I know many of you are in college. Exam time is very stressful, I remember it well. The pressure to do well. The vast numbers of papers to write. The seemingly hopeless number of subjects to study for. The first reaction of many folks is to quit working out during this stressful time – DONT! Remember this:
Working out is the only thing that can keep your sanity during this stressful time. Working out increases your alertness, ability to concentrate, your mood, and the quality of your sleep. This would be a great time though to change to a very time efficient workout, which definitely means a home workout with very little rest between sets. You could do something very simple like a 15min run followed by a 15 minutes of zero rest, round robin pushups, pullups, and lunges. If you really want to do weights then do complexes which gives you your cardio and weights all in the same compact 30 minute workout.
Now, what to do about nutrition. Every second counts during exam time and you cant waste a single one. I normally dont recommend TV dinners but this is a perfect time to fill your freezer with the *healthy* TV dinners – those by weightwatchers, lean cuisine, or equivalent. Yes, they are highly processed. Yes, they have more sodium than I like. But they are well balanced meals low in fat, far better than vending machines or fast food. If you get these frozen dinners on sale, they are actually less expensive than eating at a fast food restaurant. Eating well is vital to keeping your brain in top gear.
Its not just your body that benefits, its your psyche. We have all experienced this, we stop working out because “we dont have time”. We start to feel like a blob, we feel fat, our joints get creaky, we feel stiff, our digestion system rebels, we feel guilty, our mood declines, and perhaps we get a bit resentful at whatever is keeping us from our beloved healthy lifestyle. Can you imagine effectively studying for exams if you feel like that? Of course not! Its not just your body that suffers when you stop working out and let your nutrition go! That quick 30 minute daily workout is the best thing you can possibly do for your GPA!
Good luck during exams!