#78 Training For Busy People

Being “too busy” is not a character flaw, it is a planning problem. Daniel and I get blunt about why so many training plans fail real people with real lives: the coaches who say they train busy people often have no clue what a genuinely packed week looks like. So we break it down into something that actually works when you have kids to collect, deadlines to hit, commutes to survive, and maybe 30 to 45 minutes to yourself. 
 
We talk through time-boxed workouts, smart supersets, and how to organise training around movement patterns so you can walk into a busy gym and still get the job done with a bench and a pair of dumbbells. We also cover why heavy compounds are not always the best tool for time-poor lifters, how to make efficient swaps that cut warm-up time, and why full body programming keeps you consistent even when you miss a session. If you want a realistic strength training plan for busy schedules, this is the framework we use again and again. 
 
We also dig into sustainability: training around what you enjoy, starting with less to earn consistency, and using a three-plus-one structure so “bonus” sessions never turn into guilt. Finally, we call out the biggest silent time-waster in the gym: doomscrolling between sets, and how to protect your focus so you are in and out with a proper session done. If you found this helpful, subscribe, share it with a busy mate, and leave a review so more people can train without turning their whole life upside down.

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Transcript

Welcome And The Busy Problem

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey guys, you're listening to the Gen Pop Podcast with me, your host, Larry Doyle. Each week, I'm gonna bring in friends, guests, and experts to help enhance your health, fitness, and wellness journeys. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the conversations.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

You are welcome back to another episode of the Gen Pop Podcast. And this week, Coal Host, Daniel, and I, we are gonna talk about how to plan your training for busy people. We hear this all the time. I coach busy people, but the fucking coaches who are coaching busy people do not have a clue what busy people do. There's a major disconnect within the industry of the busy people and the coaches of the busy people. Daniel, let's talk about this. Uh, it's one I think we need to dive into and dissect a little bit to create a little bit of clarity and demystify some bullshit that's out there.

Time-Boxed Workouts And Supersets

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Yeah, I mean, I guess everyone is going to have their own idea of like what busy is, and like we could get into like trying to, you know, create a productive day so that you can have more time to go to the gym. But like the easiest thing to implement is actually just like adjusting your training rather than trying to adjust your entire life to try and fit an actual training plan. So one of the things I like to do is trying to create kind of like time restricted training blocks, for example. It's like to even just set a timer for 30 minutes and just get what you can done within those 30 minutes. So like you can do things like EDT style training, um, or you can just simply have like uh your say your main four movements that you like and then have you know, say superset off of those movements. So like I kind of like to go from like large muscle group to a smaller muscle group, so even go from sort of like a leg press to a lateral raise, for example. Like a lot of people kind of go the opposite with supersets where they go from like say a leg press to lunges or a leg press to another quad movement. When I prefer to go and go with like large muscle group, small muscle group, because it's gonna be like not much of a carryover in terms of like fatigue, and it's something that you can do in the same position. You won't have to like go across the other side of the gym to you know get another piece of equipment or whatever that if you kind of keep things in a smaller space or like in a in a smaller environment within the gym, it's going to like increase your chances to actually get more work done. Because we see it time and time again as well with people, they'll say, like, oh, I went to the gym and it was incredibly busy, so I couldn't get to the machines and like I didn't really know what to do. I didn't know what the equivalent was. Whereas if you can create like a really good plan based around like a bench and a couple of dumbbells, like you can just go over to a corner and just like bang out half an hour of work there, and that's it. You've ticked off every box.

