FitMitTuro Fitness Podcast

Maximize Your Fitness in Minimal Time

Turo Virta

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In this FitMitTuro Fitness Podcast I shared my top tips for maximizing your fitness with minimal time. I discussed how to set realistic workout goals, the importance of consistency over frequency, and the benefits of strength training and interval workouts. I also emphasized the role of nutrition planning and incorporating micro-workouts to build sustainable habits. My goal was to provide practical, actionable advice to help you to improve your fitness without feeling overwhelmed.

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Hey, and welcome to this fitness tour of fitness podcast. In today's episode, I'm talking about how to maximize your fitness. Should be doing if you don't have too much time, and what, how much is the minimum requirements for workouts, for your nutrition, and how to get started, and what is the most important thing? So this is a topic I recently had talked with one of my online coaching clients, Samia, and she said she is. She has been doing this now for a couple years, and in the beginning, was really, really hard to find time and and as he started like a very slowly, couple times, one, two times a week, 20 minute workouts. And now, after a while, she felt like that. Now it's time to do three workouts. And when we talk like she, have been very, very consistent past months and but the thing is that she haven't even three workouts done in her words, using her words, only two workouts. As many of us, we think that there is some minimum amount of time or or workouts, what you should be doing to be able to see results and like, like, in some years case, see, she set the goal to work out three times a week, and when two workouts, she was a lot more worried and lot more feeling like kind of down and and not happy about herself because She missed one workout, and that's what we address. That actually what you should celebrate those two workouts and not being worried about missing one. And so now, because obviously her ultimate goal is to work out, to do strength training three times a week. So he changed the approach, and we are aiming for. She's aiming for now, two workouts per week and then the her was actually going into the gym, and she found off herself, talking herself out of doing the work of she don't have time. There's no not enough energy, and going to the gym was too hard. So now we changed and adjusted the goal for two team workouts, and then she had five to 10 minute body weight workout at home to first to beat that habit of working out, keeping promises you make to yourself. And then, who knows, after a month, maybe she gets that habit of showing up three times a week. And then maybe you can, if you still feel like that, okay, now I have beat that habit. Now I can get started. So this is an example I always love to tell for all new people who are coming to me. I must take most out of it. You have to do three times a week, or four times or five times, whatever number you have in your mind. And then, if, for some reason, because it's we are very good, to find these excuses for ourselves, and then we are then often telling that it's not, there's no point of hiring coach if I don't have time to work out X amount of time and but this is the, what is the what is the thing in in this fitness journey, this is all Individual we have all different situation in life, different season in life. Maybe you have a busy period of life, maybe you have a small children which are, at the moment, higher priority for your work, whatever priorities you have. And this is totally fine, and it's just to do. Efforts with your time. And ideally, you pick how many sessions, how long your sessions are going to be, what you feel confident like it should be like, very, very easy. Like, if you say that the you know, you work out two minutes for two days a week. Maybe that's kind of too easy, but whatever, like, I have a people who are who start with the two times a week 10 minute workout, so it doesn't need to be much. And those are usually, of course, you are not probably going to get the most benefits of doing two times, then we need the workout per week. But it's, for sure, better than nothing, and even more importantly, you are starting to beat those habits, especially if you are someone who haven't been working out a lot, those small workouts, short workouts, they are building that habit, and they help you to build that confidence that you are actually missing. And it's like in my job as a coach. This is my one of my favorite stories when I was a younger coach, one women contact me, and she told about her background. She haven't, hasn't worked out for years. And then you see that now I'm hiring quotes, and I'm starting to work out five times a week, and I, as a younger coach, I was more than happy to think selfishly that I'm going to get amazing people after pictures, and setting her five times a week routine, and thinking that this will, we will make in a 30 days, amazing progress. And when I realized, when she after a week or two, I think it was around two week mark, when she when I didn't hear any more from her, I was like thinking that okay, she wasn't just meant to be, or she wasn't motivated, but until I realized that that was actually my mistakes, to sit someone who was just starting five times a week routine and and that was a lesson. What I learned earlier that in the beginning, it's better that you get people lot more consistent if you do a bit less what you originally think is possible. And after 30 days, after first month, if you still feel like that, you could be doing like if you are thinking like that, it should be two or three times a week, maybe three times a week. I would rather go for two times a week. For a month, you have always option to do that third system as kind of extra session. You can copy your workout or do whatever you enjoy. It doesn't matter, but to have that bare minimum, what is the two times a week, and