A workout lasting a day or how to train if you feel lazy or have no time

Author: Mikhail Ziborov - author of the site makefitness.pro.
2022-09-12

What does training mean to you? Most likely, it involves going to the gym (or starting to work out at home) and dedicating 1-1.5 hours to moving around, sweating, grunting, and leaving tired to rest. But what if this approach to training doesn't appeal to you or, quite simply, you don't have the time and energy for it? Then I have something to offer you – stretching your workout throughout the entire day. Interested? Well, we have many different interesting and unconventional solutions regarding weight loss, training, nutrition, and more. Come and see for yourself if you need this.

The Principle of Splitting Workouts

Splitting workouts (also known as fractional training or all-day workouts) is a principle where you dedicate time to sports not in a fixed session (1-1.5 hours), but instead break your training time into small parts scattered throughout the day. Simplifying, it looks like this: you work, do a set, work again, do another set, and so on until the end of the day.

The main advantages of this approach to training are the increase in pleasure hormones and, consequently, an increase in productivity, as well as the ability to train when you feel too lazy or simply have no time.

Physical activity increases dopamine concentration in the blood: you feel better (more motivated), and productivity and efficiency improve (both physical and mental). Dopamine is the pleasure hormone. For example, in this study, people with lower levels of this hormone learned better from their mistakes when it increased.

In short, with the increase of pleasure hormones, a person's well-being improves. I can confirm this from my own experience (I noticed this effect even before I studied the issue): during and after a workout, you feel like moving more, engaging in something useful, learning something new, and you gain more motivation for tasks, etc.

And if you train throughout the day, then dopamine will be produced continuously (even in small doses).

Who Will Benefit from Split Workouts

1. The Lazy Ones. Those who need to be motivated to work on their bodies and health. The split workout approach allows for a gentle entry into the training process:

- it doesn’t take much time (the duration of one set is 30-45 seconds – that’s just a tiny amount);

- it doesn’t require much effort (one set followed by 10 minutes of rest is much easier than three classic sets in the same time);

- it will provide the motivation to train if you have previously struggled to start, with a gradual increase in volume and intensity of workouts (over time, instead of doing 15 push-ups per set, you do 17, and so on, gradually transitioning to classic training).

2. People with Tight Schedules. Many cannot spare 1-2 hours for sports due to a busy daily schedule. However, if exercises are performed throughout the day, workouts can be squeezed into your schedule. The main thing is to find a place where you can squat, do push-ups, and perform other exercises (for glutes, shoulders, etc.). The specific exercises you need to do can be found at the link above.

3. People with Excess Weight or Obesity. Excess body weight puts strain on the musculoskeletal system and cardiovascular system. Therefore, the loads should be gradual. But at the same time, it is urgent to lose weight. Understand? You need to lose weight, but at the same time, you shouldn’t overexert yourself: what to do? Splitting your workout throughout the day can help: you neither overexert yourself nor stop burning calories.

But you should know that rapid weight loss is not so much about physical activity as it is about specific nutrition, which allows significantly reduce subcutaneous fat in a short time.

4. People with Office or Home-Based Jobs. The problem with such work is either that there’s no time or that you get too exhausted (naturally, you don’t feel like working out). The principle of “do a set – sit down to work, do a set – sit down to work” allows for both more productive work and training.

Overall, this type of training is suitable for anyone who wants to but cannot train for some reason. You just need to find a place where you can perform the exercises. It’s simple: squats (for women, for example) require only a space of 2 by 2 meters. Push-ups (for men, typically) also don’t need much space. And in that 2 by 2 meters, there are so many exercises you can choose from that you won’t be able to do them all.

Are you worried that people at the office will be watching you? Tell them to mind their own business: their opinion of you won’t benefit you at all, but push-ups/squats will certainly help. Besides, there should be some sort of break rooms in offices, corners (perhaps with mops, which wouldn’t bother me at all)? Those who want to find opportunities; those who don’t want to find excuses.

How to Properly Split a Workout Throughout the Day

Firstly, you need to determine your workout program (with a list of exercises to do). For instance, men often want a toned torso and arms, while women are more interested in toned glutes and slim legs. All of this is available on our site makefitness.pro: visit, choose a free program, and use it.

Secondly, you now need to break this program into parts. This is easy to do: take the first exercise from the program (let's say it’s squats – 4 sets of 15-20 repetitions each).

You do 15-20 squats (this is the first set of this exercise) and then go back to working on the computer. After some time (this could be 3-5-10-15 minutes or even more), you get up from the desk and do the second set of 15-20 repetitions. Sit back down at your workstation. And so, you perform all 4 sets.

After that, move on to the second exercise from the program and perform it in the same manner. In general, by the end of the workday, you should complete the whole program. Just please don’t let yourself cool down too much after completing a set: sometimes you get too focused and approach the next exercise feeling "cold" (various strains: do you need that?).

In brief: Take your training program, split it throughout the day. That’s all. That’s the whole principle.