Movement Patterns Over Exercises

Faster Warm-Ups With Smart Swaps

SPEAKER_02 2:34

Yeah, that's huge. And when you can have that kind of low friction, and we talk about this all the time, it's like the lower the friction, the easier you're going to get it done. I like people to think about it in movement patterns as opposed to specific exercises as well, where I want you to have again, like your stereotypical full body split, I want you to have a squat pattern, a hinge pattern, a push pattern, a pull pattern, and anything after that's a nice bonus if you're busy, if you're genuinely busy, you've got 30 minutes to get in and get it done, get some high quality work done. But then it's also looking at those who are restricted in the amount of time that they have to exercise. I know for me, if I plan on doing deadlifts or squats or whatever it might be, I'm 40, plenty of rust on the joints. It takes me long, longer, way longer now to warm up than it used to. So I need to like do a load of joint preparation, I need to do like a load of warm-ups, a load of activation stuff. And it's like 28 minutes by the time I'm into like my first work set if I'm going to do a big pattern like that. So almost removing some of the compounds can actually allow people to get on with a lot more work, reducing the overall load that they might be lifting. Because I know relatively strong on some movements, it's going to take me longer to warm up to them as well. So this is where if it's a squat pattern, that can be a Bulgarian split squat. And this is why I like them so much, because you can get into your work sets pretty damn quick with them as opposed to like warming up a ton of mobilization with joints and activation and building up. But then pairing that with, you know, an upper body movement. So you've got your bent over all paired up with a Bulgarian split squat. You're getting so much work done in such a short time frame, and it's a hell of a lot more efficient than doing a back squat, doing a deadlift, getting in, warming up, spending 20 minutes with all the activation and building up and ramping up your nervous system, yada yada yada. You're just getting in and getting quality work done from the get-go. And I think that's really something that to reinforce the people that are genuinely busy. It's like, how efficient can we make it? How much quality can we get in that short time frame as opposed to just quantity? Um, one big part of is like eliminating all the fluff and filler. A lot of the way I'll program a lot of my stuff is like always going to be like your big prime movers, but the most important stuff is always going to be first, and then the least important is going to be last. That if you end up getting caught, you can only get half that session done. You've got the main meat and veg, and the dessert is for afterwards, whatever as well to you with it all. Um something I've been leaning into a lot more with people lately is that full body programming approach as opposed to the upper body, lower body split. And the main reason is that as well, if I've got upper, lower or push-pull legs, let's say for a traditional example with it all, if someone can only get to that gym twice that week, now they've missed one full major section of that body, that they've missed all the legs, or they've missed all the push or they've missed all the pull. When we get into that full body, you're getting push-pull legs every single session. And it's like all the prime movers are hit, a lot of the main functionality exercises are done. And if you miss a session, yeah, you've lost some volume over the week, but it's no big drama. You have your legs ticked off, you have the upper body, you have the push, you have the pull ticked off as well, too. And now there's less stress associated with it of trying to play catch-up or feeling like they've left behind like a lot of like high-quality work because they didn't get in to get their leg session done or whatever as well. And this is like where you people say, Oh, I feel guilty because I missed the session, but that's life. They had to do some other shit, and that was grand. But when you tick a lot of the boxes with that kind of full body approach, absolutely going to be a hell of a lot more efficient and effective. Um, what a let's say what you would have traditionally done versus what you're doing now with people, how much has that changed with kind of I guess we've all learned a little bit more about what busy people are actually needing and demanding and what their lifestyles are really like. What changes have you made uh in terms of the approach with busy people?

SPEAKER_00 6:18

I think an element of like over the years, I think by the how I kind of prescribe exercise as change in general, but like when I am kind of looking at a lot of people now, not just busy people, like a lot of what I take into consideration is what they enjoy doing. So it's like finding that crossover between what they enjoy doing and what I feel would be effective. Because I think if you can again find that um that point between both, that's ultimately going to bring them results, but it's also going to enable them to get to the gym and sustain going to the gym over like a longer period of time because a lot of the time uh people will just have these expectations based off of you know, compare themselves to where they were previously before they had like a very demanding job, before they had a family and kids, and they'll try and fit that same mold again of training four, five, six, possibly seven times a week or whatever ridiculous training programs they were following, and it simply just isn't going to be realistic for them. But if you can kind of like extract from that what they liked, maybe it was the exercise they liked in that in those sessions, for example, and then maybe scale it back to like say a three-day split, for example, like a full body split. You could even kind of like just frame it as, okay, we'll start with a three-day split, see how that goes. And if we feel that we actually can add in a four-day, we can do it then. And more often than not, you will people would report back and say, No, actually, do you know what I'm actually happy with the three-day split because now I actually can fit in more time with the kids. I can fit in like a golf session per week that I wasn't able to do before, and I was always killing myself to kind of focus more on my hobbies. I find I have more energy in the mornings because I'm not, you know, over-training throughout the week training five, six, seven days a week already stressing about trying to fit in that. So I always try and, as I said, find a combination of like what they really enjoy and what they need, and then kind of like just let it kind of take uh shape over time. Like if they do find, no, do you know what I really want to train at four day and I know that it is available now, and I've seen that they've kind of proven that like right, they actually do have the free time to do it, then we can look at kind of manipulating things. But I always try and like start off with a bit less, and more often than not, when people like get their uh initial questionnaires across to me and they kind of like say that they're training you know five days a week or they'd like to train five days a week, I'll usually start them off with like a day less and say, right, prove to me that you actually stay consistent with less. And if we can prove that, and I see that there is a value in increasing the uh amount of training sessions per week, then that's when we can adjust things. But I think if we can get more from less, ultimately, I think you're gonna have a far better experience.

