The 10-minute Rule

Two of the challenges of fitting workouts into our busy schedule are time and energy. It's hard to find either if we've been busy with work with family or other constraints. The good news and the bad news is that Elite athletes also struggle to get out the door some days. Whether it's fatigue or a lack of motivation on that given day athletes of all abilities in all levels need to sometimes find a reason to get up and out the door. 

One of the keys to remember about training is that consistency is one of the most important pieces of any effective training program. Those minutes add up over days, weeks, and months to build our fitness, build our sport specific capacity, and improve our ability in whatever sport we're invested in. 

Now that daylight savings time has ended in much of the northern hemisphere, it also feels like we are short on time for a lot of workouts. There are certainly options when it comes to limited daylight. We can use a headlamp, we can move our workouts indoors, we can generally shift the structure of our workouts to be more time efficient. But, the reality is that our motivation can be impacted by the shift in daylight and it's important that we maintain our consistency through this shift.

In addition, we also have the holiday season looming ahead which often has an impact on our schedules and we might put more energy into other areas of our lives. Unless you are an elite athlete, that is totally normal. Regardless there is one simple rule we can adhere to when our motivation is low or we feel like we're struggling to get out the door.

We’ll call it the 10-minute rule. Basically the idea is that no matter how we're feeling (as long as we're not sick or dealing with an injury) that we at least start each workout and give ourselves 10 minutes. You could bump this up to 15 minutes but probably not more than that. Our focus is purely on getting out the door, essentially tricking our minds by focusing on just getting 10 minutes of a workout in. Just 10 minutes. If you feel completely wiped and exhausted you can be done after 10 (or 15) minutes. But if you feel good you can complete the workout as planned or even just get some aerobic base work in.

Over time, this consistency of getting out the door for at least 10 minutes most days will add up. and when we find ourselves especially busy or time-crunched it provides us a great mental break and mental relief from our day. It also gives us an opportunity to get the full workout in. This strategy is effective because it breaks the workout down into small manageable chunks. By starting with just 10 minutes we give ourselves a chance to feel better and maybe if we feel good we give ourselves another 10 minutes, and then another 10 minutes and so on.

So as we feel the reduction in daylight here in the Northern Hemisphere, I encourage you to start using this rule to set yourself up with consistency. Come holiday season, you'll be well positioned to maintain a healthy and positive routine.