then when you are accomplishing it, you are feeling because, like insomnia is how you are going to feel about yourself. If you are doing you are encompassing two workouts, and then you do something. Even if you don't do you have done two weeks. You hit your goal. You are happy about yourself. But if you aim for three workouts, you feel most likely more guilt for missing that one workout than celebrating those two workouts what you did so so that is the mental change, what you have to change. And and so many people, when they start like it's, it's, it might sound that it doesn't even bring anything, but especially if you haven't had if you haven't worked out for a while, even sort of workouts consistently, you feel such a big difference, like one of one other client, Florian, started one month ago, and he started with the two times 20 minute workouts, and now feeling so much better, so much already seen, especially mental changes, physical changes, how exercises are getting easier. First workouts was were relatively hard, and now, after week three, four days, that's the key with the with the programming that you have to like, like, how I explain it, how to change your workouts, like you should change them, like I do them every four weeks. Often, sometimes it's three, sometimes five. But in general, more or less four weeks workout routine and how it usually goes, that it's a big one, this kind of you are testing, trying new exercises, and it's relatively hard. You might feel some soreness with you. Is that okay? Now you know what to do. You know how much weight or what kind of resistance you should be doing, so you know your program. Then it's time to start to adding things and aiming to kind of progressive overload, which means that you are aiming to do always something more. So it it would mean maybe one repetition more, maybe adding a little bit weight if you were, if they were relatively easy, so that your last repetition should be relatively hard, and that you guys with the same way. So if you are able to think more, that you are able to do more, do more repetitions, and then that's the way how you are seeing the most progress, and then often return. You do it three, four weeks. Week Three, week four, Big Four might feel already relatively easy, and then you change the program. It starts from all over or over again. So you start kind of from the beginning new exercises. And that's the way how you get the most benefits out from your training routine. And and this is, this, is it the number, basically, how many times, how long it's it's individual, depending on your situation, your background. And that's what I what I try to use for myself to I look every week, on Sunday, I decide how many workouts, especially string training, which is something I naturally don't. Makes me feel more confident, stronger and having better energy in the long term, even during the workout. I don't enjoy doing it, but I know that when I if I start to miss it, I feel it right away, and that's why that is something what I need to be doing. So just the setting that routine, what is and how many systems, and then it basically doesn't matter that much what you are actually doing so, but talking with what type of exercises you should be doing like, of course, it depends a lot from your goals. But what I always recommend is some form of resistance training, strength training, so it could be especially in the beginning, like even body weight workouts, they are relatively good. You don't need equipment. If you don't have you could use banks. You could use dumbbells, so you don't need to go to gym or anything. It says that it makes so much easier. What I always recommend for my clients is to get a pair of accessible dumbbells, so dumbbells that you can change weight depending on exercise. Because for many people, it's or all people you have a bigger muscles, like your back muscle, your legs or glutes or or even chest. So they are little bit stronger than smaller muscles like shoulders. And if you have your, let's say, two three kilo dumbbells, it's it might be enough weight for smaller muscles like shoulders, but if you are doing squats with two kilo weight, it's most likely going to be, it's not going to be enough, or your back doing some rowing exercises with two kilo it's, it's, you are stronger than that. And when you but when you have a accessible lampus, you can access the weight based on exercise and how many repetitions you can you could be doing. So strength training is something security for what you should be doing, because, especially if you are trying to lose weight, if you just focus on losing scale weight, it doesn't it that doesn't tell if you're losing the weight from from your muscles, from fat. Of course you would like to lose fat, but if you don't fight against it, your body doesn't care if it's if that weight is going off from your muscles, and why it's so important to not lose muscle mass, it decreases your metabolism. So you might be seeing a rapid weight loss progress, but that actually your situation got lot worse. So if you are not focusing on your strength training and protein intake, you are losing scale weight, but you are not actually losing that much fat and and even despite you might lose a lot of blood amount of weight, or a big amount of weight, then the situation might actually have in the beginning, despite you lose, let's say, let's say 10 kilos, because if you lose two, three kilos of your muscle mass, and not address This water or a little bit fat. So it's not, it's not going to be what it means in the future. So you have to eat even less to maintain that weight. So you are telling your body that that you you must eat less to be able to and then when you at some point, when you eat a little bit more, you are you are not being able to maintain your lost weight. So in the end, that's the that's the best secret or best receipt to become the other writer. So gaining losing same amount of weight, and it feels always so hard, but when you do it in a smarter way, you