Full Body Training For Consistency

Train What You Enjoy

SPEAKER_02 8:45

Yeah. That's something I've changed a lot on over the years, is moving away from my own personal biases and preferences and actually assessing the individual's preferences and biases. If you like dancing in your garden with a hula hoop for your cardio, fucking have at it. I don't want you on an inclined treadmill or a stair mill doing, you know, your zone two, whatever. It's like ultimately the thing you like and your preferences, whether it comes to uh dietary approaches, whether it comes to training approaches, whether it comes to any approach with anything at all, you're gonna lean into the stuff you like that little bit more, and you're gonna find friction and resistance in the stuff that you do not like. And if you come in and say to me, I hate bench press, I'm scared of my life of it, I tore my peck on it before and blah, blah, blah. And I said, Well, I don't care, I'm bench press is optimal, you're not gonna fucking do it. And if you do, you're gonna half-ass it and you're not gonna really put any effort or uh get much return from it, and you're not really gonna enjoy it, and ultimately you're gonna have less buy-in in the whole process. Um, yes, there is wants and needs that if you know if someone comes in and they want to develop their lower body or want to develop a chest and arms, but they don't really want to train arms, well then you know, we need to manage the expectations around a goal with that. Uh, but at the same point, it's like, what is the client's preferences? What are their needs and how we can match that up? Because again, we know that people, if they can increase the quality of their sessions, we can reduce the quantity of those sessions as well, too, right? So it's peeling it back from that four to a three. But something I like to do then is like, okay, we have a three plus one style program that let's say you have a great week and everything is nice and clean and clear and free. Well, do your plus one and that's a bonus on top. But the three is what we need is the minimum basics to be able to improve strength, improve muscle mass, and do the things that we want to have with a positive impact. And the plus one might be a bit of a pump or a bro or a you know bodybuilding session, whatever, because it's nice, it's not too impacting on the nervous system, and now to get a bit of what they want, what they need, and it flows right well. But uh on the other weeks when they can only get into three, there's no real panic or guilt associated by missing a session. That if they didn't get that plus one, it's a very different way of framing it, but people take a very different approach to it. Now it's much less stress associated with that as well, too. Um, which is really, really key, and and I they quite enjoy it. Because people will have busy weeks, so we need to factor that in as well, too, as opposed to no, no, this is Larry split, and you must do that because you have to follow these rules and fuck your life, basically, uh, which doesn't roll in for busy people because quite frankly, a lot of busy people and the people we deal with, it's not the be-all and end all for them to go to the gym seven days a week. They don't care for tracking and logging all their loads all the time, they don't care for the optimal hypertrophy split, they just want to get in, live some shit, get out and feel good for it, and they've got limited time to do that. So, how can we reduce the friction for them to be able to do the thing that we want them to do to get the outcome that they want? That's going to be the key to ultimately unlocking progress and process with that. Um, so when we look at the actual program, and then uh obviously, if someone wants to get stronger, they want to build some muscle mass, we need to factor that in, we need to have, you know, trying to hit a set amount of volume per week. And if you are training three times per week, we need to look at how much volume we can squeeze in. I've kind of leaned away from a little bit, particularly with guys, of having to have so much lower body volume in there because most lads don't really give a shit. I'm not giving them permission fully to skip leg day, but if they want a bigger chest shoulders and arms, Jesus, give them more chest shoulders and arms volume across the week, then as well too, right? Obviously, make it make sense with the programming. But, you know, if someone wants to build their lower body and they want a massive arse that they can rest a protein shaker on, cool. It's like let's put in glutes three days a week. We don't need to have that much like hashtag balance with the approach as well of optimizing all the body parts, because that mightn't be that individual's preference as well too. Obviously, we want to make sure there's no injuries going to be accumulated from that volume, etc. But you know, if that's the goal of having more specific volume targeted towards those muscle groups, give it to them every single day. There's no problem with that. Um, some people's weeks might fall that they can only train three days back to back. Yes, we may need to look at that, that we don't have reoccurrent movement patterns on those days where we can uh improve recovery, but then also the trainability on the following days. But ideally, you might have it split uh over the week to allow for more sufficient recovery, but you're also not going to break and fall apart if you need to have days back to back with sessions as well. Um, what other factors are you looking at that need to be incorporated from a recovery point of view, Daniel, with training for those with uh busy uh lifestyles?

