6 Weeks to Fit or another workout program. A little bit of healthy competition can go a long way in making exercise part of the routine.
You can also join our Litesport Facebook community for support, motivation, and guidance along the way. It’s a lot easier to find motivation as a member of a community than on your own.
8. Make It Fun
You understand the importance of a regular workout routine and its role in your physical and mental health. But no matter how important it is for your health, you’re not going to make time for a workout you dread. If you enjoy your workout, you’ll have a much easier time prioritizing your fitness routine.
Having fun while getting in a great workout is a big reason why we started Litesport. Shadowboxing, facing off against a stationary heavy bag, or lifting weights by yourself in the gym can be a very isolating, boring, and repetitive exercise.
At Litesport, we sync interactive VR elements, music, and real-time results to create a unique challenge that—you may not even realize—is designed to keep you coming back. Through our beat-driven VR workouts, challenges, and community, you’ll experience competition and achievement—lighting up the pleasure centers of your brain. In other words, we make your workouts fun. After all, if you leave a workout with a sweaty smile, you’re more likely to schedule another one soon.
The Litesport community is here to support you as you schedule your workouts and make progress toward your summer goals. Sign up for our 7-day free trial and join our Litesport Facebook group today to get access to accountability coaching, boxing form basics, fitness challenges, motivational tips, and more.