The Ultimate Guide to Training for Busy Women: Home Workouts and Tips to Stay Fit

Hey loves,

Today’s blog post is the ultimate guide to training for busy women: home workouts and tips to stay fit. In this guide, I will cover the challenges faced with training on a busy schedule and why it is important to look after our fitness.

Furthermore, I will go over how to create an effective workout plan, a nutritional plan and ways to stay motivated for busy women!

Staying fit while being busy can prove to be a challenge. Having responsibilities like work or children can prove to be difficult to overcome when it comes to setting aside time to go to the gym, to cook healthy meals or to even feel inspired to be healthy.

Staying fit, however, is important nonetheless and provides benefits such as a younger more resilient body, healthy inner and outer organs, prevention from disease, lowered body fat and an increase in wellbeing, motivation and positive emotions.

The best thing you can do as a busy woman is carve out time for home workouts. Unlearn any misconceptions about training, remove limiting beliefs about training and having to to go the gym to achieve your dream body.

When it comes to staying fit, the only thing you have to do is be consistent. This is why you should make 10-30 minutes a day just to move your body.

Home workouts can easily be accessed on YouTube, check out my post on the best fitness YouTube accounts for great inspiration and workouts to choose from. I also posted a few workouts later on during the post!

For equipment, you can use your body weight, bands, a mat or dumbbells and a kettlebell.

Without further ado, let us delve into the subject of training for busy women and organize ourselves to become fit despite any of the responsibilities we are currently undertaking.

Why Fitness Matters for Busy Women

Fitness is important on three levels: mental, physical and energetically. The benefits of being fit include health-related, aesthetic and physical benefits that can truly transform our lives.

Physical benefits of exercise include injury and illness prevention, mitochondrial activity increase, improved brain function and dopamine release as well as anti-ageing.

Having muscle on reduces body fat and can literally safeguard and protect our organs from disease.

The mental benefits of exercise include positive emotions and mood, increased clarity, energy and focus, reduction in stress and increased productivity and having a more optimistic outlook in life.

Exercise also leads to better sleep.

These benefits can be enjoyed with any type of physical exercise, it doesn’t require 2 hours and it isn’t dependent on having access to a gym or Pilates studio.

Overcoming Common Barriers to Fitness

Lack of time:

You can work out before work early in the morning or during your child’s nap times. You can set aside time during your lunch break to do some squats or walk around your office space/stairs.

You can set aside time to go to the gym after work or take a walk/go do some yoga or Pilates. You have a myriad of home workouts that you can perform from the comfort of your own home.

Lack of motivation:

Motivation is not the most important thing when it comes to achieving your goals. Discipline and consistency are way more important requirements for success.

You can set small and realistic goals that can help you build momentum, you can also find a workout partner or fitness community (in real life or online) that can help hold you accountable.

Social media is a great tool for that as people can directly interact with pictures or videos of you reaching your goals!

Limited space/equipment:

You do not need a gym, a lot of equipment or a large space in order to successfully get fit. You can use a small space and just use your body weight as long as you are consistent in doing so.

Burnout:

Burn out is a normal part of any endeavor, that is why rest days and recovery is crucial for any athlete. Women in particular need to reset their feminine energies otherwise their bodies will quite literally shut down and become more prone to illness and disorders.

A good way to reconnect to your feminine energy is to meditate on it, connect and reset your softness to its baseline.

Masculine energy is “go, go, go” and depletes itself after being active whereas the feminine energy is screaming “just be!” if you truly listen to it.

At the end of the day, fitness is about being consistent over being perfect or intense so make sure to prioritize your consistency with adequate rest and recovery periods.

Creating a Quick and Effective Workout Plan

How to structure a workout week:

You can choose to perform full body, body split or push-pull as a template for your fitness workouts. You can also follow some of the workouts below!

Being at home should not prevent you from following a program that you actually enjoy.

Train for at least 3 times a week for optimal fitness. You can go up to 5-6 workouts but make sure to take a small rest day for yourself.

You can choose to work out 4 times a week in the morning before work for example.

Workout duration:

Any workout is better than a missed workout so try to train for a minimum of 10 minutes. Aim for 20-30 minutes if you are busy and 45 minutes to an hour if you have more time.

It is not about the duration but the intensity of the workout that matters.

Types of exercises to focus on:

  Full-body strength training  

  Cardio intervals  

  Core and flexibility exercises  

Setting realistic goals:

You want to set goals that are achievable so getting two hours in at the gym every day if you are a busy professional is not very likely.

Instead, aim to train at least 20 minutes (either broken down into two short sessions) 4 times a week and stick to that!

Home Workout Routines for Busy Women

Bodyweight Workouts:

Here are four sample workouts that you can perform form the comfort of your own home! You do not need any equipment to do them, you can simply use your body weight or light weights (if you have them).

 Full-Body Circuit:

Perform 4 sets of 20 repetitions of each:

Push-ups

Squats

Planks

Lunges

Take a 30-45 second rest in between sets if needed.

 HIIT Workout:

30 seconds on/30 seconds off for the following exercises:

Jump squats

High knees

Mountain climbers

Burpees

Repeat 3-4 times. Take a 1 minute rest in between circuits if needed.

 Core Focused Routine:

Perform 4 sets of 20 repetitions of each:

Planks

Russian twists

Leg raises

Bicycle crunches

Take a 30-45 second rest in between circuits if needed.

Strength Training (using household items):

Perform 4 sets of 20 repetitions of each:

Squats with a backpack

Lunges with a water bottle in hand

Tricep dips using a chair

Take a 30-45 second rest in between circuits if needed.

Suggestions for rest days:

Active rest days with yoga, stretching, or light walking.  

Quick Workouts for Super Busy Days:

Try any of these 10 minute workouts:

Nutrition and Wellness Tips for Busy Women

You want to emphasize eating protein and Whole Foods. Aim to reduce processed foods, alcohol and sugar despite having a stressful and busy lifestyle.

Bring protein-packed snacks like bars, shakes or nuts to work. Get a smoothie, healthy sandwich or salad even if it is more pricey/less convenient.

Hydration, sleep and stress reduction are of the utmost importance when it comes to staying in shape.

Perform mindfulness exercises, meditation, a nice skin and hair care routine and bubble baths/facials to reduce burn out.

Staying Motivated and Consistent

Tracking progress:

You can stay motivated and consistent by journaling or using fitness apps to track your workouts and progress.  

Write down your PR’s for your lifts at the gym, measure yourself and your body fat and keep track!

Find a workout routine that you enjoy:

Experiment with different types of exercise to discover what makes you feel good.  

Community and support:

Join online communities or social media groups to stay motivated. You can also start a fitness Instagram and TikTok dedicated purely to your fitness journey!

Celebrating small wins:

Remember that it is consistency, not perfection, that is the key to long-term success.

In conclusion, staying fit and healthy while being busy is definitely possible. From prioritizing your exercise time and carving out small moments to train to eating as healthy as possible, the right choices every day can add up to give you your best body!

I hope that you enjoyed this blog post on The Ultimate Guide to Training for Busy Women: Home Workouts and Tips to Stay Fit, please let me know what you thought about it in the comments section below!