In the Grand Scheme Of Fitness With Justin and Ethan

Dumbbells and Deadlines: How to Squeeze Fitness Into Any Schedule

• Justin Schollard • Season 1 • Episode 54

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We explore why fitness is often the first thing abandoned when life gets hectic, despite being something most people claim is crucially important to them, and practical strategies to maintain consistency regardless of your schedule.

• The urgent vs. important conundrum: why we tend to address immediate fires while postponing what truly matters long-term
• Why missing workouts has no immediate negative consequences, making it easy to keep postponing
• The danger of seeing fitness as binary rather than as a continuum – something is always better than nothing
• Creating contingency plans for busy days (15-20 minute home workouts) to maintain momentum
• The importance of blocking time in your calendar specifically for exercise
• Building a fitness identity where being active isn't optional but part of who you are
• Low-barrier options for starting or maintaining fitness at home without equipment or gym intimidation
• How consistency and momentum are everything – even shortened workouts maintain your exercise habit


Speaker 1:

Welcome to episode 54 of In the Grand Scheme of Fitness with Justin and Ethan.

Speaker 1:

I'm Justin Scullard, your host, and I'm Ethan Wolfe, the co-host, and so today, folks, we're gonna be talking about how to manage your fitness with a busy schedule, how to not abandon your fitness as soon as your life inevitably gets hectic, whether that be with work, or with kids, or with travel or whatever have you. Unfortunately, fitness tends to be the first thing that folks put on the chopping block as soon as they come across troubled water, even though it's one of the number one things that almost everyone will say is most important in their life. It just so happens the first thing people abandon when things get tough. So we want to talk about how to manage that today, how to smooth things over, excuse me, how to manage that today, how to smooth things, smooth things, things over, excuse me, and how to really just like look at things a little bit more of a continuum as opposed to a binary, to where it's not whether you do or you don't, but like what can you do, and how to just make sure that you stay on track with everything.

Speaker 2:

That's right. It is interesting. You talked to most people what's most important in life and important in life and let's say maybe family and health. You know, and like you said, it's like it seems to be that exercise is the seems to be the less valuable on the day-to-day. First to go, it's least prioritized. It's when things get wild.

Speaker 1:

Yeah it's the urgent versus important uh conundrum. So most people tend to spend their lives just tending to what's urgent. You know like, well, I have to get to work, I have to get my kids to school, we gotta eat dinner, the roof's leaking, gotta fix that doctor's appointment. These are all real things like these aren't just like bullshit, you know, made up excuses. These are this is life, you know, and they're urgent. Kids sick, gotta get them, gotta get to the doctor, you know.

Speaker 1:

So because of that, we, we just fill our days with fires that are urgent. We basically spend our day putting out fires because it's urgent, and then we continue to postpone what's important. So what's important, it's your health, it's eating well, it's exercising, it's putting a little bit of money away. These are all important things that we universally agree on, yet somehow we keep justifying postponing these things, uh, and prioritizing urgent things. And you got to do what you got to do.

Speaker 1:

But one thing that I've surmised, uh, in all my years of coaching with people and just observing myself in this situation, is that like this is why you have to block time off and this is why you have that. Maybe that means getting up a little bit earlier, maybe like there are sacrifices in order to find time for what's important, you know, because it's one of those things where it's like if you don't eat well today and you don't exercise today, well, tomorrow's kind of the same right. Like your life doesn't change that much, but if your kid's sick today you know I'm in the hospital like this shit could get worse real quick. Exactly, exactly, yeah, and so it's because of that there's no like immediate change in your quality of life if you postpone, and so, therefore, it's just very easy to continue postponing, that's true, but then the days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months.

Speaker 2:

And then eventually, you know, eventually things all of a sudden gain a little extra weight, or your body aches a little bit, or yeah, you know, or it becomes urgent, or it becomes urgent where now you have a real crisis. Yeah, you know, you know you're pre-diabetic or straight up diabetic. Straight up diabetic and you know it doesn't jump that fast that quick.

Speaker 1:

But yeah, or you get a heart attack, you know, um, I mean that all feels like that happens to other people, but I was just randomly golfing on sunday with this random threesome. That's golf for the party of three. I don't know what you're thinking, anyway. So I was, I was alone and they and they just put me with this random threesome because they always want a foursome on tee times. So I went up there and it was all like guys my age, they're all like you know 40 something guys, and they're all buddies. They're all you know 40 something guys, and they're all buddies. They're all. They don't know each other. And I'm just kind of on the corners practicing my swing and you know we're getting friendly as the round goes on and I overheard them say man, can you believe alan had a heart attack?

Speaker 2:

they're all just like oh man, I can't.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you know, no one saw coming. I just I just kind of asked. I was like how old was this guy? Yeah, and like he was 38, 38, he. But he was like al bundy, yeah, just hanging on the couch drinking beer like watching sports, just like eating take out.

