Ep 92 | No Time to Work Out? Here’s What To Do This Instead of Skipping

Trainer Tips

Jul 1

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If you've ever found yourself staring down a packed schedule and thinking, "There's no way I have 45 minutes for a workout today," you're not alone. It's one of the most common struggles I hear from my coaching clients—and it's completely understandable. Life gets busy. Work piles up, kids need attention, and suddenly that consecutive block of gym time you used to have just isn't there anymore.

Here's the thing though: a busy schedule doesn't mean you have to skip your workout entirely. In fact, I'd argue that breaking your workout into smaller chunks—even if you don't finish the whole thing—is far better than skipping it altogether.

Jayd (00:00):
It happens with my clients all the time where they're like, "I'm so busy with work and with kids and with other things that are happening. I don't have a consecutive 45 minute block to devote to my workouts." And this can be really challenging. And so sometimes it's like my clients will be tempted to just skip completely skip their workouts. You don't necessarily have to do your whole workout all at once. And honestly, if you're in a season where it's really busy and it's a matter of you either are going to skip your workout entirely or break it up in chunks, I'd rather you break it up in chunks and then maybe not even do the whole workout. I'd say that's better than skipping all together. So just because you have those things happening, a busy schedule doesn't mean that you can't get your workouts in.
(01:03)
Hey there. Welcome to the Coaching Corner Podcast. I'm Jayd Harrison. I've been a personal trainer for over 10 years and I've created this podcast to share with you tips and strategies to build a body that you love without shame and without burnout. In today's episode, I'm sharing some of the tips that I've given to my personal training clients to help them to get their workouts in on busy days when they don't have a lot of time to work out. So I'm going to share with you how to break up your workouts in the most effective way to keep making gains. Now before we get into the episode, make sure to like this video if you're watching it on YouTube and to subscribe to my channel so you always get the latest episodes when they drop. And if you are listening to this podcast episode, thank you so much.
(01:45)
Make sure that you follow the show. And keep in mind that I am accepting new clients into my new online personal training programs. So if you are looking for a personal trainer who can keep you accountable and keep you moving towards your goals, apply to work with me using the link that's in the show notes or in the video description below. And without further ado, let's get into the episode.
(02:10)
If you're going through something that's like making it hard for you to devote a big chunk of time to going to the gym or getting a workout in, you don't necessarily have to fully skip your workout. You can still do something. Remember, something is better than nothing. And if you have a tendency to have like a perfectionist mindset where you're like, "I got to do everything and I have to do it perfectly or I'm not going to do it at all, " then that's something you need to work on. That's a mindset shift that you need to make because that type of mindset is not going to serve you in the gym, in your fitness or in your life. Okay? So you need to start adopting the mindset of something is better than nothing because any little thing that you do to improve your health is going to move the needle.
(02:51)
May not move it as much as you want, but it's still going to move it. And to me, that's a win. So here are a couple of things that you can do instead of fully skipping your workout when you're really, really busy. You don't have to do a whole 45 to 60 minute block of a workout. One thing you could do is just the warmup. This is a great one to do if you just have a little bit of time and you don't want to get too sweaty, like maybe you have a meeting or something later on, just do the warmup. For me, the way that I assign my workouts for my clients is the warmup is always five to 10 minutes of some kind of steady state, moderate intensity cardio. So walking on a treadmill or hopping on the rowing machine, using a cardio machine, something like that.
(03:36)
And then a series of five to 10 minutes of dynamic stretches where you take all of your joints and take them through their full range of motion with little to no resistance. So these are things like leg kicks side to side and forward and back, torso twists, open and clos, where you're just dynamically stretching the muscles to get blood flow there and to stretch them out and to activate them. The warmup can be anywhere between five and 15 minutes depending on how long you're spending on each part and then some foam rolling as well, mobility training to work on whatever your weak points are in your mobility. All of these are good ways for you to get some blood flow, increase the endorphins in your body and it's something, right? Getting your heart rate up. And you might actually find that when you go from doing your warmup, you actually feel energized and motivated to get back to work or get back to whatever it was that you're doing and you actually feel better and you feel like you have more energy.
(04:36)
So especially on those days when you're like really tired, if all you can do is the warmup, five to 10 minutes of moderate intensity cardio, some stretches, mobility, that's a win and that's still going to do your body good. And sometimes you might find that for those days where you're really tired, you don't want to work out and 45 to 60 minutes feels like it's just like too much and it's overwhelming. If you tell yourself, "I'm just going to do the warmup," you might find that when you do the warmup after you finished all of your stretches and mobility work, you may be like, "Okay, now I feel better. I feel like I'm ready to tackle the rest of the workout." And that's okay, but telling yourself that you're allowed to just do the warmup can go a long way. Number two, another thing that you can do if you don't have time to do your whole workout, just do a partial workout.
(05:23)
It's fine if you don't do all of the exercises. The way that my workouts are structured that I give my clients is it's like the warmup, priming, all of that. And then the actual challenge portion of the workout is usually organized itself into chunks that focus on different parts of the body. And they're also organized by the more complex compound exercises are usually at the beginning of the challenge sequence because that's when your body and your brain are fresh. So you're able to execute squats and deadlifts and other complicated exercises better and with a lower risk of injury. So those are going to be like in the beginning usually. Or if you're doing like a body sculpt program and you have like a body part split, a lot of times I will organize the workout so that the exercises that hit the same muscle group will be bunched together.