are finding systems, methods, how you are able to actually maintain your lost weight. And this is something so strength training is number one to improve your endurance. There is a principles for improving your endurance. It should be depending on how much time you have. But you should do some at least one session, kind of interval session. Or what is like, feels like really hard, where your heartbeat is going really high. Or, let's say I usually, if you have a sport tracker or sport watch or something, it should be in zone four. So that is a relatively hard and it's, it's, it's, if you don't know about those tones, it it feels like it's not maximum, but it's, it's really like that you are out of breath and you are not able to keep up that written longer than one two minutes, course, then it's getting too hard. And one that kind of session. And it should be, if you take your total amount of time you're going to work out with cardio, improving your cardio. I had an episode with James lepatik. You can find it or I have several other episodes where I talk about these musicals more in depth. So check out those episodes if you are interested to know exactly what to do, how much to do, and the principle is that around 15 20% so let's say that you are working out. I use an example, one and a half hours or 100 minutes. So it's easy to count in a head. So it would be 15 to 20 minutes of zone four. It would mean interval training. For me, personally, I love playing tennis, intense tennis, so that is for me, kind of my interval training, or heat training, and then then the rest is relatively easy, and it's if you don't know, if you don't have a sport tracker, it's something that you are, it's not just like a slow pace walking, but that you are, for me, for example, for me, it's a rapid walking, and that is that you are able to keep up conversation. So easiest way is to think about it like this, that you are able to talk, but you don't kind of want to talk all the time. So if you are not able to make 10 or 10 to 15 word sentences without taking a breath, that's that's already that if you you are not able to do it, you are in zone three, zone four. But if you are able to keep up conversation without taking a breath, that is when you are in zone two, so it feels relatively easy. And the secret with this is that that that you are able to do it longer. It's not too taxing for your body, so it doesn't cause stress, and you are able to do it more often without feeling fat like so often. The problem is that when people are starting to improve their cardio, they first thing, what they think is that they have to go to run. And when you go to run, it's often needs for me to I used to do the same mistake every single time when I went to run, because otherwise I don't get the feeling right away after work of the day, have done something, and when you chase that feeling, it's not going to be as effective as then you might feel sore, or you most likely you will be sore. You are not you are going to be exhausted, you are not going to recover, and you are not going to be able to maintain that your routine. So just thinking that some two combination between some 85% of your total amount of time, so in my example, 100 minutes cardio per week, it would be 8085, minutes per week, chongzu and the rest so forth, which is like kind of interval training, and that is, that is the key how to actually improve your endurance and the strength training for getting to maintain, like if you are Depending, of course, your done in the past. But if you are, if you are doing, let's say one system per week around, let's say 45 minutes, you are able to maintain everything. But if you want to see, of course, if you start from zero, everything above zero, you are going to see progress. But then it's relatively easy to maintain all your levels. But then, if you want to see progress, progress, it's, I would say that two times a week you are able to see relatively good progress. If you want to optimize your progress, it's a three sessions per week. And if you like, for most people, more than three times a week, you don't need maybe four but, but more than four times a week. There is very few people who need more than four times per week. So three core systems at the most is where you should be aiming for, and this is for strength training. So now what about then? If you have, let's say that you have, you have, let's say for your workouts, and how to actually divide those. So I like to bear items and keep it very, very simple. So thinking like that, what you should be actually doing is that, that I aim to walk a lot, as every, every single day, having a 1530 minute walk, and then, then it's going to be one to two, like a harder systems, like interval training. For me, it's, going to be either tennis, hockey. Sometimes I do interval runs if I don't have any of these other things, but I try to, I'm very good at avoiding running because that's something what I naturally don't enjoy. And then strength training. The rest will be strength training. So two, three sessions of 30 minutes, so that you get at least 90 minutes per week, that would be at least relatively good amount of progress if you have less, like I said, it really maintaining everything. Doesn't really need a lot, but at least some form of resistance training you need to do or or otherwise. Like I like I said earlier, it's going to affect how you are going to feel, your confidence levels, how strong you are feeling, and plus that you if you are, especially if you are trying to lose weight at the same time, or that it's going to you are probably going to lose more weight from your muscles than necessary. So those are the reasons why you should be doing it, and how to actually sit your routine. And the other key is that to have a plan so you know exactly when you have a minimum, minimum time you have plan so you know exactly what exercise is, when to do it, and then put them into your calendar or or making appointments for yourself. This is one of those things. What I did