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No time to work out? Why the ‘good enough’ method works so well

Published

6 months ago

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No time to work out? Why the ‘good enough’ method works so well

I now know better. There were three things that changed my mind.

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The first was necessity.

I have a seven-year-old and a five-year-old. When they were born, I’d have been grateful for 15 or 20 minutes to exercise.

If I was going to stay sane and maintain some semblance of health and fitness, I quickly realised that I’d have to change my perception of what was worthwhile.

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The second was knowledge.

I’ve been writing about health and fitness at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age for about 14 years now. During that time, a body of research has emerged challenging the idea that physical activity has to be long – or structured – to be effective.

Some of the findings that stood out to me were:

  • The idea of exercise snacks where we could get bang for buck with just a few minutes of intense exercise. Earlier this year a study found that about five minutes of vigorous intensity, incidental activity every day related to a reduced risk of a serious heart event or death by as much as 38 per cent.
  • The understanding that exercise, in any way, shape or form, is integral to mood, mental health and good sleep.
  • The knowledge that sitting all day every day is damaging, and is not offset by getting a “proper” workout in.
  • And then the appreciation that there is value in incidental activity, and that there is an incremental benefit. Even if we can’t do structured exercise, all the bits of movement we do throughout the day add up. Especially if we incorporate a little huffing and puffing.

And what helped me to overcome the guilt of taking a lunch break on work days to go for a walk or to exercise was research finding that exercise improves our cognitive function at work, including attention, working memory and problem-solving.

There are also studies that show acute bursts of vigorous activity lower the markers of stress – things like blood pressure, cortisol levels, heart rate – and enable us to cope better with external stressors.

Drop the guilt and get out for regular, short breaks.Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

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The final change for me was applying these findings. I made small shifts to my routine.

In practice, it looks a little like this:

  • I do about 10 or 15 minutes of yoga when I wake up to stretch out and move my body.
  • I get out for fresh air every day. When I’m at home, if I can’t get out for a 30-minute run, I’ll sprint up a nearby hill or a flight of stairs a couple of times – done and dusted in less than 15 minutes. When I can, I walk to pick up my kids from school.
  • At work, I get up from my desk regularly to make a cup of tea or refill my water (I’ve taken to using a smaller glass, so I have to get up more regularly to refill it), I try to go for a walk at lunch and, on my way home, I often choose a bus stop that is further away to walk to.
  • I regularly practise mindful breathing while I’m sitting at my desk, and take moments to stand up and look up from my computer.
  • I still aim for longer workouts at the weekend and one or two days during the week, but on the days I can’t, I still get the instant mood lift from movement and I know that my brain fires better when I take regular short breaks. In fact, I find that taking a break creates the space for ideas to crystallise. I often don’t write articles at my desk but in my head while I’m walking.

I’ve learnt that my brain will take breaks even if my body doesn’t and by 2 or 3pm my brain starts to feel foggy, and I’m there, but not there, for the rest of the day.

Of course, there are days when none of this happens, so instead of perfect or even “just right”, I aim for “good enough”. And good enough takes some of the pressure off so that it becomes more of a pleasure than an obligation.

So even if we don’t always get it just right, my take home for good enough is that every moment of movement counts.

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Fitness

Put the fun back in your fitness routine with this 10-minute follow-along workout from The Curvy Girl Trainer Lacee Green

Published

2 hours ago

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April 22, 2026

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Put the fun back in your fitness routine with this 10-minute follow-along workout from The Curvy Girl Trainer Lacee Green

Ever feel like beginner-friendly workouts are anything but?

That’s how BODi Super Trainer Lacee Green felt, so she devised a three-week, entry-level program designed for genuine newcomers to exercise—or those just getting back into it.

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Higher fitness levels linked to lower risk of depression, dementia – Harvard Health

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14 hours ago

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April 21, 2026

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Higher fitness levels linked to lower risk of depression, dementia – Harvard Health
research review

People with high cardiorespiratory fitness were 36% less likely to experience depression and 39% less likely to develop dementia than those with low cardiorespiratory fitness. Even small improvements in fitness were linked to a lower risk. Experts believe that exercise’s ability to boost blood flow to the brain, reduce bodywide inflammation, and improve stress regulation may explain the connection.

