Tips on working exercise into a busy schedule

It's three weeks into the new year. You may have made a resolution to improve your health and fitness, but have found that it isn't easy to fit in a workout around your work schedule and family activities.

It would be easy to let your resolution slide, but this year you say it will be different. Various local fitness experts agree that this year can be different. You can fit a workout schedule into your busy day.

Doug Friese, director of Saint Francis Medical Center's Fitness Plus health center says the first thing you should do is see your doctor before beginning any kind of fitness regimen. Then, he says, see a fitness expert and make a plan.

"Look at what your goals are for the year," Friese said. "Let a trainer help with those goals."

Then put your fitness regimen on your calendar.

"Put your training routine on your calendar just like you do with other appointments," he said. "Get a whole plan laid out in black and white before you get started, rather than hit and miss. The next thing you know, you don't have a schedule and you'll start missing. Thirty days later you're discouraged."

Emily Stapleton, owner of Contours Express in Cape Girardeau, agrees.

"Working people are very busy," she said. "If you don't put it on your schedule, you're not likely to get it done. It's also important to find a workout that's concise enough to fit into your busy schedule, something like a 30-minute workout is very effective."

It isn't necessary to set aside an hour a day for exercise. You can get the same benefit by breaking your workout into small segments throughout the day.

"Research has shown that your body will respond to exercise no matter how frequently or how short the duration," said Amy Sutherlin, manager of Southeast Missouri Hospital's HealthPoint Plaza.

"Rather than 30 minutes a day, exercise 15 minutes in the morning and maybe again in the evening," she said. "That's really encouraging news for a lot of people."

Stapleton says some people find it easier to begin their morning with a fitness routine "before anything interferes with getting it done."

Working parents may not find that practical, but they and others might want to consider a midday routine.

"Working professionals will take an hour lunch break, and that's the most wasted hour of the day," she said.

Instead of an hour for lunch, Stapleton suggests taking 30 minutes for a workout and then have a light meal afterward.

Sutherlin suggests people getting into a fitness program combine cardio-vascular activity with weight training for strength. You can either do both during your regular workout, or alternate them.

"Walking is always great," she said. "It's something everybody can do, it's not very painful on the joints, and it increases the heart rate a little bit."

Friese says if you decide that walking is the regimen for you, put it on your schedule. Plan ahead where you will walk, how far and how long you will walk, and what you will do in the event of bad weather.

A fitness plan is like a business plan, Friese said. It needs short-term and long-term goals. Most people know that long term they want to lose a certain number of pounds, or firm up so many inches. It's good, he said, to have short-term goals to encourage you as you reach the bigger goal.

It takes some planning, but eventually it will become a routine that fits into your daily schedule.

"Whether you have a job that's very active or a job sitting at a computer all day, most people who exercise have more energy throughout the day," Stapleton said. "People think they're too busy to exercise, they don't have time. They find they do a better job and are more efficient. They have not lost time; they have gained time."