4 Fitness Hacks For Busy Entrepreneurs

Hi, all! I’m bringing you a guest post today from my girl, Athena Concannon of Achieve With Athena! Athena is a solopreneur, trainer, wellness coach, and blogger living in Boston, MA. After working for several years as a corporate wellness coordinator, she left the 9-5 world to start her own wellness business.

Athena is the owner and founder of Achieve with Athena, a lifestyle brand that educates and inspires busy perfectionist women to find their inner and outer strength, break free from society’s nutrition and fitness extremes, and confidently enjoy their fit lives. Some of Athena’s signature offerings include her anytime and anywhere Fit On the Go workout program, her private 1:1 Empowered Strength coaching, her Wellness Your Way small group coaching, and her Master Your Meal Prep course, so she’s more than qualified to talk all about fitness hacks for entrepreneurs.

I used to be really into intense, crazy workouts. I used them to work off anxiety, manage my stress, and feel good about myself. As time went on, not only did I learn how ineffective those workouts were, but I simply didn’t have the time or energy to devote to them anymore.

Instead of throwing away my fitness regimen completely, I had to get smart about when, where, and how I worked out. Especially over the last year as I’ve dealt with this crazy neck/arm pain, I’ve learned to listen to my body and focus on movement more than ‘fitness’. 

I’ve also had to learn how to be more flexible with my movement. Maybe I have client appointments first thing in the morning or have something I need to get done and I can’t be a hot mess quite yet. Or maybe I only have 20 minutes free that day, and I’d rather get something done than nothing. 

Athena is awesome at helping us learn exactly how to find that balance. So I’m going to shush and let her do the coaching today.

Take it away, Athena!

As a solopreneur, I understand how incredibly time-consuming it is to build a business, let alone dedicate time to staying in shape.

Fitness Hacks For Entrepreneurs

There are so many pieces to think about between working on our websites, writing blog posts, growing our email lists, maintaining a strong social media presence, finding and retaining clients, creating and launching new programs and services, networking… the list goes on (and hopefully includes some power naps – phew!)!

When things feel like they’re running smoothly in our biz lives, we feel on top of the world, don’t we? Like we have it all together, we’re killing it with clients, and we can still manage to see our family and friends. We’re even finding time for ourselves and getting to the gym, totally winning at this #girlboss thing.

But the second overwhelm, self-doubt, and stress start creeping in, or you’re having days (or weeks) worth of long hours?

It feels like we have zero time to get all our biz responsibilities done, so we stay glued to our laptops, and our fitness is often the very first thing to come off our very full plates.

Here’s the thing though.

In order to show up every day and be present for our clients, we need to take care of ourselves, whether this is fueling our bodies with nutritious foods, making movement a priority, or engaging in self-care practices that help us maintain a sense of balance in our hectic lives.

As a wellness coach, I know that I certainly don’t feel authentic coaching my clients to look and feel their best if I’m not doing the same. I also know that being healthy and fit has a direct correlation to both my business and personal happiness and success!

Today I am sharing 4 fitness hacks that can benefit you as an entrepreneur, regardless of whether you’re in the middle of getting your business off the ground or if you’ve been off and running for years.

1. Keep It Simple

Too often, we spend so much time thinking about our workouts that our entire sweat sessions could be over in the same period of time we spend thinking about them! Instead of scrolling for hours looking for workouts on Pinterest, stressing about what the “best” type of exercise is, or going back and forth with yourself about when during the day to get it done (you know the conversation… “just one more thing off my list,” “just one more hour of work,” etc.), simplify!

Move in ways that you enjoy, and keep it simple with workouts that can be done anytime, anywhere, and with minimal equipment.

One of my favorite ways to keep it simple with my workouts is to pick five exercises that I’ll do for 10 reps each. Then I set a timer for 20 minutes and see how many rounds of those five exercises I can do in that amount of time. Does the trick!