Speaker 1:

Eating take out not exercising fucking 38 had a heart attack. That's crazy. So you know we all think that it's other people, but it's like you know, I'm 40 and a heart attack feels like the furthest thing from my, from what's coming for me. You know what I mean. Right, and it's just because, um, no one's perfect, but you know, you just make it a point to like, whether you feel like it or not get a little workout in get a little workout all right, I should probably throw some veggies in with this.

Speaker 1:

have I had enough water today? Let me just chug a glass real quick. These little like benign decisions that mean nothing in the short term but mean everything in the long term.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, for real, they just compound and it's so true, and it is those little things of just do it. It takes a second, especially the water thing, like lately I've been finding I'm not drinking enough water and I'm just like man, what are you doing?

Speaker 1:

Well, it's that time of year when it's cooler, so, like you're not as thirsty as you are in the summer, no-transcript. It's like you got the idea of yourself as this fit person and you're like you know there's certain components to exercise that might resonate with you, like barbellbell, strength training, like weight lifting, or, like you know, tanya's a good example, like she just loves to go these like fitness classes at like 6 am and we just get attached to this idea of who we think we should be and what that person does. And then when, when, when situations in your life don't allow for that version to work, then we just don't do it. Right, and I think that's the biggest issue. I think it's having contingency plans with your fitness of like, well, maybe I would love to go to that strength training class and do powerlifting with my butt, but it isn't like an hour-long thing. And then I got to drive there I gotta park and like I gotta work late tonight.

Speaker 1:

Or if you have a family, maybe like I I gotta my kid has their game tonight. I just so, instead of just not doing it, you just what's your contingency plan right? So, like you know, getting a dusty pair of dumbbells off facebook marketplace for 20 bucks, just so you have something at home. You can just knock out a 15, 20 minute workout and always looking at this is like not whether I can or can't, but how much can I do? And if you have that growth mindset then you know you just it's just keeping the, the slack out of the line, because it's easy to let one skipped workout turn into two, turn into three nights. So now you know you haven't worked out in three weeks and now you're afraid to go back to the class to work out because you know you're going to be so sore and it's going to be so hard. Now you're like oh crap.

Speaker 1:

So you can just avoid that by just having a couple of like quick 15, 20 minute workouts on rotation as a contingency plan. So if your main idea of a workout just doesn't pan out, you can just keep the slack and the line pulled up by these little shorter workouts. So when you do get back in the class you're not just devastatedly sore after the workout Right?

Speaker 2:

if you missed that. 6 am class that you had so intent. Well now, because I missed my optimal interest in fitness or exercise now I just can't go or do anything at all. Yeah, totally. It is one of those things that it's easy to make getting a workout in a mountain out of a molehill.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, you know, and I find myself and it is interesting to you like you're talking about the momentum. It's like when you're out of momentum it just seems like such a crazy task. You know you're going to be sore, you feel so out of shape, you know you're not going to perform as well, and so you're just like, ah, then all of a sudden it just becomes this like insane beast with snarling teeth that you kind of have to face. Where is? If you just don't let it get that far, and even if you do 15 minutes, you'd be amazed at the the physical and emotional, like bell that gets rung. And then, even if you do 15 minute workouts every day, all of a sudden or every other day you get this momentum built where all of a sudden it's not the mountain out of the molehill anymore.

Speaker 2:

And it's just easier to step into that moment, and so often that's really what it is. You get over that initial precipice Cause I would be like we were just talking before the show and I was saying, hi, I just did like leg workout before coming over here and I what happened is that I was supposed to do like a full hour of exercise, but then, you know, I took a little longer to start eating my food, which then pushed everything back, and then I wanted to go get like a matcha because I didn't have any caffeine next thing, I know I'm like oh shit.

Speaker 2:

I only got like 35 minutes before I have to leave and it was almost at that point where I was like, oh, maybe I'll do it later because I might have a break, or you know, and that that whole, the whole little flip was starting to happen and I was like no, no, no it just so happened to be leg day, and it's just I'm gonna be like he has plenty of time.

Speaker 1:

Plenty of time, exactly all of a sudden, when I gotta eat, I need a little matcha tea.

Speaker 2:

Of course, yeah, but you know I just started moving and you know, next thing I know I did I got a little good pump on the legs and came over. It was fine, for sure, you know, just had to strike it. So it's definitely. I think that consistency doesn't have to be a big deal and being consistent is so important to build that momentum, to build the confidence in just starting and to get the kind of positive benefits of just making it accessible. And I think that's what I would say is like Justin was saying so you've got to make time. So I think, looking at your calendar and actually looking at your week, and not like like logging your food, if you wait till the end of the day to log your food and you log and you're like, oh shit, well, I'm over.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, Didn't eat enough protein. It's like you kind of got to like plan ahead a little bit.