for myself is that I have to decide it on Sunday, otherwise I know that I'm so good talking myself out of doing it. So I said non negotiable meeting to my calendar. It's a meeting where I don't ask if I'm motivated, how I'm going to feel it's time, when it's time to go. And those are my meetings for my own health, what I need to be doing. And if you, if you struggle with your risk, this is very, very, very important point. I rather you work out one time per week less, but date that 2030, time of of planning and preparing your meals ahead, so taking that time for planning is going to help you probably a lot more than doing one more workouts. So why is that? Because life is getting busy then food choices are not going to be the most optimal, as you probably know that when you come home from a group or or you have your children, and then you don't have a lot of time, and when you have to make something weekly, it's probably not going to be the most healthiest or beneficial option for your health. So, but if you would be prepared, like things, like knowing exactly what you are going to eat, for example, for your protein source, if you have been recoup, recogn your protein sources, so there is everything ready. So when, when it's time to eat, you already know what you are going to eat. Maybe there is already half things are prepared so you don't need to. There is no guesswork what you need to be doing. So just taking time of preparing things ahead before that moment comes. So this is, this is with the busy schedule, just taking that time and it doesn't. Yeah, what I love to use, always, for my clients, for example, is that using your tracking, even even if you don't track your meals, every single meal or every single ingredient. But the way how to actually do it is to for planning, using it as a planning so locking things hit. So you know, for example, people who are struggling to hit their protein goals. So how to, how to hit your protein goal? You take your food at, look with looking at for the next day at protein sources you are going to eat. You start for breakfast, whatever is going to be 2x pre Cucuta, whatever you enjoy eating at those proteins, or sis into your looking at and, or tracking at, and then same thing for the lunch, for the dinner, and then you see that how many grams of protein you are getting per day. And then looking at, okay with these sources, from my protein call, then the next question would be that, would I be eating something more what I already eat? That is the simplest, easiest way to add something, what you are already eating, eating just a little bit more. Then, if the answer is no, that I don't feel like that. I already have 200 grams of chicken, I don't feel like eating any more. So then, as what else you would be adding? Would it be on top of your salad, side salad, what you are going to eat? Would you add there some tuna or or some other low calorie cheese, for example, what? What would add your protein sources? So this way you hit your protein goals and getting those most important macronutrient in checkers. That is, if you, if you don't know anything else, just hitting your protein goal, it helps you to feel fuller longer. So you are not going to be hungry. You are not you are going to snack, most likely, a lot less. You have less cravings. So it makes just things so much easier. So you automatically eat something else less. So just taking dating, those most simplest things, I'm starting to, starting to actually implement those, then other things for for workouts. So often what I hear is that I don't have time, but this is, this is not think about, but it's not, it's not about optimizing or changing your workout loads or something. What I love to do is kind of micro workouts, for example, and it doesn't need to be any that you are sweating or something, just simply body weight exercises during 20 push ups in the morning or or during the lunch break, or just one set one, two sets of one, two exercises. So you need couple minutes and it's, it's, it helps a lot more than you believe. So it's, first of all, it's building that habit of doing something, reminding things that you should be doing. And then then you are, you it, it helps you to prevent muscle loss. And also seeing, seeing so much progress. So so this kind of micro workouts they are helping. And if you want to take it that to the next level, then like sitting 10 minutes routine, it could be some sort heat workout. Papata training, short string, serve with, with, with the two, three, not more than five exercises, doing one to two rounds that those kind of things, they are helping you so much more than you believe. Because most people, what I see who are struggling with their consistency is that they think that they are kind of the perfectionists like I tend to be that person too when I was a younger but now I think that it's it's just more more important is actually to keep promises you make to yourself, and even it doesn't matter how long my system is going to be, if it's going to be, but the main priority is to keep promises what I make to myself so, so and then you know, if one week is little bit less, next week is you have, you are still, you still did something. And because often when you start to skip your workouts, then week by week, it's it's easier, and sooner than you realize you have missed the whole month of workouts, or two or three, or even longer, so just learning to keep your promises what you are making to yourself. So this was a quick episode about setting your own routine, and hopefully this was helpful. If you know someone who would need to hear these things, I would appreciate that you would share this episode with one of your friends, and if you if these tips are were helpful those reviews, written reviews, first of all, thank you for all who have done those reviews in iTunes or Spotify. Written you. Research. If you need to get this information out for more people so would really appreciate if you could leave honest review. Thank you for listening, and Dr. Yun.