(06:14)
So if you're going to be doing a partial workout, then I mean, that's totally fine. Just make sure, especially if you're training for hypertrophy, that you are keeping exercises that hit the same muscle group together. So if you have a total body workout, for example, in different parts of your program have you hit legs and then you hit chest and then you hit core, right? Make sure that you're doing all of the leg exercises together, do all the chest exercises together, do the core exercises together, which each sequence can be between five and 10 minutes, which might be all you have time for. And the reason for that is because one, when I put the exercises together, the idea is that you're accumulating fatigue in the target muscle, right? So the goal is that if you have multiple exercises that hit the quadriceps, for example, like squats, then lunges and then leg extensions, those are meant to be done together so that by the time you finish your leg extensions, your quads are as fatigued as they need to be in order to grow and get stronger.
(07:17)
So you want to keep them together because they all together work together. So you don't want to be doing just like squats and then some pushups and then call it a day. You want to put your leg stuff together, squats, lunges, leg extensions. And then later when you have another chunk of time, do your chest stuff, your pushups, your chest flies, your planks, do those together. And it's totally fine if all you can do is a partial workout that works. A lot of my clients do partial workouts and they chunk their workouts up like that throughout the day and by the end of the day, they're able to hit complete on the workout and they've done the whole thing, but they split it up into chunks and that works. But then there are also going to be days where you can't do the whole workout.
(07:58)
Maybe you're tired or maybe you're short on time. In that case, just do the warmup and do the first handful of exercises that are in the challenge sequence because those are often the ones that are the most important. Those are usually going to be your compound exercises, your coordination exercises, your balance training exercises, your technique exercises. You're going to get the most bang for your buck from those anyway because they involve so many more muscles at the same time and they help with your coordination and your mind muscle connection. So you might sometimes have to call it after doing the first couple of exercises after the warmup, hit save on the workout and that's fine. Sometimes that has to happen often enough that we realize maybe this workout is too long. That happens because the workouts that appear at the end of the workout are often the isolation-based exercises to finish off whatever muscles we've been working.
(08:49)
But if you're feeling really cooked after you do a bunch of squats and you're like, "Man, I just don't have any energy for leg extension." And that's something that happens consistently. It may be that you don't really need, maybe you don't need to do the leg extensions. Maybe the workout is too long, maybe it's too much. So sometimes that's the case. Those are my suggestions for if you're consistently having trouble getting the whole workout in, especially if you're doing one of my programs, you could totally break it up. You can totally do partial workouts and especially if you're one of my clients, communicate that stuff to me. You can leave comments in your workouts to let me know whether it's feel like it's taking too long or maybe you feel like this is just too much or you're like, "Well, today I had to skip X, Y, Z." Just remember, keep the body part stuff together.
(09:36)
So leg stuff with leg stuff, upper body with upper body stuff. This is another reason why it's a good idea for you to know your muscle groups so you know what the target muscle group is for each exercise. That allows you to make better decisions about how to break your workouts up, but also know that I usually bunch the exercises that need to be done together together anyway. But the bottom line is doing something is better than doing nothing. I would so much rather you do something to get your body moving because your health is the most important thing. I mean, your gains, that's why we're here, of course. We want to build muscle, we want to burn fat. But underneath that, the most important thing is that you're moving your body to keep it healthy. So even if all you do is the warmup or even if you just do partial part of the workout, I'm happy with that.
(10:22)
You're not disappointing me. You're not making me mad as your trainer.You're doing what you can and some days that's all you got. As long as you're meeting yourself where you are and challenging yourself where you are, that's what matters and that's what's going to move the needle in the long run. And doing this partial approach or this chunked approach is really important because it can help you to stay consistent. It's a lot easier to get back on track with your full workouts if you have been consistently doing these like chunked workouts or partial workouts, because it helps you to get a sense of momentum. Whereas if you start skipping your workouts and you get into the habit of skipping your workouts, it can be weeks sometimes can go by before you get back on track and it just gets harder and harder to restart when you take a big break like that because your habits are sticky.
(11:12)
So if you can keep the momentum going by just doing like partial workouts like this or chunking them up, then once you get to a place where you're in more control of your time or you have those chunks of time where you can dedicate 45 to 60 minutes to a full workout, it's just going to be so, so, so much easier for you to do that versus starting from zero again.
(11:39)
Thank you so much for watching or listening to this episode of The Coaching Corner Podcast. Again, I'm Jayd Harrison. I'd love to have you come work with me in my online personal training program. If you are interested in working with someone who can keep you accountable, give you the structure and the plan that you need to reach your fitness goals, apply for online coaching using the link that is in the video description below or in the show notes. I'll see you in the next episode. In the meantime, make sure that you're taking good care of yourself. Drink water, eat your veggies, eat your protein, and I will see you soon.

