For most of us, time is the number one excuse for not exercising. We have commitments to spouses, job, family obligations, among other things.

Quite often, time to train and workout is at a premium. So those weeks or months that you find you have a lot on your plate, you should not make excuses, just plan to train smart. Rather than cut out workouts, just make the most of your time.

The workouts I design aren’t really that long to begin with, but when my boys have me up at night, or work demands drain my energy, even a short workout can be tough. When I’m feeling this way, I find that when I’m strength training, two all-out exercises are all I want to handle. So I came up with a week’s worth of workouts that take care of every major movement, and is based on the big three lifts – squat, bench and deadlift. All I’ve done is round out each workout with another plane of movement, so in that week all movements are accounted for.

I admit this workout is nothing ground breaking, but it always helps me get through those weeks that training time is at a premium, or I’m lacking energy. So here it is. No more excuses now!

Monday: Squat 3×5, Row 3×5

Wednesday: Bench Press, 3×5 Pull Up 3×5

Friday: Deadlift 3×5, Push Press 3×5

On off days, try and get on the bike for even 10 minutes of medium to low intensity work. This will help keep you in the training mindset, will help with recovery, and will also help keep your energy levels up. Next time you find yourself making an excuse about time to exercise, give these workouts a try.