SPEAKER_00 13:09

I always prefer when people are like ridiculously busy, is trying your best to actually get the sessions done first thing in the morning because like you kind of effectively have the rest of the day to kind of recover then. Because let's say, for example, if you are working like an incredibly stressful job, you're time restricted and you're spending your entire day sitting down in an office or whatever, um, and you're getting your head eaten off you by a bus, and then you're going to the gym afterwards and you're already stressed, you're likely not in the best position to kind of like train. You're like your mind is gonna be elsewhere, you're probably just going to want to go home, your desires are gonna be in the gym, so you're probably gonna be having like sub-par sessions anyway. So, like if you don't see that like you're making progress session to session, like if you see your numbers are going down, or if you find it like the enjoyment factor just isn't there, you're not gonna be able to sustain it. So, where possible, if you can do it, I always kind of like favor and for the most part, not even for just like people who are like very, very busy. I just prefer people to get their sessions done first thing in the morning because it kind of I think it is the one area where we have probably a bit more time to ourselves than we realise is to actually just get up that bit earlier. And again, it's gonna have a knock-in effect, you're probably gonna force yourself to get to bed that bit earlier as well, that you're not gonna spending all that extra time on your phone or you know watching that extra episode of something on Netflix. Um, so I think if you can kind of take it off early, I think it does make a massive impact on not just your like uh sustainability of your training, but I think of recovery as well, because you're gonna be a bit fresher and like fair enough, you might need to warm up a small bit more, but I think like it's gonna require a lot less kind of like mental and physical kind of preparedness to train first thing in the morning than would be to kind of train after like a ridiculously stressful day that might include like you know two commutes to and from work and then like dealing with all the stresses of work and then dealing with work commitments and dooming deadlines and then try to make it home so you can take one of your kids to training. So I think trying to take it off as early as possible as you can in the day and possibly week, I think is gonna be beneficial as well.