Try it yourself with these body weight moves:

• Squat jumps
• Pushups
• Reverse lunges (each side)
• Lateral skater hops (each side)
• Shoulder taps (each side)

Your workouts do not need to be fancy or complicated to be effective!

2. Be Prepared

Since I don’t work from a traditional office building, I often work out of various locations to get out of my house a bit: coffee shops, the town library, community workspaces, etc.

I like to carry an extra set of workout clothes and a pair of sneakers ready in my bag in case a fitness opportunity arises.

I’ll also carry around some lightweight and portable resistance bands and a jump rope so that I’m ready to go with a few different options at any point, whether this is going to the gym midday or doing an outdoor workout in the park next to my favorite coffee shop.

3. Build Breaks Into Your Day

As our own bosses, we get to make the rules, don’t we? This means there’s nobody stopping us from getting up from emails to do a set of pushups, from standing up in the middle of the library for a quick mid-work stretch, or from going for a walk around the block in between work tasks.

I often remind my clients that overall wellness isn’t just about training, but about daily movement and activity levels as well.

I recommend taking frequent movement breaks to walk, go up and down the stairs a few times, and stretch. It definitely helps to set an alarm so you don’t get sucked into yet another business to do. Maybe even sign up for a midday class with a friend!

Working longer, harder, and pushing constantly isn’t the answer, as much as we may think we have to do those things in order for our businesses to grow.

Often times if we don’t take breaks and get up and move, our creativity lacks and our productivity suffers. It’s a catch-22 really, because it’s so easy to get caught up in the “I don’t have time” trap.

However, the times you feel the most stressed and the most pressed for the time are the times you may need your movement breaks the most!

I know anytime I’m feeling overwhelmed, if I step away from my desk and go for a walk or do a quick workout that gets my heart rate up, I return much more cool, calm, and collectively. Plus, when we give our brains some space to breathe, we’re better equipped to view a situation differently and think creatively.

4. Don’t Let Perfect Be The Enemy of Good

Finally, don’t let the never-ending pursuit of perfection get in the way of your wellness.

Simply allow yourself to do your best, even if it’s not according to a perfect plan.

I promise you that once you adopt this #AntiPerfectFitness mentality, you will have no trouble maintaining your physique, prioritizing your health, and maintaining consistency with your fitness… even during hectic product launches, while on the road for business retreats, or when your new website is about to go live.

Fitness doesn’t need to be either nothing or a dreadful sixty+ minutes.

Fitness doesn’t need to be either nowhere or in the gym.

Fitness can be whatever you want it to look like; you just have to let it. It can be 10 minutes or 45. It can be at home, in your office, in a hotel room, or on the playground.

Just because business is busy doesn’t mean we have to sacrifice our workouts! We just need to figure out how to adjust them so we can create the same freedom around our fitness that we’ve already started creating around our careers.

I would love to hear from you in the comments! What fitness hacks do you use as an entrepreneur? How do you prioritize your fitness despite a heavy workload? What tips do you have for someone just starting out?

If this post resonated with you, you may be interested in my signature Fit On The Go workout program. It comes with 56 workouts that can be done anytime, anywhere. Every workout in the program can be done in 30 minutes or less, and none need to be done at the gym. This program literally strips away all excuses for when you “can’t workout” so that you can look your best, feel your best, and stay consistent with your fitness even when life (and biz!) gets in the way.

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Thank you so much, Athena for your fitness hacks! This post was so helpful. I’m all about quick, effective workouts. I love to get my movement in and get back to my day! So I’m sure this resonated with so many of my tribe <3

I hope you’ve enjoyed all of these guest posts! If you haven’t read the others, you can catch them here:

• 5 Things I Wish I Knew As A Newbie Entrepreneur
• Self-Care for Women in Business (Calling All Coaches!)
• 5 Ways to Get Fitness In Without Spending Hours In The Gym

While you’re getting caught up on these guest posts, I’m resting up and drafting some new posts to hit your inbox!