Sometimes finding the time to squeeze a CrossFit session into your busy schedule can feel harder than the workout itself.
If you’re anything like me, there are times when you think you’re too busy to work out or life just feels too overwhelming, making you too stressed to work out.
But I have a question for you. When was the last time you actually regretted going and doing a CrossFit workout?
Sure, you might show up, and you’re doing Fran or Jackie, and you immediately regret turning up (we’ve all been there!), but after the workout, you’re glad you put in the effort and feel proud that you overcame something challenging.
In this article, I’ll take you through five tactics that you can use to convince yourself that you have more time to do CrossFit, including:
- Morning workouts
- Pay for a membership
- Train with a crew
- Change your definition of CrossFit
- Follow a program
Let’s dive in!
Mornings rule
Tip number one on how to find time for CrossFit is morning’s rule.
You’ve probably heard this one before, but I can attest to it firsthand.
For me, as the busyness of my day builds, it gets harder to find the time to work out, so it’s very rare that I find time at the end of my day to fit it into my schedule.
It’s similar to budgeting. If you wait until the end of the month to see how much you have left over before you actually start saving, the chances are you’re not going to have anything left over. But if you put money aside ahead of time into a savings account, then you’ll actually reach your savings goals.
The same thing goes for CrossFit. If you put time aside early in the day, you’ll transform the amount of time you have to do CrossFit. In fact, if it’s the first thing that you do every morning, I can say firsthand that it has probably increased my attendance 500%.
Now I know a lot of you might not be morning people, but these tips are all personal, so do the ones that suit you most.
I was actually able to transform myself from a night owl into a morning person just by setting my alarm early and not hitting the snooze button and forcing myself to get up to go to a 6 am class.
This has been one of the best things for my mental clarity and fitness because when I get my workout done in the morning, I have the rest of the day to feel rewarded for that workout. I’m also more energized, and I don’t have to dread the workout that’s coming later in the day, and nothing gets in the way of it.
So I highly suggest you do your workout in the morning, before any meetings and before anyone has a chance to take over your schedule.
Pay for a membership
Tip number two to always find time for CrossFit is to pay for a membership.
I know a lot of people work out of their garage gym or have access to an apartment complex gym or pay for a budget gym subscription - and there’s nothing wrong with that if you keep your workouts consistent.
In fact, I love it when athletes come to WODprep, and they train out of a garage gym because they can follow our programming. And oftentimes, they are really self-motivated.
However, if you have a garage gym or a cheap gym membership of some sort, and you’re not going, then this might be the cause of the problem.
I literally built a gym that I can work out in literally anytime for free - but guess what? I very rarely find the time or the motivation to come train here.
So you know what I did? Even though I don’t need to, I pay $175 a month for a gym membership here in Denver. And that forces me to go and get my butt out of bed in the morning.
This mindset applies to a lot of other things in life. If you don’t pay for something, the chances of you valuing it are slim.
There was actually a classic psychology test with wine that proved this. In the experiment, they gave people three different wines. One was labelled as cheap, one was mid-range, and one was really expensive.
Overwhelmingly, people said, “oh man, the expensive wine tastes so much better.”, but it turned out all three of them were the exact same wines.
The same thing will happen if you pay a lot of money for a gym membership. The chances of you showing up will increase.
In fact, what we found with our one-on-one athletes, who pay $350 to $400 per month, have the highest attendance out of anyone else partaking in our programs.
So the more you pay, the more you’re going to value it, and the more fit you’re going to get as a result.
So if you value the mental and physical fitness that comes with going to a CrossFit gym, pay for it, and my guess is you’ll actually start attending class more.
Train with friends or family
Tip number three is to train with friends or family.
I remember when I used to have a crew of guys that I would always train with in college right after lunch.
I felt bad if I had to skip when the pressures of college were weighing on me. So if one of the people from the gym texted me saying, “yo, let’s train”, I’d be there. And we had this daily ritual of training together and this good sense of competition, too.
So if you have a crew that you train with, you will have that accountability, meaning it will drastically increase your adherence to going to the gym.
If you can facilitate that in your own life, it doesn’t matter if it’s at an actual CrossFit gym. It’s a great way for garage gym athletes to keep up with their adherence, even though they’re not necessarily paying for a membership.
If you’re having a bad day and going it alone, you’re probably going to quit because it’s only one person. But if you have a team of three or four people, my guess is one or two of them is motivated and having a good day, and they’re going to keep everyone else accountable to train.
So I highly recommend finding a group in some way, shape or form to train with and keep you accountable. I promise you that this will increase your adherence, and you’ll always find time to train.
Change your definition of CrossFit
Tip number four is to change your definition of CrossFit.
This is where a lot of people play mind games with themselves. If they don’t have an hour to work out, they don’t work out.
But newsflash: you don’t need an hour to get a great workout.
Sure, the traditional CrossFit class model is warm-up, followed by strength and then Metcon, and you’re done in about one hour.
That’s a full class, and you can get a lot done, but if you only have 20 minutes or even 15 minutes, you can still get an incredible workout done.
Obviously, you might not get all your Olympic weightlifting or your accessory work in, but I think that’s the problem with a lot of people who don’t have time to do CrossFit - their definition of CrossFit is this hour-long session.
If you can’t make it into class for a whole hour using the techniques I’ve already mentioned, then why not do a 10-minute burpee push-up AMRAP or EMOM?
Even if you only have time to do seven minutes of burpees, that’s a great workout, and it’s so much better than not doing anything at all.
This is because every time you do a workout, that’s a vote of confidence for the person that you want to become. But every time you say I don’t have time for that, I’m just gonna skip today. Subconsciously, you’re voting for the person who makes excuses.
So if you want to embody the person that never makes excuses and does hard things, then allow yourself to do a 10-minute CrossFit workout if you can’t go to the actual gym.
Follow a program
Last but not least, tip number five is you need to follow a program that you love.
If you’re just trying to find the motivation to get to the gym, and you’re always making excuses on why you can’t go, I would say one of the root causes is you’re just not having enough fun.
This is where WODprep comes in. One of our programs called WODprep Classic is all about doing fun CrossFit.
I’ve always said from the get-go that the best kind of fitness in the world for you is one that you think is fun. So if you’re not having fun with your programming right now, maybe it’s time to switch up programming and give WODprep pro a try.
With WODprep, you’ll have so many options for different programs to follow. Some are short, some are long, some are skills focused, some are weightlifting-focused, and some are engine-focused, you can have fun using our programming, and you’ll also get the coaching support that you need to back it up.
To Summarize
And there you have your five tips to always find time for CrossFit.
If you apply any one of these five tips, I promise you’re going to find it’s much easier to work out consistently.
This will not only make you happier and more fit, but you’ll get better while you’re at it because that consistency is key.
I hope you found these tips helpful!
If you need some extra help getting started, be sure to check out our free training resources for just about every CrossFit movement you can think of.