We’ve all been there. You started working out and felt so good about it. Your energy levels are up. You feel good about your body. You’re feeling stronger. But then you have a bad week, a long week, a tiring one, and you’re just ready to relax and recover.

I’ll be the first to tell you it’s okay, but if you’re worried about breaking a habit you worked hard for, don’t worry, there are some things you can do to keep it in your head and not feel like you’re starting all over again.

I call them my ‘better than nothing’ workouts because they really have saved me on the days where I feel too tired to tackle my usual workout load but I know I won’t hear the end of it from my anxiety if I don’t do something.

The “all-or-nothing” trap

The problem is we often think that if we can’t do a full hour long gym session, it’s not worth doing anything at all. But that’s absolutely not the case.

What you need to do is retrain your brain by reframing things. You need to teach yourself consistency is what matters. It’s not always about how hard you’re going at it, especially if you want your body to recover. I know from experience if I let my body have an active recovery day where I’m still moving, just not as intensely, then I feel better and stronger within the next day or two.

The 5-minute rule

Give yourself permission to stop after 5-minutes of movement. Spoiler alert: once you start, it can be hard to stop so be prepared for that. Try sticking to bodyweight exercises that don’t require any equipment while you’re waiting for the microwave or airfryer to cook your food or while the oven is heating up.

You can also break these 5 minute bursts up throughout the day to keep your mind and habit satisfied. Think of them as movement snacks that you can do when you brain is bugging you about being lazy.

Two “emergency” routines

Sometimes you feel trapped at your desk or like you’ve been slouching on the couch watching movies or playing games for too long. Trust me, I’ve been there too. When this leaves my brain feeling a bit restless, I turn to these quick and easy emergency routines:

• Routine A (The Desk Reset): 10 neck circles, 10 shoulder rolls, and 60 seconds of standing calf raises.
• Routine B (The Living Room Sprint): 20 jumping jacks or jack taps, 10 lunges (alternating legs) and a 30-second plank.

Routine	Focus	Best for…
A: Desk Reset	Mobility & stretching	Long writing sessions or office work
B: Living Room Sprint	Heart rate & core	Quick energy boosts while at home

Feel free to get creative and build your own emergency routines, but the idea is they shouldn’t take you more than a few minutes to do and they shouldn’t make you feel like you’re doing too much on a more restful day.

Ultimately, remember it really is okay to have a low power day, but the goal is to never let one missed day turn into two, three, or four. A 10% workout is still 100% better than the one that never happened.

What’s your go-to move when you only have 5 minutes? Drop your ’emergency’ routines in the comments below. I’d love to try them!