I never understood the weekend warrior mentality or how people couldn't find time to workout. I used to always be able to find an hour of the day to workout.
Then I had my first child....
Gone are the days of extended warm ups, lengthy mobility sessions, long duration metabolic conditioning, and intermittent correctives.
Now I'm lucky if I can cram a quick 30 minute workout a couple times during the week. My best workouts now have to be during the weekends when my partner can take Remi duties for an hour to let me have at it.
I've figured out a couple ways to keep a healthy movement lifestyle: quick workouts at lunch, blood flow restriction training, going for walks with the family, making ground time a little more productive, and working on my posture (I finally understand Chris Johnson's quote "when I can't work out I just work on my posture").
But one of my favorite ways of maintaining some sort of movement health has been Greasing The Groove (GTG) or synaptic facilitation training.
Greasing The Groove
Greasing The Groove is a neurological type of training. Its about intensity and volume. Not duration. It avoids overtaining or fatigue states.
It's essentially practicing a certain movement intermittently throughout the day. Think of that as skill practice.
By practicing the movement in a non-fatigued state (most injuries occur in fatigued states), your body develops efficient neurological connections to facilitate a more optimal movement pattern.
It's practicing only at your best, so you become your best. It's not practicing to failure, so you become your failure.
It's like going sledding in the snow. If you do too many runs too quickly it'll wear out and you'll be sledding on grass. But if you do the right amount over time, then the track becomes smoother and better grooved.
An Example
I'm lucky to work in a field where exercise equipment is abundant. So I set up a little mini circuit that I can perform almost every hour.
The circuit I usually do is: trap bar deadlifts, pull-ups, and TRX push-ups.
It takes less than 3 minutes to complete because I am not going to failure. Just doing a couple reps of each.
By the end of the day I usually get 8-10 rounds. Which ends up being a decent amount of volume without taking a huge chunk of my time or over fatiguing myself.
I try to do this 1-2x/week.
But it doesn't matter what the circuit is. It just matters that you move well, and move often.
Just pick 1-3 movements and try to do it every hour.