Summer is a great time to get into shape - you don't have to worry about your feet freezing off and you might have a holiday booked that you can use as a goal.
However, it can be hard to keep on top of things. Naturally you'll be going out and about more and there's a chance you will be indulging in good food and the odd pint.
Health experts believe this is important, as you need balance in your life. You should be able to keep fit without having to deny yourself every opportunity for a social activity.
Tunde, a personal trainer at t9fitness says: "You have to live your life, as long as you stay consistent, you'll be good."
Here are three easy-to-follow tips that will help you keep motivated and on top of your exercise routine while allowing yourself to enjoy all the BBQs that your summer schedule has to offer.
Plan ahead
With a bit of prep, you won't need to worry when a colleague suggests after-work drinks or friends organise all-day picnics.
"Spend 10 minutes on Sunday evening planning your workouts into your diary," suggests George Goldsmith-Cottrell,a personal trainer and online fitness coach on GGc-PT.com.
"Think carefully and realistically about where you might need to schedule rest. Are you going to get up to do a 6am spin class the morning after your best friend's birthday BBQ?
"Studies suggest you are more likely to achieve your goals by writing them down. So, make weekly workout scheduling a goal. This will give you a nice dopamine hit when you've completed your workout and you can tick it off your to-do list."
Tunde says morning workouts are a good bet - that way you'll be beating the heat and freeing up evenings.
Train smarter
Goldsmith-Cottrell Says: "You do not have to be in the gym for an hour every night to get an effective workout: 30 minutes or even 15 is still plenty of time to release some feel-good hormones, break a sweat and get those muscles engaged,".
The PT adds: "An easy way to do this is to take your existing exercises and condense them into a circuit format. Perform all the exercises back-to-back and rest at the end."
Tunde agrees it's about training smart. "If someone's cutting down to two times a week - which is completely fine, people shouldn't feel bad about that - think about sticking to compound exercises," he suggests.
"These are exercises that require more than one or two muscle groups to work at the same time. So stuff like squats with the bar or dumbbells, deadlifts."
This is about squeezing more out of your time and means you can get more of a full-body workout from each session, "rather than jogging for hours.", says Tunde
Stay hydrated
It's so easy to get dehydrated over summer. As Goldsmith-Cottrell points out, this can zap our energy for workouts.
The PT explains: "Say you went for drinks after work. You wake up the next day not feeling too hungover [and] plan to hit the gym that evening. Come midday, you realise you haven't drunk water.
"You have a glass or two to make up for it, [but] come 3pm, you are feeling worse for wear. Last night's drinks and today's lack of hydration's catching up with you,"
By the time it gets to 5pm you'll end up skipping the gym because you're too exhausted, says Goldsmith-Cottrell
Although skipping workouts is fine, Goldsmith-Cottrell adds, it's about being aware of the role hydration can play: "Had you consumed a healthy dose of H2O and provided your body with the energy to do its basic functions, the outcome for the day could have been very different."
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