My Students’ Blog

Staying in Shape While Becoming an Adult

By Shaun F.

Most people love to stay in shape, although a lot of people don’t have time to workout while working or going to college. Staying in shape is a huge part of physical and mental health. There are many challenges keeping people from staying in shape after they graduate, such as time, motivation, access to resources, and not having the knowledge to fit these strategies into your busy lifestyle.  Encouraging your mindset to view exercise as a daily routine instead of a chore might be a good solution. The goal is to take this and create habits that will follow you for life.

The first challenge is finding time. Coming home from work then taking a shower, eating, and going to bed can be a normal routine for most people. Somewhere in that time or even before you leave for work in the morning you have to find time to workout at home. Think of it as an essential appointment that you must attend. Starting small is good for beginning this new appointment. This way it wont scare you off, not thinking you can do it. When first starting, find 10- 15 minutes every day to do some simple exercises, whether it’s push ups, sit ups, jogging, or even stretching. Once you get a mindset of doing a workout every day, you can step it up to 20-25 minutes a day, doing a little harder workout with a little more intensity. Circuits are great high intensity workouts that can be done with anything. A circuit insists on rotating through a series of workouts exercising various muscles in different groups with little to no rest in between. Finding 150 minutes a week can be very beneficial for health. That’s a little over 20 minutes a day.

“Getting an intense 20 minute workout in a day is super beneficial and can benefit you in the same ways as a longer workout.”- Nayson West

Making sure you get a good workout is all about the amount of sessions you do, the amount of time you spend, and how intense you make it.

Cardio is one of the best ways to stay in shape. This doesn’t mean you’re building muscle, this means you’re burning calories and keeping your body active in a way that you can be ready for anything. Fitness When You Have No Time is a great link to learn more about cardio and easy ways to start doing cardio. When doing cardio it is hard to figure out how much to do to really get a good workout in. Making sure you get a good workout is all about the amount of sessions you do, the amount of time you spend, and how intense you make it. A good way to track the calories you burn is getting an Apple watch or getting a treadmill that tracks it for you. If you don’t have access to those, most phones come stock with a health app. Having your phone in your pocket while doing any cardio will track your calories. There are also a ton of apps that you can download for free that might work a little better for you.  

There are many benefits of doing mini workouts. This consists of those 10-25 minute workouts when you are crunched on time. These mini workouts are overall great for your health. Multiple studies have shown that accumulating exercise in short periods of at least 10 minutes of activity over the course of the day produces similar effects on a range of health-related outcomes.  These workouts are easy to fit into a day. Doing them in the morning, at night, or during your lunch break. By doing these workouts it can help lower blood pressure. Studies found that sticking to an exercise everyday lowers blood pressure more than doing one long workout once a week. Also while doing these short workouts and sticking to a plan reduces stress and builds confidence. Reducing stress is a big part of health because stress keeps your flight system active, which means your body is working harder than it needs to be.

If you are trying to build muscle,  this site talks about using objects such as barbells, bars with weights, or even normal things in your household to get a workout in. Having a short workout while using weights is still a good way to build muscle. You might not build it as fast, but you will still be putting on muscle with the time you have in a day. Rest is also very important for building muscle. Without rest, the muscle fibers you rip while working out won’t have time to heal and get stronger.

Overall consistency  is a key part to staying in shape as an adult. While staying consistent with these little workouts every day, you will be able to lose weight, build stamina, build muscle, and overall become healthier.