How to Stay Fit After College
Are you prepared to stay fit after college? The average North American works more than 47 hours a week and sits for an average of 9.3 hours a day. Compare that to the five hours a day that students are sitting and the problem is clear: new grads moving into the workforce need to find ways to stay active.
Brock Armstrong
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How to Stay Fit After College
It’s a challenge to stay fit after college. When I was in college, oh-so-many years ago, I was nearly the most physically active I have ever been. I had free access to a gym and a swimming pool, lunch hour haikedo and fencing classes, and played hockey in the evenings. I was regularly spotted dancing my face off to live music on the weekends. But when I graduated, with a diploma in Digital Arts and Media, I was almost immediately chained to my government-issued desk for 7.25 hours a day. Sure I was “raking in the dough,” but the only muscle I flexed regularly was my mouse finger.
I envied my friends who had chosen outdoor professions or manual labor, but I also knew envy wasn’t going to solve my suddenly sedentary lifestyle. So, after complaining for a few months, I grabbed myself by the sports socks and took matters into my own hands.
Sure, I no longer had an awesomely equipped free gym to visit or unlimited access to a pool. My haikedo friends had gone their separate ways, and if I wanted to keep playing hockey, I would have had to start a team of my own. But that was no excuse to lose all the fitness, hand-eye coordination, agility, flexibility, mobility and general good health that I had accumulated while in college. So, after some wallowing and adjusting to this new life as a work-a-day-grumbler, I put a plan in action.
The Truth About Making Time to Exercise
The average North American works more than 47 hours a week and sits for an average of 9.3 hours a day. Compare that to the five hours a day that students are sitting and the problem is clear: new grads moving into the workforce need to find ways to stay active.
If you do an internet search for “how to make time for exercise,” you will be stunned by the number of articles written on the subject. If you take the time to read a bunch of those articles, as I did in preparation for writing this episode, you will also find that most of those articles say the same thing:
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If you can’t find time to exercise, you are really saying that health and wellness is not a priority for you.
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Nobody is too busy to exercise, it’s just a matter of priorities.
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It’s not about having time to exercise, it’s about making time to exercise.
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Someone busier than you is exercising right now.
Over and over again, with subtle differences, fitness experts say the same thing—you need to make exercise a priority. The message is that there is no magic solution. Prioritizing fitness means making a plan and sticking to it.
As my colleague, Stever Robbins (aka Get-It-Done Guy) wrote in his article Making Time to Exercise: “You can’t delegate it … Make the gym top priority. Really, top priority. It goes on your schedule before any other commitments, even above work, family, and sleep. Only for the gravest emergencies do you cancel. I even shortened vacations so they wouldn’t interfere with my routine.” Does that seem like a bummer? Even if you think Stever’s stance is a little overboard, we can agree that making time for fitness is a good thing.
Here’s the bonus: any movement that raises your heart rate relieves stress and boosts your confidence. Isn’t that something you, my new college graduate, need most at this exciting and pivotal time in your life?
And here’s another advantage. You’re just breaking into the workforce, which can make it easier for you to build exercise into your workday habits right from the beginning. If you wait too long, you risk having to disrupt your routine when you suddenly realize that you can’t climb more than a flight of stairs without getting winded or touch your toes without grunting and groaning.
Figuring out how to build movement into your new work life can be a challenge, but all it takes is a little planning and habit forming. Let’s talk about how to get started.
Where to Start Your Post-College Fitness Plan
First off, I want to remind you that there are Three Categories of Fitness: movement, exercise and training.
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Movement is non-negotiable if you want to be a healthy lifeform on this planet.
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Exercise is what we do to shore up the deficiencies in our daily movement.
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Training is what we do to reach a specific fitness or athletic goal.
So, especially when your time is crunched, it is helpful to make these distinctions and prioritize them in that order: movement, exercise and then, if you have the time and desire, training.
How does this play out? Well, every day you aim to stand, walk and generally move your body as much and as often as possible. Then, a few times per week find some time to address movement patterns that you aren’t able to get in an incidental fashion by exercising. And finally, if you have “run a marathon” or “crush an obstacle course race” on your bucket list, you can add in some dedicated training time.
We’ll talk about the incidental movement aspect later, but for now, in my article called How to Make Time for Exercise, I offered four tips for deciding what workout you should do with the limited minutes you have between meetings and life:
Tip 1 – Choose exercises that move as many body parts as possible.
Choose things like walking lunges, burpees, push-up variations, jumping jacks, and other exercises that use multiple joints. If you want the biggest bang for your buck, focus on full body exercises that incorporate multi-joint movements.
Tip 2 – Choose exercises that move body parts quickly.
Include moves such as medicine ball slams and throws (you can use your largest instruction manual instead of a medicine ball if you like), do lunge jumps, short-hard sprints or if you ride your bike to work (which I highly recommend), do some fast explosive cycling intervals away from each stoplight.
Tip 3 – Choose exercises that you don’t usually do.
If you choose exercises your body is unfamiliar with your body won’t be as efficient at those exercises so they will deliver more of a punch. If you usually do push-ups, try doing more pull-ups, or if you usually choose squats, try plyometric jumps instead. Don’t be afraid to mix it up–it will make your body stronger, more mobile, and it will help sharpen your mental skills, too.
