#1 Most common reason not to exercise - Not enough time.

I want to start this post with a disclaimer. It is a personal philosophy of mine that everyone has the right and free-will to choose to spend their time however they want. The purpose of this post is not to convince or coerce you to spend your time otherwise, the purpose is merely to reflect and perceive a situation from different view points. If you don't have the time to exercise or you do not exercise, that is your given right and I am not the almighty to challenge that.

The scenario that I want you to consider is the most common reason that people have for not exercising - "not enough time". I believe that this is a symptom of our society as much as it is a symptom of someones life circumstances. Unreasonable work demands, family and relationship commitments, poor public transport, high housing costs causing people to live far from work, traffic congestion increasing commuting time, etc.

Regardless of the circumstances as to why a person does not have enough time to exercise, my concern with this scenario is not that you may not have time to exercise. My concern is that in your mind and when explaining your reasons to other people, you are forfeiting control of your life and to things outside of yourself.

Consider another way to view the scenario. It is not that you don't have enough time to exercise, it is that you have chosen other priorities in life to be more important than exercise, and therefor you have not given yourself time to exercise. Rather than blaming external factors on why you don't have enough time to exercise (i.e. "I have no ability to change that"), accept that its a choice that you have made and as a result you have not put the effort in to make the time. The significant distinction is whether in your mind you have control over the situation or not.

The second scenario requires some honest self-reflection. No one is perfect, and no one has a perfectly balanced life doing all of the things they think they should. Everyone has the right to choose how they want to live their lives even if elements of it are self-sabotaging (i.e. not exercising and gaining excess weight).

If you identify with this reason not to exercise, what I would like you to do is consider the fundamental difference between these two perspectives and have the courage to self-reflect. If you choose to take the second view of acceptance of your current priorities, then that is a small step in a good direction. You can take back control over your choices about how you choose to spend your time, you can stop beating yourself up over not looking after yourself as much as you would like, and you can stop resenting other people and other things for stealing your time.

The same goes if your friend or family member is in this scenario (and I bet that many are). Help them to make this distinction and move one step forward in a good direction, and never try to put them down over their personal choices.

At the end of the day if you decide that it is important enough for you exercise regularly then you will put the effort in to make it work. It might be inconvenient, it might require change, it may mean an early start, and it might mean negotiating with other people, but you will make it work if you choose to. This is also your choice, one for you to make and not for anyone else.

I hope that sparked some thought...



Practical tip: Beneficial and lasting change does not happen from beating yourself over the head with a stick (blame, "should", "must", "have to"). Nor does it come from someone trying to coerce with similar tactics. Lasting change usually happens from honest self-reflection. Change will happen IF and WHEN the person chooses to change.

If you do choose to put exercise at a higher priority then it often helps to be creative with what type of exercise and how you can make it easiest to stick to. Indoor, outdoor, alone, with others, individual sport, team sport, recreation, relaxing, exhilarating, muscle focused, endurance focused, experiment and make your choice. The principles of the human body stay the same, the type of exercise can change.


Alex Budlevskis
Exercise Physiologist
Rozelle Total Health