Level up your life

How to make time to exercise, and level up your life.

The conundrum

Every once in a while I think, “Wouldn’t it be nice if I had time to exercise.” I can make time on an infrequent basis to get a workout done after work, but more often than not, something comes up and the workout gets shelved. So how do you make time when you don’t have time?

The solution

For me the solution was to turn my commute into my workout. I began cycling to work. Fans of the F.I.R.E. movement will have already heard the financial arguments for cycling. If you can do away with most of your car based travel you can save large amounts of money that can go toward your F.I. goals. But what about your time? Doesn’t cycling slowly around town eat up all your spare time?

The math-ing

What if you could get that workout, cycle to work, and still have extra time left over for whatever you want to do with your life! Here is the fuzzy math that makes it all possible. You take your current commute time. For me this is 25-30 minutes each way, so about an hour a day. Add in your desired workout time per day. Lets call this an hour as well. Factor in your longevity score, and then do the math. If I continue to commute by car and give up on working out, my total time is one hour per day. If I commute by car and workout after hours, that’s two hours per day. If I instead cycle to work it will take me 40 to 45 minutes each way , so about an hour and a half. So now I can get an hour an a half of exercise for the cost for only a half an hour of time spend outside of commute time. I’ve saved at least half an hour per day over the other “good” solution of commuting by car and working out after work. But that wasn’t realistic for me. I’m still “losing” half an hour compared to my previous solution of driving to work and exercising once in a blue moon. What about the extra half hour that I’m “wasting” by cycling to work?

Fuzzy math and longevity

Do you get that half hour back in increased health and longevity? Research says yes. Riding a longish (10 miles) commute by bike puts you in the upper tier of longevity increases, gaining approximately three and a half years of life expectancy. I’m now 42 so “spending” half an hour per day, 5 days per week, 52 weeks per year from now till I turn 92 gives 271 days of time “lost” due to the slowness of my bicycle and legs compared to my car. But I gain 3.5 years, or 1278 days of extended life! That’s roughly 5 to 1. For those that don’t want to read the linked article, this does account for the slight increased risk that cycling poses per mile versus driving. The extension of life is also accompanied by a better quality of life as well. Exercise has been linked to so many health benefits, that it is almost a universal remedy.

Snow and ice?

Neither snow nor rain nor gloom of night? When the weather turns grumpy Mr. Money Moustache will tell you to cut the complainy pants and just ride. Dress for the weather and go anyway. I’m a bit more hedonistic than he is, so I stay in when it starts getting icy. Instead I go Zwifting. It’s much more enjoyable than a solo workout, and I’m able to keep the motivation up during the winter months.