Speaker 2:

So I think that's a huge have two hours to drive to the gym and do an hour, then just plan a 30 minute home workout and do a yoga class off YouTube for 25 minutes or 40 minutes. You know there's so many accessible things to do. To just move our body and get something out of it that can be accessible anywhere, doesn't have to have any equipment, and I think it's just kind of knowing that those tools are available and just making sure we just get something in on a consistent basis because it is. It is a busy world out there, yeah, and like.

Speaker 1:

I know people who are incredibly fit that they have a like a hybrid workout situation where it's like dip bar, pull-up bar, you know, all these things are very, very affordable, uh, maybe, and then be just like a nice set of bands and it's like, you know, like I can get to the gym, uh, on the weekends, but during the week I just got no time, and so they just do some version of that and it actually makes it much more dynamic in a lot of ways, because it's like, okay, one or two days we can go and get your like your heavy weights in, and then throughout the week it's just like more, just like calisthenic circuit training bands, and so you kind of have a nice variety like and you can get an insane shape and like, let's be honest, like most people are not high level or advanced fitness people like most, by by far the majority of people are. So they struggle with consistency. They're they're good when they're good and then they're really off when they're really off, and so it's like allowing yourself to like have to like be okay with doing something that you that wasn't the first plan or wasn't your initial plan, but just like it's just improvising, it's just like acclimating to the moment and not being attached to it being one way. However, what I will say is that, like you know, a big problem is people say I'm gonna work out right, three times a week this whole, like my year, my resolution is gonna work out three times a week for 2025, but it's like, okay, well, we'll win. Uh, yeah, you know, like like I'm whenever I have, whenever I have time, it's like you gotta make it real.

Speaker 1:

One of the books I read a long time ago I forget the name of it and I forget the author, but just trust me, I read it was all about like, that sort of like identification with the version of yourself that you want to become, and so it's one thing to say, you know, I want to be more fit versus like creating an identity of like I am a fit person right and when you are a fit person, because and because you, you don't miss right, but it's an identity.

Speaker 1:

It's like if I'm a vegan, you are not, I am not going to try your steak.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's just not an option no, it's just, it's not inherently who I am right, and if you can grasp that concept of just like this is just who you are now, well then, it's not. Well, if I can't get to the gym, I'm not going to do it, it's well. Okay, I can't get to the gym, so I guess I'll just knock out like a 10 by 10 of push-ups and squats or something like that. You know just something, because this is just who I am and it's a day that I work out. I've already scheduled it, so I'm going to do it. I'm putting it in a calendar. Like you said, take it from the ethereal and make it real, plug it into your calendar. So when you look at your day and you got Zoom meeting, pick the kid, oh shit, all right, I already blocked off that, all right. Well, it's in there. So now it's like if I don't do it, it's not like I can say, oh, I got something else I got to do. I blocked that time off. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

That's a real choice yes, it's a real choice now to not do it. And sometimes that for most self-respect people can be enough accountability to just be like all right, fine, fine, fine. I'll just get it started. What they say you don't find time, you make time. Yes, yeah, it's fucking hard. It's it's so hard. It's like everyone thinks they're so different. It's like, dude, everyone's busy, everyone's tired, everyone has things they'd rather do yeah, not like no exception but you know we.

Speaker 1:

But at the end of the day, like if you know person who runs a fortune 500 company is taking 15 meetings a day can get up at 5 and do a 30-minute workout. So can you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, I even had a client the other day that was a half hour late to our training session. She told me she was going to be late but her nanny pulled her aside right as she was walking out the door and it was about something semi-serious. I guess she didn't really go into it, but she still showed up to the session. Something like semi-serious. I guess she didn't really go into it, but she still showed up to the session and I had so much respect and obviously a half hour session is not as optimal as an hour session, but hey, but she still showed up and got something in, you know, and I kicked her butt in the half hour, but it was one of those things that I think most people when they were going to be a half hour late, would have probably just called yeah

Speaker 2:

it's not worth it. It's not, yeah, at this point it's, it's, it's a lost cause. And so I had at least a lot of respect for the tenacity. I mean she started like go out to dinner afterwards with you know some like business dinner or something like you know. It wasn't like she just had the rest of the evening off. So I had a lot of respect for her to still get something in and still commit to the the time blocked and not let this, this like knock in the boat, so to speak, of her day and moment derail her.

Speaker 1:

You know, momentum's everything, habit is everything, and if you're in a routine, then your mission is to stay in that routine, because things that are just hard eating, healthy, exercising that require restraint and sacrifice yeah, man, you could do it for years and years and years and just have one bad month and it's so hard to get back, like if anybody's ever like tried to like wake up early and it's like all right.

