Being a college student can be difficult on a plethora of various levels. Whether it be a full time student who it taking 19 credits, working 2 jobs, getting little sleep, trying to find a close parking spot, death by PowerPoint, whatever it is one thing is for certain that never fails- Your excuses! This is especially true when it comes to your health and claiming you don’t have the time to work out. Performing in cardiovascular exercise has several benefits including but not limited to:
· Improved mood
· Stress relief
· Blood flow to deliver nutrients to your muscles and oxygenate your brain
· Increase lung capacity
· Sleep better
· Distraction
Did you know that you can perform a cardiovascular exercise with as little as 20 minutes? If you can be on social media for 20 minutes, you can surely put your body to work and give those thumbs a rest. In this article, I’m going to briefly describe how you can take a small amount of time out of your busy schedule to improve your lifestyle. Maybe you’re still thinking that you still don’t have enough time in the day to workout. You go to school Monday through Friday, work full time on the weekends and even during the week, and somehow you need to find time to do your homework and study. Sure, fair enough. But here are some tips you can use do in order to get a workout in in 20 minutes or less.
· Set timers while you’re studying. It’s pretty easy to get lost in studying, especially when it comes to studying for an exam. So what you can do is fit a workout in while you’re studying. For example: Study for one hour, workout for 20 minutes, feel great and refreshed, and get back at it. You’ll notice right away you’ll have more energy.
· Study at the gym! Hop on a cardio machine and study your notes while you’re working your brain at the same time. It’s a two for one special!
· Wake up 20 minutes earlier than you normally do. Self-explanatory and may be difficult if you’re not a morning person, but is something that can be easily accomplished.
· Write down your goal and stick to it. If you tell your self, or even better, someone else, that you’re going to workout after your morning class, you have now committed to your self and that other person that you are going to do something. Don’t let your self or them down!
As a college student, it’s critical that we plan things on when we are going to do them. You know you have an exam Tuesday morning so you plan to get some last minute studying in the night before. Or maybe you don’t and just hope for the best. But let’s not focus on that. Let’s focus on something you can plan to commit your self to. On average, it takes roughly 3 weeks in order to form a habit. If you can commit your self to working out 3-5 times a week, you’re already moving in the right direction. Here’s why this is beneficial. According to a study done in Australia, a group of students were put through an 8 week High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) course. These interval times lasted anywhere from 8-12 minutes, 3 times a week. After completion of these 8 weeks, students saw an increase in their cardio-respiratory fitness and muscular fitness levels, decrease in body composition, and decreased stress and anxiety levels. So, before the next time you think you don’t have time to workout, think about how your health is involved and if someone can perform a workout in 8 minutes and get positive results, you can too!
References
Eather, N., Riley, N., Miller, A., Smith, V., Poole, A., Vincze, L., . . . Lubans, D. R. (2019). Efficacy and feasibility of HIIT training for university students: The uni-HIIT RCT. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 22(5), 596-601. doi:10.1016/j.jsams.2018.11.016