How can you fit sports into your hectic lifestyle?

Working from home sounds like a dream come true, but if anything, it has made our daily routines even more hectic than usual. The fantasy of having more time to get out and run, or head over to the gym, has been ruined by the reality of the workload - who’d have thought that working from home didn’t mean we’d have any less emails in your inbox, or seemingly endless team meetings to attend?

Even if you’re just a sports fan and not an athlete by any stretch of the imagination, making the time to attend matches is nearly impossible when you’re exhausted after a stressful 9-5.

And then there are the other big responsibilities in life. It’s hard to find the time for sports if you’re looking after children or are caring for loved ones, and the importance of those tasks means you could find yourself settling into a schedule that has no time for sports.

However, freeing up some time to watch sports on the TV is proven to make people feel happier and more relaxed, while it can also help to maintain a healthy social life, having a specific sport as one of your passions can help you to focus some of your attention away from work and other stressful things in life. Many people compare and evaluate different betting odds as a little hobby alongside watching sports, often as another way to get involved. Of course, the end goal here is to get viewers interested in sports enough, that they start exercising themselves, however it takes some longer than others and that’s okay.

There are numerous benefits to exercising, so you must make plans to ensure you don’t fall into this trap - and we’re here to help. Here are our top tips to ensure you can maintain a healthy lifestyle and incorporate sports into your daily routines.

Motivation

It’s a struggle to stay motivated after a hectic day. Even if you’re just working an office job, the mental toll a packed workload can take on you is enough to make you become a couch potato, reaching for the TV remote instead of your running shoes. This is why the most important first step is to set goals on a week-by-week basis - think of the small steps you want to achieve that won’t overwhelm you and work your way up from there.

If all you want to do is get out and run more, then downloading a Couch to 5K app is an ideal first step, and one that can fit around your schedule, with no session lasting longer than a maximum of 40 minutes. But if even that sounds daunting, try work more walks into your routine, using your lunch break as an excuse to nip out for half an hour before coming back home. This keeps your body active, and ready for whatever challenges that you may want to take on.

Then, try work out all the different ways you can make exercise fun. If you are at home and looking after your kids, why not all take part in a YouTube workout together, motivating yourself to stay active by ensuring that they do the minimum required exercise on a daily basis.

And if none of this works for you, the easiest way to motivate yourself is by watching more sports. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a live football match or a YouTube fitness tutorial - it’s the simplest way to stay motivated.

Planning

While planning an exercise routine, it’s important to remember to be flexible. If you’re dealing with a hectic workload, you must plan around this - think about what you want to achieve in terms of weeks, no single days.

If you’re really motivated, you could set your alarm a little bit earlier and get a morning run under your belt, leaving you full of energy and ready for the day. If you live with a partner or a housemate, why not schedule a run, or an online fitness class you can take part in together? And if you’re a parent and finding it difficult to schedule around those duties, why not plan for something you could all do together at the weekend, such as cycling somewhere instead of taking the car.

Getting involved with your local team

If none of this sounds right for you, but you are motivated and want to get involved, the BBC’s Get Inspired program has a list of online clubs for several different sports and activities across the UK.

Keeping up to date with the latest matches is easier than it’s ever been thanks to the number of streaming sites on the internet, with Sky Sports, NowTV, Amazon Prime and the BT Sports App giving you direct access to the latest games.

If you’re motivating yourself to get back into exercising and are looking for some inspiration, why not take a read and see if you could adopt the key skills that have made them such reliable favorites? Before you know it, you might even be on the same level.

So, if you’re looking to stay fit, our top tips are simple. Plan a week by week schedule that works around your office hours, make things fun by doing activities with friends and family where possible, and take inspiration from leading athletes as you plan your workout routine.