Speaker 1:

I'm waking up early, I'm getting up an hour earlier and you're doing it, and you're doing it and doing it and then all of a sudden you have like a vacation, you get to sleep in for a week. All of a sudden, trying to get up early again is the hardest thing you've ever done. It's just like I. I woke up at five for 10 years and then one week of sleeping in and now we aim at five.

Speaker 2:

Feels like I'm like, but what about the last 10 years?

Speaker 1:

and so it's just momentum is so important not breaking the chain of habit right, even if it means you're 30 minutes late. But you showed up and you did what you could and that kept the the chain of habit intact. I think is always the objective for consistency 100.

Speaker 2:

I would say like, like we've talked about previously with other things, it's, I think, like educating yourself on some tools, like doing just a little bit of understanding of the different ways that you can exercise, because I think so often it is, oh, oh, I need to go to the gym and then, like you said, if I can't make it to that class or go to the gym, well, I guess the exercise is out for the day. And so just understanding that, yeah, bodyweight exercise is great and you can do it anywhere at any time. And just what are your resources? There are YouTube videos. You can get a coach, two videos you can get a coach. You can buy just like a little so easy program.

Speaker 2:

There's so many ways that are both free to having somebody who will, you know, reduce the most efficient path for you available. And I think sometimes that that is over people's head and there's, like you said, there's like a lane that they think fitness fits in. And I think once you understand that there's so many different ways to do it, then you have more tools in the belt that can match that improvisation of what your day might look like, depending on how it goes, you know yeah, yeah, exactly, and like that's why, like I'm almost a bigger proponent of people starting out their fitness journey, whether you're brand new, whether you're just kind of struggling with consistency, you're kind of intermediate.

Speaker 1:

but yeah, you know, just starting out at home is so much easier because it lowers the barrier of entry and you can just sit there in a safe space and you can watch a video, you can see how things are demonstrated. No one's gonna judge you if you go super light or if you mess it up, because if you're just like new, that gym can be a very intimidating place. I mean, like I went with Tanya to Equinox for like a day pass and man, we walked in at you know, 5 pm or whatever, and it was just, I mean you know, like you have your plan.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I'm going to do squats, then I'm going to do this, but like every piece of equipment is taken and I'm like, oh right, so you piece of equipment's taken. I'm like, oh right, so you just got to kind of stand there while some guy has his headphones on and he's grinding your set out. You don't want to be weird. But then as soon as you finish, you say can I, can I, can I work in with you? And he's like, all right, yeah, yeah. And then I got to pull his weight off. So, like you know, and it's just like I'm a 20 year veteran, like I don't have a problem walking up and asking if I can work in yeah, but even then it's still a little awkward, uncomfortable I don't want to do that, like that sucks, yeah, versus like a newbie.

Speaker 1:

Oh man, like going there and they're just like nope and they just go on the treadmill and walk for 20 minutes or just not even knowing where the equipment is.

Speaker 2:

You're like, okay, like neutral grip yeah, machine.

Speaker 1:

What does that even look like?

Speaker 2:

you want it around and then there's only one of them and it's taken. There's three people in line versus.

Speaker 1:

You know, you just go like on youtube and just like you know, upper body resistance, band workout, yeah, lower body resistance and you just do that for eight weeks, kind of get comfortable with, like what things are called, how to perform the movements you know, watch how it's done, tinker with it on your own, kind of get into your the right form. You know that, I feel like, is so much more valuable, it's easier, it's less time you you have, you give yourself a safe space, you're not judged, you don't feel pressured to go heavier, right, because when some jack dudes watch you you probably maybe only should do 20 pounds, but you go up to 50 because you're like, well you know, and then you hurt yourself and you're like yeah, this isn't for me.

Speaker 1:

So I think that, like, lowering the barrier of entry is just super important. If you love the gym and you want to go, and it's convenient for you and you got, there's no reason not to. Great yeah, 100 great yeah.

Speaker 1:

However, don't snooze on home workouts, definitely don't snooze on home, yeah right behind these cameras is my little squat rack, which I've had for years now, beginning the pandemic. Got a hundred dollar squat rack on amazon hundred bucks for a full squat rack, pull-up bar amazing, yeah, and got some weights and some dumbbells and benches and, honestly, like it's everything anyone needs to get in really, really great shape. Um, and so you know, assembling your own little like corner of your apartment or your house and just having your own little workout space is actually, I think, very, very, um, a very good idea for people who struggle with consistency in the gym.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, 100% system right there for you.

Speaker 1:

Okay guys. Well, that was episode uh 54 of In the Grand Scheme of Fitness uh with Justin and Ethan, and uh hope that helped you guys get a grip on. You know how to navigate a busy schedule while without abandoning your fitness, a really important topic that I know a lot of folks struggle with. So stay tuned for more episodes coming your way soon.

Speaker 2:

Talk to you guys later.

Speaker 1:

Peace, peace.