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Fitness

These 20-Minute Burpee Workouts Replaced His Entire Gym Routine – and Transformed His Physique

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1 day ago

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April 21, 2026

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These 20-Minute Burpee Workouts Replaced His Entire Gym Routine – and Transformed His Physique

While many swear by them, most people see burpees as a form of punishment – usually dished out drill sergeant-style by overzealous bootcamp PTs. Often the final blow in an already brutal workout, burpees are designed to test cardiovascular fitness, muscular endurance and mental grit. Love them or loathe them, they deliver every time.

For Max Edwards – aka Busy Dad Training on YouTube – they became a simple but highly effective way to stay fit and lean during lockdown. Once a committed powerlifter, spending upwards of 80 minutes a day in the gym, he was forced to overhaul his approach due to fatherhood, lockdown and a schedule that no longer allowed for long, structured lifting sessions.

‘Even though I was putting in hours and hours into the gym and even though my physique was pretty good, I wasn’t becoming truly excellent at any physical discipline,’ he explained in a YouTube video.

‘I loved the intentionality of training,’ says Edwards. ‘The fact that every session has a point, every rep in every set is helping you get towards a training goal, and I loved that there was a clear way of gauging progression – feeling like I was developing competence and moving towards mastery.’

Why He Walked Away From Powerlifting

Despite that structure, Edwards began to question whether powerlifting was sustainable long-term.

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‘My sessions were very taxing on my central nervous system. I was exhausted between sessions. It felt as if I needed at least nine hours of sleep each night just to function.’

He also noted that his appetite was consistently high.

But the biggest drawback was time.

‘I could not justify taking 80 minutes a day away from my family for what felt like a self-centred pursuit,’ he says.

A Simpler Approach That Stuck

‘Over the course of that year I fixed my relationship with alcohol and I developed, for the first time in my adult life, a relationship with physical training,’ says Edwards.

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With limited time and no access to equipment, he turned to burpees. Just two variations, four times a week, with each session lasting 20 minutes.

‘My approach in each workout was very simple. On a six-count training day I would do as many six-counts as I possibly could within 20 minutes. On a Navy Seal training day I would do as many Navy Seal burpees as I could within 20 minutes – then in the next workout I would simply try to beat the number I had managed previously.’

This style of training is known as AMRAP – as many reps (or rounds) as possible.

The Results

Edwards initially saw the routine as nothing more than a six-month stopgap to stay in shape. But that quickly changed.

‘I remember catching sight of myself in the mirror one morning and I was utterly baffled by the man I saw looking back at me.’

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He found himself in the best shape of his life. His energy levels improved, his resting heart rate dropped and his physique changed in ways that powerlifting hadn’t quite delivered.

‘It has been five years since I have set foot in a gym,’ he says. ‘That six-month training practice has become the defining training practice of my life – and for five years I have trained for no more than 80 minutes per week.’

The Burpee Workouts

1/ 6-Count Burpees

20-minute AMRAP, twice a week

How to do them:

  • Start standing, feet shoulder-width apart
  • Crouch down and place your hands on the floor (count 1)
  • Jump your feet back into a high plank (count 2)
  • Lower into the bottom of a push-up (count 3)
  • Push back up to plank (count 4)
  • Jump your feet forward to your hands (count 5)
  • Stand up straight (count 6)

20-minute AMRAP, twice a week

How to do them:

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  • Start standing, feet shoulder-width apart
  • Crouch down and place your hands on the floor
  • Jump your feet back into a high plank
  • Perform a push-up (chest to floor)
  • At the top, bring your right knee to your right elbow, then return
  • Perform another push-up
  • Bring your left knee to your left elbow, then return
  • Perform a third push-up
  • Jump your feet forward
  • Stand or jump to finish
Headshot of Kate Neudecker

Kate is a fitness writer for Men’s Health UK where she contributes regular workouts, training tips and nutrition guides. She has a post graduate diploma in Sports Performance Nutrition and before joining Men’s Health she was a nutritionist, fitness writer and personal trainer with over 5k hours coaching on the gym floor. Kate has a keen interest in volunteering for animal shelters and when she isn’t lifting weights in her garden, she can be found walking her rescue dog.

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