Drop the All-or-Nothing Mindset

If you tend toward perfectionism in the gym ("I have to do the entire workout perfectly or it doesn't count"), that mindset is working against you. It doesn't serve you in fitness, and honestly, it doesn't serve you in life either.

Instead, adopt this simple rule: something is better than nothing. Any movement you do to support your health moves the needle, even if it's not as much as you'd like. That's still a win.

So when time is tight, here are a few ways to keep making progress without doing your full workout.

Option 1: Just Do the Warmup

If you're short on time or don't want to get too sweaty before a meeting, doing just the warmup is a completely legitimate workout on its own. A proper warmup typically includes five to ten minutes of steady-state, moderate-intensity cardio (think treadmill walking or the rowing machine), followed by five to ten minutes of dynamic stretches that take your joints through their full range of motion—leg kicks, torso twists, and similar movements.

Add in some foam rolling or mobility work targeting your weak points, and you've got a warmup that runs anywhere from five to fifteen minutes. This alone gets blood flowing, boosts endorphins, and raises your heart rate.

Here's a bonus: on days when you're dragging and a full workout feels overwhelming, telling yourself "I'll just do the warmup" can be a game-changer. Often, once you finish stretching and moving, you'll find you actually have the energy to keep going. And if you don't? That's fine too. The warmup alone still counts.

Option 2: Do a Partial Workout

You don't have to complete every exercise in a session for it to count. The key is understanding how your workout is structured so you can break it up strategically.

In most of my programs, exercises are grouped by muscle group, and the more complex compound movements (squats, deadlifts) come first—when your body and brain are freshest and best equipped to handle them safely. From there, exercises targeting the same muscle group are usually clustered together.

If you need to split your workout into chunks throughout the day, keep muscle groups together. Do all your leg exercises in one chunk, then your chest exercises in another, then core in a third. Each chunk might only take five to ten minutes, which makes it much easier to slot into a busy day.

Why does this matter? Because the goal is accumulating fatigue in a target muscle. If your leg sequence is squats, lunges, and leg extensions, those exercises are designed to build on each other so your quads are sufficiently fatigued by the end to stimulate growth. Splitting that sequence apart—say, doing squats and then jumping to pushups—undermines that effect. Keep muscle groups together, even if you're tackling them at different points in the day.

Plenty of clients do exactly this: chunking their workout into pieces and completing it bit by bit until, by the end of the day, they've done the whole thing.

Option 3: Prioritize the First Few Exercises

Some days, even a partial workout in pieces isn't realistic. On those days, do the warmup plus the first handful of exercises in your challenge sequence—usually the compound, coordination, and balance-focused movements. These give you the most return on your time because they engage multiple muscle groups simultaneously and reinforce mind-muscle connection.

It's okay to save your workout after just a couple of exercises. If this becomes a regular pattern, it might actually be useful feedback: maybe the workout itself is too long, or maybe the isolation exercises at the end (often there to finish off a muscle group) aren't essential for you right now.

The Bigger Picture: Consistency Over Perfection

If you're one of my clients, I genuinely want to hear about this. Leave comments on your workouts letting me know if a session is running long or feeling like too much—that feedback helps me adjust your programming.

But the larger point applies to everyone: doing something is always better than doing nothing. Your gains matter, sure—we're here to build muscle and burn fat. But underneath that goal is something more fundamental: keeping your body moving and healthy. A warmup or a partial workout doesn't disappoint anyone. You're meeting yourself where you are, and that's exactly what moves the needle over time.

There's also a momentum factor worth considering. Sticking with chunked or partial workouts during busy seasons keeps your habits intact. It's far easier to return to full workouts after a stretch of partial ones than it is to restart after weeks of skipping entirely—because habits, good or bad, are sticky. Keep the thread going, even if it's thin, and when your schedule opens back up, you'll slide right back into full sessions instead of starting from zero.

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