I started thinking about real life workouts today because my morning kind of went like this:

I got up and had breakfast and realized while drinking my second cup of tea that I had somehow forgotten that this was a day when my teaching started at 8 AM, not 9 AM. No worries because it was only 7:35 AM BUT I had planned to get some significant workout time into my morning. (Note: if my time really hadn’t worked to do a workout, at least I would have had my morning yoga plus some rolling out while having breakfast because I have built in non-negotiable movement time every morning.)

So, it’s 7:35 and I still need to finish my tea, get dressed, set up my teaching area…I also want to get the potted plants watered before it starts heating up….um, plus a workout…that equals more time than I have. :)

Shrug It’s not a problem because I believe in splitting up my workouts. (Another note to mention that the following description is not meant to imply that everyone should fill every spare moment with some kind of workout! This is an illustration of how you can use spare time to get some semblance of the workout you wanted and planned for, but didn’t achieve.)

In this case, I finished my tea, got dressed, and set up my area. Then I did a quick 5 minute cardio set, one set of shoulder shrugs on my pull-up bar, and a quick set of handstand work on my feet-up trainer.

I knew I didn’t have time to jump rope but I set out my socks, shoes, and jumprope to be ready.

Between classes I have a 10-minute break. In that first break I threw my shoes on and jumped rope in the backyard. While I was out there, I watered the pots.

I taught another class and did another set of stuff on the pull-up bar before my next class.

When I finished teaching for the morning, I took a long walk with my partner to run errands.

The day’s not over and I’ll probably do one more thing later on—maybe another walk, maybe some handstand training.

Is it the ideal workout, the workout I had imagined I would do when I was planning my day?

No.

But look at everything I DID do! It wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t an hour of focused time. It didn’t hit all my target areas or build in intensity from a warmup through to a lovely cool down. It didn’t give me that wonderful time in the zone where I didn’t have to think about anything else. But it was more than nothing, and it got me moving multiple times during the day, and it got me outside even though I had hours of time on Zoom.

I know I’ve said this before but I still have people ask me about it: It all counts. Every tiny little thing you manage to throw into your day counts. No, you don’t always have to warm up and cool down as long as you know what your body will tolerate. No, you don’t have to do it for a certain amount of time for it to have an affect.

So when your plans go awry, when your class is cancelled, when your schedule is on hold because your kids get sick, fit in what you can. You’re allowed to adjust to your situation. You will feel so much more in control of your day and of your life when you take a situation that spins out of control (because that’s life) and are realistic about what will work for you in that moment.

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