Tip 4 – Make it fun for you and your co-workers.
Invite your cubicle mates to go for a walk, jog, play Frisbee, soccer, shoot hoops or hit a tennis ball around. I bet your fellow employees would enjoy the break. Plus, science has shown that when we have fun while we exercise, it stimulates both our brains and our emotions.
Stay Fit After College: Hurdles to be Prepared For
No Gym
If, like me, you had access to a free gym, pool, or even a discounted membership to a nearby club, you might be dismayed to find that you are now going to have to pay full price. The good news is, you don’t need a gym membership to stay active.
If you are interested in creating your own home gym, you will find some great suggestions in my article called The Best Home Gym Equipment: 7+ Essentials. And if you think that sounds expensive, throw away the idea that your home gym needs to be obtrusive and filled with expensive gear. Instead, start with the bare minimum and work from there.
If you aren’t interested in buying gear, no problem. There are a ton of articles on the Quick and Dirty Tips website outlining how to do Body Weight exercises to stay mobile and fit.
And don’t forget that your commute can be the perfect time to stay active. Take a page from the Happy Commuter studyopens PDF file done by the researchers at McGill University. They surveyed over 3,300 students, staff and faculty about their daily travel times, their comfort, safety, cost, wait times, and even their level of street harassment. Their results lined up like this:
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Participants were happiest when they walked, rode the train, or cycled to work, in that order.
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Participants reported lower satisfaction when they travelled by car, subway or bus, in that order.
Limited Time
During college, you may have had more freedom in your schedule to dedicate time to exercise. But soon (or now), a full-time job will gobble up most of your daylight hours. It’s sad but true. And this is also mostly true for us freelance workers.
So, since that free time is now gone, you will have to work harder to make time for exercise. But keep your eye on the prize. Making time for exercise will boost your mood, give you more energy, and build confidence. Those are all things you need now and will continue to need as you accelerate through your chosen career.
And don’t forget that even if you only have 10 minutes for dedicated exercise, staying as active as possible throughout the day can more than make up for your lack of workout time.
Stuck at a Desk
I was the first guy in my office to get a standing workstation (yes, I am that guy) and 8 years later, I am still standing while I work. But don’t panic, it is not necessary to stand the whole day if you can find a reason, at least once per hour, to get out of your chair and move your body.
When I was working for a big financial firm in downtown Toronto, I made a habit of setting my phone alarm to go off every hour to cue me to do some clandestine pushups, calf raises, squats, jumping jacks, or burpees. I also headed for the stairwell and went up and down a few flights while I planned my next project or prepared for a meeting. I think of these planned bursts of activity as “movement snacks.”
Getting up and raising your heart rate for four minutes, once per hour, will get you the 30 minutes per day that your doctor may eventually start nagging you about if you don’t heed my advice. Plus, those movement snacks can clear your head and get you refocused and energized, which makes you more productive.
When you are not at work, look for opportunities to move around as well.
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Never sit on the bus.
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Always take the stairs.
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If you are on an escalator, treat it like stairs as long as you can do so safely.
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Never sit through a commercial break.
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Lunge to get your laundry out of the dryer.
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Squat to get things out of the oven.
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Do a morning movement routine while you wait for the coffee to brew.
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Ignore what your mom told you and bounce a leg or fidget whenever you can.
This extra movement is called “Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis” or “NEAT” and it all adds up!
Don’t Give Up on Fitness
When you want to stay fit after college, working all day for a living is indeed a hurdle you will have to overcome. But it is worthwhile to tackle the challenge head-on rather than as an afterthought.
If you need some inspiration, find the most positive, energetic and interesting person in your office and ask them what they do outside of work. I can almost guarantee that they have some type of exercise routine, some active hobbies and that they make time for being outdoors.
Simply by virtue of reading this article, you’ve become aware of the potential pitfalls of the office job, especially when it comes to your fitness. As you move into the workforce, and get used to working on someone else’s schedule, you need to take control of the time you do have to fit in the things that matter most. I hope I have made a good case for allocating at least some of that time for extra movement, exercise or maybe even training.
For more grad info, workplace tips, and to join the fitness conversation, head over to Facebook GetFitGuy, twitter getfitguy or BrockArmstrong.com.
Also don’t forget to subscribe to the Get-Fit Guy podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher,Spotify, Google Play or via RSSopens XML file .
If you’re graduating, or you know someone who is, there is a great graduation present that you can enter to win right now. Quick and Dirty Tips is running an exclusive sweepstakes to win an amazing book bundle. It includes books like Jamie Oliver’s cookbook 5 Ingredients, and 50 Rules Kids Won’t Learn in School by Charles J. Sykes. Just think of it as a starter pack for life after college. Enter for your chance to win here. Good luck!
About the Author
Brock Armstrong was the host of the Get-Fit Guy podcast between 2017 and 2021. He is a certified AFLCA Group Fitness Leader with a designation in Portable Equipment, NCCP and CAC Triathlon Coach, and a TnT certified run coach. He is also on the board of advisors for the Primal Health Coach Institute and a guest faculty member of the Human Potential Institute.