By: Philip Palmer, BA, CPT, GEI
Recently I’ve been seeing more and more social media posts talking about how a workout is only 4% of your day. That’s great! Yet it isn’t true. When you do the math 1 hour is 4.16% of your day…. so a 1 hour workout is 4% right? Not exactly, and here’s why.
The recommended amount of sleep for adults is 7-9 hours. Break down a 24-hour day and 8 hours is 1/3 of your day, thus 33% of day you cannot workout and should be sleeping.
Next, most of us have jobs which typically are 8 hours. I understand some work more and some less, yet the typical work day is 8 hours. Oh, and if you’re counting that’s another 33% of your day gone.
Just with sleep and work two-thirds or 66% of your day is gone. Now you only have 33% free or 8 hours to potentially get in a workout.
Yet you probably have even less than 8 hours of free time. There are certain things we do that take up time. Most likely you don’t wake up and walk into work. You have to clean up, get dressed, maybe do makeup and more. For some, this might easily be an hour of their day. We all need to eat and some of us take time to make and clean up food. If you make breakfast or pack lunch… more time taken up. Making food could easily take an hour. If you go out to eat you still take time driving to get food and then waiting in line. Speaking of driving most likely you have a commute to get to work. The average US commute time is more than 25 minutes and that is just one way!
When your work day is done, you’re back at your place and might have 4-5 hours to workout. Yet you’ll probably want to do some socialization. This might be by text, by call, face to face, or social media. For some, socialization might take up an hour.
Now you’re all ready for a workout, yet there are a few factors that might hinder how much time you can devote. Do you have children? Having children is a full time job itself. If parents find the time to get a workout in, those who say they don’t have time have zero excuses. 🙂
With everything said and done, if you do a 1 hour workout you should give yourself a high 4! A high 4 is much better than a high 5 considering you’ve beaten the 4% rule. A one hour workout is much more than 4% once you’ve broken everything down! Also keep in mind that you don’t need a 1 hour workout to receive benefits. Even 15 minute workouts have been shown to be just as effective as longer workouts.
If you get a workout in today give yourself a pat on the back……or a high 4! That workout, whatever amount of time it is, is much more than 4%.
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