Three-Plus-One Programming And Priorities

SPEAKER_02 15:03

Yeah, it's front loading it because again, if the day gets on top or the week gets on top, if you it's very easy for uh momentum to be broken leading in towards the weekend and like a lot of people starting their training week coming on a Thursday, chances are probably not going to be done. So the earlier you can rip off that band-aid in the week, uh, it's really, really key to get on and get that done as well too. Um, an approach I do like to take uh with training sessions is to have maybe some of the sessions factored that they're a little bit harder and some of the sessions that they're a little bit easier. That we look at your hard life days, you put your easy training days on. And then on your easy life days, you put your hard training days on as well too. Because, you know, if you've got a super heavy day with meetings back to back, you don't like and absolutely smash yourself into the ground doing like a load of heavy compounds prior to that as well, too. Now, listen, people aren't made of glass, they're not that fragile. We can handle a bit of shit. But if you have a really hard training session, chances are you should put that on an easy day where you've got better ability to recover from that. You're not gonna have too much demands mentally and physically on yourself as well too. So this might be where you might have a session on the weekend or maybe on a Friday if it's an easier day for you, and that's cool. But the other sessions, look at your easier sessions, put them on your hard days. Chances are you're gonna be able to take that off and get that done as well too. And now all of a sudden there's less friction to get it done. Because if you're tired, if you're fatigued, you're getting out of bed and you're peeling yourself in, it's like, oh, fuck, I have to go do like some heavy deadlifts or squats or whatever this morning. One, you can substitute them out and do alternative movements to that. That's cool. But if you really need to get them done and want to get them done, put them on your easier days, and chances are you're gonna get them done and have a better session with that as well too. But then there's also that knock-on effect, and I think it compounds a lot that when you can get that training session done and you have a productive training session with it, the chances of you leaning into your food that little bit more, the chances of you um having better sleep and recovery those days and focusing that little bit better on it, that all elevates as well. So it's often that horizon tide that floats all boats there as well, too, from that front. Um, so to kind of look at a bit of a wrap-up on this, it's like training three days a week, very productive. Training with high quality intent for those three sessions a week, very productive. Um, a lot of people think that you need to max out and you need to train five, six, seven days a week, not remotely necessary at all. If you've got the time and the luxury and the availability to do it, cool. And you can do that over the week, deadly have at it. But you do not have to spend all of your life in the gym to get in shape. A lot of it is gonna be uh hinged upon the other 23 hours of the day. So if we can get some high quality work done, 45 minutes, you know, kind of tops with a session three times a week, you're gonna get sufficient volume, sufficient intensity, sufficient loading that you will have sufficient results from that as well, too. Um that's also not gonna have you leaning into having to force recovery or having to take days off because you're so fatigued and tired, too. Um, other leave-in points that you want people to take from this, Daniel, uh, to kind of wrap it up on this one.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Yeah, I think one thing we actually didn't mention um that just came to my mind uh is something that we'll see with clients an awful lot, is especially that we have apps that we use for coaching, is people will be leaving the app and then going to different apps of while they're training. So you kind of have to look at the how you're using the time while you're in the gym as well. Because like if you're still going to like Instagram or going check your emails or going to TikTok or whatever it is in the gym, like you're wasting time that you said that you didn't have in the first place. So if you can, it might be a good idea to you know actually write your sessions out physically in a notebook so you can keep your phone in your locker, keep your phone in your bag or whatever, so that when you go into the gym, you're just focused on what you're doing for that 30, 45 minutes, whatever it is, so you're in and out. Because like you're solving the problems you said you had in the first place. There, like if you're going to the gym and that's the time you start going on TikTok or it's the time you go on Instagram, it's like it's no wonder you don't have the time to get in shape because you literally not give yourself that time. So if you can kind of remove that barrier that you have, it's gonna make it a lot easier to actually take off that box of you know being consistent with your training three days a week.

Recovery Timing And Morning Sessions

SPEAKER_02 18:51

Yeah, if you're gonna do the thing, go do the damn thing and just get on with it. Because now you've made that time to get there, make it as proficient and efficient as you possibly can that you'll actually be able to get the return results on it. Like you shouldn't have time if you're doing a 30 to 45 minute session to be fluting around in between onsets. Uh, yes, absolutely. So I would strongly suggest on that. Block those apps, you're there on the way in, block those apps, uh, delete them, erase them, put them in a place that's harder to get if you need to, but just be rigid with that, that you're not going in and out, you're not procrastinating because everything is designed that is on your phone to distract you and to take your focus away from where it needs to be. So be mindful of that. That if you're going into the gym, yes, you might have an app and you might have a session there, just log it. Do not get into that doom scrolling type uh approach or get into that habit loop of open the app, close the app, go to Instagram, close Instagram, check on Facebook, refresh my emails, check WhatsApp. The world is still gonna be there when you get out after your session, but you're gonna be feeling infinitely better that you've ticked all the boxes and you've had a really productive session, as opposed to going in and fluting around and half arsenal as well, too. So, yeah, I think definitely taking that proactive approach and minimizing distractions while in the gym is absolutely gonna be key to get the highest quality session that you can possibly get. Uh, this has been pretty productive this session as well, too. We're gonna keep this nice and short because we want you to keep your session short and to the point because we're all busy people. So, until the next one, Daniel, it's been an absolute pleasure.